What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Venture Capitalists
As a serial entrepreneur building venture-style tech companies, I spent the first decade of my career fetishizing venture capital. I’d follow VCs on Twitter like they were celebrities, I’d attend conferences if well-known VCs were speaking, and I’d brag to my fellow founders about pitch meetings at Andreessen and Sequoia and Benchmark. Despite not raising money from any of those firms, I’d naively assumed the simple act of taking a meeting with me was a form of validation for my company.
What I didn’t realize was that I was completely misunderstanding the purpose of venture capital. For a long time, that misunderstanding contributed to my inability to raise capital.
I’m sure I’m not the first or only entrepreneur to misjudge the relationship between venture capital and startups. In a way, new tech entrepreneurs are encouraged to worship at the altar of VC rather than understand it. The confusion starts with the tech press, where funding announcements dominate the headlines as “newsworthy” events. It carries into popular culture, where companies are described by their valuations (i.e. “billion-dollar unicorns”) rather than their impact (i.e. “saved the lives of 10,000 children”). It permeates conferences and events, where the featured speakers are often venture capitalists or entrepreneurs who have successfully raised…
