Cybersam's Blog - iTeams panel of VCs on entrepreneurship

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

iTeams panel of VCs on entrepreneurship

In our iTeams class yesterday, we had a panel of VCs and entrepreneurs who led an open, interactive Q/A style discussion about their experience in the VC world. Here are the notes that I took from the session:

What are VCs looking for people in a team?
It takes a deep understanding of the technology to bring it to the market and presented in a way that people in the market may care. For a high-tech startup, the people need to be deep in the underlying technology and still be broad to know how business can be generated. (I realized VCs in the high-tech sector value technologists who are business savvy than pure MBAs who maybe know something about technology. At the end of the day, it's really the technologist's idea that is going to bring value to the firm and business people can always be replaced by people of the VC's liking).
On sustainability...
It is the job of the CEO to make the startup stay alive long enough to get lucky. Have confidence in yourself. Entrepreneurs who mess things up are the ones who worry too much. Don't do it for money, do it for business and the money will come.
On startup team dynamics...
There is a lot of smart people, don't over analyze.
On funding...
If you can stay away from VC, do it. Get funded by other means, like government SBIR. VCs are awful to deal with. Don't take money from VC without calling the CEOs who deal or had dealt with them before. If you hear hesitation from CEO, that is enough to tell the entrepreneur what the CEO thinks about the VC. Without a doubt, non-diluted funding is wonderful.
On strategies...
Staged business models are great. Getting into a market is the best way to understanding a market, but may also be the riskiest especially without funding. Find markets that technologies can solve the problem completely.
On the roles of the founders...
Keep an open mind, do what best for the company. Be thoughtful. Make mistakes a lot and quickly, then stop. As a founder you will be bombarded with endless day-to-day activities so do things that have value-added. Also, you want to establish good rapport and trust with investors.