georgios22
New member
Hey YC community,
I'd love to hear from some people who have worked on the venture side of things. I'm currently in the process of raising a pre-seed round and I've met with about 30 firms. At the moment I'm in 2nd/3rd round discussions with 8 of the firms. I'd also like to add that I've worked with some amazing people throughout this process. They come to decisions quickly and articulate why they're passing on the investment or why they want to move to next steps. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, I've had a handful of really crummy experiences along the way.
Going into the raising process I figured some 1st round meetings wouldn't go well and I'd get ghosted. I can understand that the associate/principal is conducting a bunch of intro meetings and communication can fall through... especially if they are not going to invest. What has shocked me a bit though is being ghosted after doing 4-5 meetings with Managing Partners. I've never experienced anything like it in my professional career. I know it sucks letting people down but I genuinely think giving people a small glimmer of hope for 4-8 weeks is much worse. I've had to inform Account Executives and Sales Engineers that I'm not moving forward with their product after they delivered a kickass demo. It's not fun letting people down but the alternative of creating false hope just seems much worse IMO.
Is there a strategic angle that I'm missing here? I get the "leave things open" strategy where an investor claims traction needs to be a bit higher so you follow back through in 3-6 months. That seems like a valid way to keep the door open. Anyways, I'm done ranting but would love to hear some rationale behind all the investor ghosting. Especially when it comes to investor engagements that require both parties to sink significant time and effort into them
I'd love to hear from some people who have worked on the venture side of things. I'm currently in the process of raising a pre-seed round and I've met with about 30 firms. At the moment I'm in 2nd/3rd round discussions with 8 of the firms. I'd also like to add that I've worked with some amazing people throughout this process. They come to decisions quickly and articulate why they're passing on the investment or why they want to move to next steps. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, I've had a handful of really crummy experiences along the way.
Going into the raising process I figured some 1st round meetings wouldn't go well and I'd get ghosted. I can understand that the associate/principal is conducting a bunch of intro meetings and communication can fall through... especially if they are not going to invest. What has shocked me a bit though is being ghosted after doing 4-5 meetings with Managing Partners. I've never experienced anything like it in my professional career. I know it sucks letting people down but I genuinely think giving people a small glimmer of hope for 4-8 weeks is much worse. I've had to inform Account Executives and Sales Engineers that I'm not moving forward with their product after they delivered a kickass demo. It's not fun letting people down but the alternative of creating false hope just seems much worse IMO.
Is there a strategic angle that I'm missing here? I get the "leave things open" strategy where an investor claims traction needs to be a bit higher so you follow back through in 3-6 months. That seems like a valid way to keep the door open. Anyways, I'm done ranting but would love to hear some rationale behind all the investor ghosting. Especially when it comes to investor engagements that require both parties to sink significant time and effort into them