Don’t sell your team short when you are trying to get a meeting with a venture capitalist. When a VC is trying to decide if they want to meet with your startup, the most important factor is YOU and your team. I’ve seen way too many financing pitches/teasers where the startup does not provide information on the team and their previous accomplishments.
Can the Team really be more important than the Idea?
In a word: yes. If Bill Gates wanted to meet with me to discuss financing a pig farm I would take the meeting. VCs take meetings with people all the time because they are interested in the people. Networking is a key, perhaps THE key, job function of the VC. Make sure your team sounds accomplished enough to warrant the meeting, then shine in the meeting and convince the VC to get interested in the business idea.
Make your Bios interesting to the venture capitalist
In your investors’ pitch or teaser you need to:
- Make sure you have your bios in the slide deck/teaser
- Name the companies that you have worked for and highlight key accomplishments
- Feel free to include your advisers if they are compelling - VCs might want to meet them too!
Point 2 is pretty key. I particularly hate bios that have totally generic information such as:
Mr. CEO has over 25 years of experience in leadership, accounting, technology development, sales, team building and water polo. He leads all aspects of the company’s go-to-market strategy and relations with customers, and is captain of the softball team. He is a graduate of XZY University.
The proceeding bio tells me nothing. I have no idea if the CEO has ever done anything successful, and their previous positions are a total mystery. I don’t know if their former companies were good outcomes and I can’t tell if he has relevant domain expertise.
A much better bio would say:
Mrs CEO joined the company from MicroSizzle, where she was EVP of the consumer division. At MicroSizzle she grew revenues to over $2 billion and led a team of 500 people. Previously she was VP of products at Whoopie Technologies, where she led development of the popular e-seat lead-generation-by-embarrassing-noise emulator, and was with the company during its IPO and subsequent sale to MicroSizzle. She has also held management and sales positions at WeHoo and AskJulio.com.
The bio clearly lists previous employers and positions, and has exciting accomplishments. It’s not bragging if it’s true - and it makes the person seem like someone who any VC would want to meet.
An early stage VC invests in teams. If you want money from a venture capitalist, make the VC want YOU.
