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“I Can Really See Us Leading This Funding Round” Isn’t a Term Sheet
Why VCs Are Always ‘Very Excited’ About Your Progress But That Doesn’t Mean Anything Until They Make an Offer
My job as an early stage investor includes translation services, specifically helping startup founders take what they are hearing from potential investors and providing a read on whether that VC is actually ready to make an offer. Quite often a CEO will share all sorts of positive comments and praise they heard from an investor, and I’ll remind them these statements aren’t termsheets. Simply put, only a termsheet is a termsheet.
This reminder tweet set off a few good discussion threads that I wanted to capture and expand upon here.
Even experienced founders get ‘happy ears,’ not just first time founders
I definitely don’t blame founders for underestimating the distance between enthusiasm and a concrete commitment. VCs live in that world and have repeated experience. To the extent you trust your current investors’ feedback, you should *really* trust them when it comes to basic fundraising advice. Note: I understand that there are reasons to assume your investors are giving you advice based on their interests, not yours, but let me tell you, for the best VCs this isn’t the case. That’s not to say we’re always correct, but I will specifically tell a founder ‘and now I’m putting on my Homebrew hat’ when I have a POV that’s informed by my own needs as their capital partner versus what I generally think should be the company’s strategy. And I don’t take paths off the table for discussion that wouldn’t necessarily be my preferred choice.
