| Yes, this is a good sign, but it’s just the first of many hurdles you need to pass in order to get to the finish line. This Monday meeting may be the go/no-go gate for the next phase, where they decide whether to invest more time to investigate your business. They will evaluate in each stage, every time deciding whether to invest further effort. If this is your first such encounter, and it sounds like it is, my suggestion would be to approach it with a primary objective to learn about how this whole process works. Often founders approach these situations like it’s a one-way thing (VC must decide they “like” the startup), but in reality, it should be a two-way process: the founders should also evaluate the VCs. I would ask the VCs about their portfolio companies, and some of their success stories. Ask them if they could introduce you to some of the founders they backed. Reach out to some of the others yourself. If everything works out, you’ll end up married to these guys, and you want to know who are you getting in bed with. In the extreme, these guys may be running one of those predatory schemes where you basically get sold some bullshit accelerator program and they screw you for equity. A good rule of thumb is: the moment they ask you to pay anything - GTFO. And here I mean literally ANYTHING: you should not be expected to pay a single cent for anything relating to their process; it’s their business to do that and bear the costs. And this also extends to the cost of due diligence (if and when it comes to that): the VC should bear all the costs no matter how it ends, whether they invest or they bail. Extension of this rule: the moment they offer anything except cash for equity - GTFO. Good luck! |