Ask YC: A VC as President?
I work for a startup a year old, with about 10 people in it and a round A of 1M. What's happened in the last of month is that the VC's have put one of their own guys in as president (not someone that they chose - one of the actual VC's: formerly a stock-broker with no previous experience running a company), who is now starting to dictate schedules and parts of the technical direction.
My question is: this is unusual, right? I understand that it's common to put in a CEO at a later round, but having the fund-raisers in the presidential role while we are still in heavy development seems very out of the ordinary...
Has anyone else experienced this? And if so, was it a portent of doom?
4 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 20.1 ms ] threadI am sure that there are some high quality VC's out there but the problem is that there is no quality control in that industry. Just use my observations as a guide but you will be surprise how well it fits their behaviors.
http://www.lovemytool.com/blog/2007/10/vc-worst-enemy.html
Please come back and update is on the story if you stick with it there. Might help some of us later.
To me, this is three wolves and a sheep deciding on what's for dinner. My feeling is that the appointment of the president (my initial concern) is simply the natural outcome of the overall power structure - and likely just the tip of the iceberg.
I appreciate your feedback (in particular, thank you Dennis for the excellent link). I'll let YC know how this all pans out...