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Ask HN: How do you get to VCs if you don't live in the valley?

2 points by code177 ↗ HN
Assuming you don't live in any of the major US tech spots (SF/SV/NY/etc), and you don't have any existing "relationships" with VCs, advisors, mentors, or incubators, how do you get yourself and your product in front of the people who can help you go to the next level?

AngelList, Caplinked, and the rest all appear to require that you have an existing network in place to be remotely useful.

8 comments

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ig1
Build relationships. Wherever you are you can probably network yourself to a reasonable position.

If you gave some details about where you are and the nature of your startup, it might be easier to give practical advice.

jamesjguthrie
I personally find it hard to build relationships like these. They seem to be out of my reach.

What about advice for UK startups, or even Scottish startups?

ig1
Most of the same advice applies, connect to your local startup community and use that to get intros to VCs. What do you find difficult about building relationships ?

If you're in London a number of VCs run open-hours where anyone can come along and meet them.

jamesjguthrie
I always end up telling myself that I'd be better off staying in and doing work than going out to meet people...
timjahn
The greatest product in the world isn't the greatest if nobody knows about it. On the other hand, you could have everybody knowing about it but nothing actually worth knowing about.

I find it's a delicate balance. You have to work on the product but you need to go out and meet people too.

code177
Thanks ig1. We're located in Vancouver BC. Unfortunately, neither of us are particularly schmoozy and generally don't have a lot of time on our hands. VCs and similar don't tend to visit the conferences here anyway, and we're quite a ways past being in an incubator (600k seed, imagn.com, 2 cofounders - 1 technical, 1 business).
ig1
9gag was doing a billion pageviews/month before they joined YC.

You should think of joining an incubator in terms of: if we joined this incubator would they increase the value of our business by substantially more than 6% that they'll take (or whatever stake). And if so you should consider joining one.

Vancouver does have significant conferences, for example the GROW conference in August had a pretty high-profile list of speakers and attendees. There have been at least a dozen or so companies in Vancouver who've raised VC rounds this year.

Almost all successful startups and tech companies will have connections to VCs (regardless if they were venture funded or not), so one good route would be to network with the founders of the successful startups in Vancouver and get introductions to VCs from them.

ssylee
Find some potential VCs. Research the hell outta them to find their interests and what makes them tick. Then, when the opportunity comes to provide them value, be proactive about it. Give it time to build relationship until you can meet in person and go from there.

Alternatively, you can fly out to different conferences in order to meet them in person to kickstart the relationship.