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That's why as a startup part of your due diligence should be calling up founders that the the VC has worked with for an extended period of time and getting references for how helpful the VC has been (for both the firm and the individual partner you'll be working with).

It's worth noting that there are other reasons not to focus on valuation. If you take a high valuation now that has a direct impact on future rounds, a higher valuation implies higher expectations and if you don't meet them you may struggle to raise money in the future (or have to take a down-round with all the negative repercussions that has).