I Hate VC's
A few years ago I decided I could take some of the technologies developed for that business and apply them to a new domain: Energy Optimization. The idea was to support wide deployment of EV's. Today this has shifted to power-hungry AI data centers. I self-funded this hardware/software startup and got on with developing the products.
The pandemic forced us to pivot in 2020. We developed an aircraft disinfection robot. We had a lot of interest from major airlines and a $50MM sales pipeline. When the vaccine was announced, interest evaporated.
How you deal with the tough moments in life and business is important. You have to be resilient.
In 2022, we closed a sale worth about $200K based on the pre-pandemic project. We finished the design (software and hardware), manufactured it in-house and shipped it by the end of the year.
At that point, it was easy to see that seeking external funding to scale and accelerate market penetration was the correct path.
What I was not ready for was the revelation of how shitty this world can be, an often is. Going through YC Startup School did not prepare me for this reality.
Here are some of aspects of the experience (non-exhaustive):
- Conferences designed to suck money out of entrepreneurs
- Well known organizations that also suck money out of entrepreneurs
- IP attorneys who hold expensive events with investors who are there to stroke each others' egos
- IP attorneys who try to convince entrepreneurs to spend large sums of money on filings before speaking with anyone
- You can spend tens of thousands of dollars at all sorts of events and get nothing for it
- Meetups that are nothing more than an excuse to go drink at a bar (low quality engagements and conversations)
- Conferences where entrepreneurs are asked to pay thousands of dollars for a table and a 15 minute speaking slot
- Ghosting
- "Let's meet this week" ... and then nothing, ghosted
- Pointlessly deep dives into projections
- Pointless requests for long term business plans
- Chasing after AI unicorns
- Impossible to reach
- Age discrimination
- $5K to $10K/month VC consultants who claim to have all the answers
- Single founder discrimination
- Hardware? The room goes "Poof!" and you are left talking to the janitors
- Applied to YC? Yes!
- No feedback whatsoever
- What's the point?
- Do you really want to help entrepreneurs?
- Then help them?
- Give them feedback
- Hard? What we do is harder
I had someone "commit" to $2MM. Ghosted. I had someone from a fund in Europe ask to get in on the round once we got our first investor. Ghosted.
I had a VC reject us based on advice of a recent grad "CTO" barely capable of running a cookie baking operation.
Etc.
This all makes me wonder how many startups die a painful death because VC's are shit.
VC's: A starting point might just be the idea of treating others as you would like to be treated.
Time to pivot into an AI startup I guess. I can play that game as much as anybody. Here's to using AI to get people to click on a button. Yeah, that's going to save the world.
Here's a throw-away email address for this post:
doglover442-vcpost@yahoo.com
12 comments
[ 117 ms ] story [ 567 ms ] threadI do know exactly how you feel and have had to remind myself of this at times, potential relationships like this are naturally so lopsided that you are probably being cast aside like most anyone else, with no negative feelings from the capitalists aimed at you in particular.
So keep your chin up, it's no reflection in any deficiencies you may have.
Sorry for such a low-content comment to begin with, but nobody else had said anything so all I could do at the time was off-the-cuff and hope your submission would not drop off unrecognized.
With no-one else to upvote other than the submission itself, looks like worthwhile submissions tend to sink faster than they should.
Single founder discrimination
Do like japanese do and get fake companions. I'd hire actors.
If you are still around it means you have been successful, as in haven't been crushed yet. You still haven't suffered bad partners or vultures.
One of the realities of older entrepreneurs is that we have greater responsibilities and constraints in life, often going beyond ourselves, to include family, kids, etc.
In all cases I was careful to make this very clear and discuss the fact that there are two cofounders ready to go as soon as we get funded. And, in fact, in a couple of meetings I went as far as introducing them, talking about where they work, what they do and how they will contribute --without it being put down on paper or in any form that could be shared out of my control.
Regarding single founder. Well, I founded and self-funded a company out of my garage and got it to the point where we got acquisition offers from a highly recognized, internationally known company for tens of millions of dollars. I understand precisely how difficult it is to be a single founder. I also understand how it is almost impossible for a 20-something fresh out of school to endure the sheer torture entrepreneurship can be. I get it. I also understand that saying "single founder" does not at all tell the full story, just like not everyone who studied physics can be Elon Musk.
What blows me away is some of the crap they fund. I met this group out of Texas that funded one failure after another. Their latest got some ten million dollars out of their fund. A complete train-wreck. No sales whatsoever after four years. Not even the potential for a single sale. I show-up with a product plan, a >$200K sale and a massive market potential and they ghost me within two emails. Unbelievable.
My favorite kind of networking meetups are those held at bars, and when you try to discuss work, the common answer is, "Let's not get into shop talk; I'm here to relax."
> "Let's meet this week" ... and then nothing, ghosted
The responsibility to follow up is also you.
You are kidding, right? They don't get back to you, at all. After multiple emails and messages.
Ghosting by VC's communicates that you are so unimportant and beneath them as a person that they cannot even bother to exhibit the common decency of at least saying "Sorry mate, we are not going to pursue this". Not even that.
You are nothing to them, and they don't have a problem showing it.
I have found a few --very few-- exceptions to this. Very few. One hand, maybe two at the most. As an example, I have been bouncing emails back and forth with someone who has been traveling all over the world to various conferences since we first made contact, some six months ago.
I have been astounded by the respect and consideration he has shown throughout this experience. Astounded, because, by comparison, everyone else looks like inconsiderate assholes. He has taken the time to email me every week or two while keeping the conversation alive and actually apologized for not having time to engage. Coincidentally, he emailed me today. We are meeting next week as he passes by Los Angeles for yet another conference. That's a person I would love to work work with.
No. Your previous point -- "'Let's meet this week' ... and then nothing, ghosted" -- sounded like you didn't try to follow up. Your diatribe provided the much-needed context we wish you included originally.
Instead of "The responsibility to follow up is also you." you could have asked a question, like "Did you follow up? What happened?", which would have led to more information on the one item that you thought might not have been clear. In other words, your response sounded like it came from thinking "Duh! You are supposed to follow-up!".
The answer to that question would have been:
Yes. Definitely. Multiple times, via email, SMS and LinkedIn message. No response whatsoever. Ghosted.
It is impossible to decode how these people think. Here's an example of an actual conversation (anonymized):
How do you decode when someone tell you, on Sunday, "let's meet this week" and then you are ghosted? To add context, we met in person many months before this conversation. This was not a case of him not knowing who I am and what I am doing. We met at a conference in Zurich where I put on a 30 minute presentation, with him in the audience just a few feet in front of me.And, on top of that, I see him posting crap on LinkedIn every day. So, it isn't a case of not having 30 seconds to have the decency to reply with something like "Sorry Martin. We are going to pass on this at the moment. If I learn of someone who might be a good fit for your, I'll be sure to send them your way.". That took me no more than 20 seconds to write. Why don't VC's have the common decency to treat human beings like equals as opposed to insignificant pawns in their game?
BTW, the same problem exists in the job market. Ghosting seems to be the new normal across a whole range of human interactions. I was just talking to a family member this last weekend who took me through her job-hunting journey. The only word that fits is: Unbelievable.
Is this a cultural shift? Maybe I am too old-school. I try to treat people with respect and consideration. What has changed that makes behaviors like ghosting so commonplace? Don't know.