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 Do you ever wonder what REALLY happens around the venture capital partners table once you, the entrepreneur, leave the room? Well, it's time someone told you. Hopefully, out of this you'll become more skilled at getting to "yes," or getting to "no" - but faster, or getting some value out of the experience.
The most dreaded words you can hear (if you had an ear pressed to the conference room door) are: "What do they do?"
But how can it be that after an hour of your best PowerPoint magic, VC's can ask that question? Because the entrepreneur did not think about that question before they put together said PowerPoint!
Candidly, this happened just the other day at OVP. The CEO of a startup came in and presented to our entire partnership. He talked about his company, and the issues of his markets, and his competitors, and his financial plan. But nowhere, and certainly not at the outset, did he stop to explain the simple issues of:
- this is the problem we are solving
- this is the value to the customer of having this problem solved
- this is what we make that solves their problem
This entrepeneur was simply too close to the forest to see his trees anymore. All he saw was bark and moss and the occasional ground squirrel.
Now, lest you think this was some neophyte, or someone not otherwise ready for prime time - here's the dirty little secret. The presenter was (and is) the CEO of an existing portfolio company of OVP! He already has millions of dollars from us. Of course, the question raised by one of our partners was somewhat facetious - but that made it even more powerful. We KNOW what they do! But from that presentation you couldn't tell.
If this is a trap even experienced, VC-funded CEO's fall into, you can be sure that those less seasoned fall in far more often.
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