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by smackeyacky 1740 days ago
This advice is interesting, but almost entirely useless for anybody outside the US / Silicon Valley bubble. Exactly how are you going to go for coffee with your "VC buddies" if you live 8,000km away? The idea is frankly ridiculous for anybody not in a tiny circle. edit: apparently London is the same. Only further away.

This article really highlights how stupid frauds like Theranos get funded. The real answer is between the lines:

To get funded:

a) Be connected, physically close and already in the clique. b) Don't be outside the clique.

I mean I get the idea that rich kids giving their rich mates money to start yet another dogshit fintech is just how the game is played, but what a frustrating time it is for the rest of us.
2 comments
sbierwagen 1740 days ago
VC funds give companies tens of millions of dollars. That's always going to be a high-touch in-person sales job.

A society where that can routinely be done remotely is certainly physically possible, but it would look very different from this world.

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satvikpendem 1740 days ago
Well if you're the one seeking money, you need to go where the money is, no? You can't stay where you are with no connections and expect VCs to come to you.

It has always been the case that those who need money go to those who have money, not vice versa.

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smackeyacky 1740 days ago
In my experience it just isn't that simple. Early stage VC's like SOSV are happy to talk to anybody from anywhere. Later stage? Not so much. If you are doing something out of the general wheelhouse of the VC community (in my case AgTech) you're boned because the number of companies that invest in Ag are a much smaller set than all the VC firms, and explaining things like genetics to them is like trying to teach pigs how to write html.

In a lot of ways it is easier if you are doing something truly out there, like some kind of lab-based science that requires everybody to have a PhD, because it's easier to convince somebody that you know what you're doing if they are completely ignorant of the topic. In the middle ground of more practical applications of technology it isn't sexy enough and isn't esoteric enough to get anybodies attention regardless of the potential or the business model.

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