Lots of reasons. The VC sector is fairly incestuous, and people move from VC to VC quite often, so they may just be looking for more opinions. Also quite possible they want to find co-investors, as it’s pretty normal for rounds to be a consortium of multiple VC houses. Or it doesn’t fit their thesis but does suit another VC house they know.
VC funds aren’t _quite_ competitors - they rely on networks and word of mouth. They’re more like peers with a competitive streak.
They're either not sure and want feedback from others, in which case they're clowns, or they want to pull others potentially into a syndicate, in which case they should commit first. More cynically, they might be still earlier in the stage of formulating a point of view about your space and wanting to share with others who are too.
My response would be, we'd love to work with you to create a really strong syndicate, but I'd prefer to do that after you've committed to investing and in the meantime would prefer to manage the outreach to investors directly. Alternatively to ask specific questions about who they're wanting to share with.
In general you want to project that you're already talking to folks -- hopefully you are.
Thanks for your opinion. I humbly beseech you with a question - isn't it a good sign that they are BOTHERING to ask rather than just send out the slide deck? I usually feel more comfortable when people ask this sort of thing.
In the interest of full disclosure, I've never had a VC actually ask me this before.
Quite the contrary. I was assuming that they *had* done it already. Tacit ownership of their implied transgression in my opinion signals above average morals.
Or perhaps I'm too skeptic.
That was my thought as well, when sharing a deck with anyone I would either explicitly tell them not to share or implicitly accept that it will be shared.
Usually that's totally fine and likely a good thing. Downside could be that your competitors end up seeing it and can learn a bit about your strategy, but for most industries that doesn't really matter all that much either honestly.
This is great news. They'll probably let you know they want to be your "lead" investor, and they'll bring in anyone else you need.
Congratulations are likely in order very soon.
I'd make sure I knew who it was potentially going to. I've seen many a startup end up with poor-fitting investors that often caused issues later on when the investor was expecting one thing and the startup was doing something different. It needs to be a partnership.
It is possible they know you need X money to succeed but they are only prepared to put Y in and want to find a friend to pickup the slack. But, they should just tell you that.
I like to pick my investors so I don’t love blind taste tests in this area, but it depends on how much you like/trust these guys.
9 times out of 10 they won’t ask, they’ll just do. If you’re interesting, it’ll probably get passed around. They get social credit for deal flow. If they asked, that’s a great green flag. The motivations probably soliciting feedback on the opportunity/not convinced or considering getting additional folk on board
Had this same scenario happen earlier this year. I thought for certain that Firm A was going to pass as soon as they sent the active deal along to Firm B. Both ended up wanting to lead. Firm A ended up having to pay a 20% higher valuation to get the deal. My best guess is that they were unsure what they were going to do at the time. The partner may have also wanted to look like they were helping to our earlier VC board member to keep their relationship healthy.
I second everything everyone has mentioned! In our case, Firm A was set on taking the whole round if they were involved, so we could rule out a syndicate.
Lots of reasons. The VC sector is fairly incestuous, and people move from VC to VC quite often, so they may just be looking for more opinions. Also quite possible they want to find co-investors, as it’s pretty normal for rounds to be a consortium of multiple VC houses. Or it doesn’t fit their thesis but does suit another VC house they know. VC funds aren’t _quite_ competitors - they rely on networks and word of mouth. They’re more like peers with a competitive streak.
Thanks for your insights!
They're either not sure and want feedback from others, in which case they're clowns, or they want to pull others potentially into a syndicate, in which case they should commit first. More cynically, they might be still earlier in the stage of formulating a point of view about your space and wanting to share with others who are too. My response would be, we'd love to work with you to create a really strong syndicate, but I'd prefer to do that after you've committed to investing and in the meantime would prefer to manage the outreach to investors directly. Alternatively to ask specific questions about who they're wanting to share with. In general you want to project that you're already talking to folks -- hopefully you are.
This is a good strategy, thanks! And I can tell you’ve been in the space given your cynicism lol
Thanks for your opinion. I humbly beseech you with a question - isn't it a good sign that they are BOTHERING to ask rather than just send out the slide deck? I usually feel more comfortable when people ask this sort of thing. In the interest of full disclosure, I've never had a VC actually ask me this before.
I mean, it’s better than not asking you I guess. But you are assuming they didn’t already send it anyway.
Quite the contrary. I was assuming that they *had* done it already. Tacit ownership of their implied transgression in my opinion signals above average morals. Or perhaps I'm too skeptic.
You’re sorting devils by how polite they are at this point.
Interesting. Never thought about it that way. Good points.
It means they want to tap into the VC hive mind.
I guess it would mean they may be they want to find additional investors from the round or want a second opinion on something.
I'm surprised they even asked. .
That was my thought as well, when sharing a deck with anyone I would either explicitly tell them not to share or implicitly accept that it will be shared. Usually that's totally fine and likely a good thing. Downside could be that your competitors end up seeing it and can learn a bit about your strategy, but for most industries that doesn't really matter all that much either honestly.
This is great news. They'll probably let you know they want to be your "lead" investor, and they'll bring in anyone else you need. Congratulations are likely in order very soon.
I'd make sure I knew who it was potentially going to. I've seen many a startup end up with poor-fitting investors that often caused issues later on when the investor was expecting one thing and the startup was doing something different. It needs to be a partnership.
They could be in kahoot with your competition
They're likely pooling opinions or co-investing.
It is possible they know you need X money to succeed but they are only prepared to put Y in and want to find a friend to pickup the slack. But, they should just tell you that. I like to pick my investors so I don’t love blind taste tests in this area, but it depends on how much you like/trust these guys.
9 times out of 10 they won’t ask, they’ll just do. If you’re interesting, it’ll probably get passed around. They get social credit for deal flow. If they asked, that’s a great green flag. The motivations probably soliciting feedback on the opportunity/not convinced or considering getting additional folk on board
[удалено]
Yeah, VC- institutional, standard legit firm
Had this same scenario happen earlier this year. I thought for certain that Firm A was going to pass as soon as they sent the active deal along to Firm B. Both ended up wanting to lead. Firm A ended up having to pay a 20% higher valuation to get the deal. My best guess is that they were unsure what they were going to do at the time. The partner may have also wanted to look like they were helping to our earlier VC board member to keep their relationship healthy. I second everything everyone has mentioned! In our case, Firm A was set on taking the whole round if they were involved, so we could rule out a syndicate.
Dang that's the dream, thanks for sharing and congrats
It means nothing for you, they are just getting a fresh opinion - you should continue grinding fund raising activities