Here’s What Entrepreneurs Should Request From VCs (Besides Money)
The investor-founder relationship can be a lot richer than just raising capital
I live for that sudden flicker in an entrepreneur’s eye during a pitch discussion. The one which suggests I’ve asked a question that is simultaneously both new to their fundraising experiences and interesting to them personally.
“What do you want from me besides capital?” is a flicker-producing question more often than it should be. Maybe it’s because raising money itself can be such a trudge or many investors over-promise and underdeliver—that you’d be happy to just get capital and be done with it. But my VC fund Homebrew is founded upon the belief that we’ll put sweat and reputation behind your startup, not just a wire transfer, so to me, it seems like a normal question to help understand if you need things that we can—or can’t—provide.
The answers I receive typically fall across four categories:
- “Vertical Expertise” — More hands and minds around the industry maze they’re traversing. Information, relationships, pattern matching for marketplaces, SaaS, financial services, agriculture, media, etc. Our backgrounds and portfolio suggest that we might have ability to help the founders move faster and with greater accuracy in…
