Startup Expert's Opinion on the Venture Capital Industry

An article we liked from Thought Leader Geri Kirilova of Laconia:

Two Worlds of Venture

Over the weekend, I tweeted offhand about my frustration with the buzz around early stage venture rounds these days: there’s so much discussion of companies raising lots of money very quickly, when my observed reality from speaking with dozens of seed & pre-seed founders per week is the exact opposite:

This observation struck a nerve, both publicly and privately. Aside from sharing that they felt seen, lots of founders also reached out to me to ask why this is happening, so I thought I’d share some thoughts on the topic.

The notion that some founders raise money more easily than others is not a new phenomenon in and of itself. Fundamentally, if you are not able to close an investor (whether they’re an institutional fund or an individual angel investor) there is only one reason: they don’t trust you yet, and they don’t believe that you will build a venture-scale company. This is the objection that you have to overcome.

So, how do investors build trust & belief? At later stages (e.g. growth equity), investors typically have somewhat objective criteria and some amount of data to leverage such as...