Comments on: Submit Your Toughest Questions For VCs on TechCrunch50 Panel

By: voiceip

voiceip — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:14:04 +0000

absolutely right

By: voiceip

voiceip — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:12:13 +0000

Imitation – a form of flattery

By: Twenty Questions For The Venture Capitalists At TechCrunch50

Twenty Questions For The Venture Capitalists At TechCrunch50 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:17:43 +0000

[...] at TechCrunch50 to ask twenty (or so) questions to top venture capitalists, most of which were submitted by readers. Sumant Mandal (Clearstone Venture Partners), George Zachary (Charles River Ventures), Roelof Botha [...]

By: Rajesh Setty

Rajesh Setty — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:34:47 +0000

So many questions

Since we are supposed to ask “tough” questions, here are a few I came up with a few here:

#1 What has been your biggest mistake when making an investment?

#2 What steps do you take to ensure that the founders get a decent return on their investment of time, energy and sweat equity?

#3 What is the #1 thing you wish entrepreneurs did before they came to you for an investment?

#4 If you were an entrepreneur raising money from the VC firm you work for, what would you do to have the biggest chance of success?

#5 Since only a small percentage of companies make it, number of companies in your portfolio won’t make it. So when do you actually “give up” on a company? When will you tell the management team that you have “given up”?

Cheers,
Rajesh

By: christian

christian — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:07:33 +0000

How to introduce to a VP, withour a real bridge people? It that possibile to get a first feedback, withour going through a bridge person?

By: What a Joke

What a Joke — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:07:35 +0000

Why don’t you ask them why they haven’t brought any compelling companies public? (I haven’t seen an investable IPO in years. )

- Now that VC returns have returned to the mean, what are they going to do for a living once investors pull their funds?

- Why do they all waste their time reading Tech Crunch? Can’t they think for themselves?

By: SD Startup

SD Startup — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:14:28 +0000

What are the top three signs that your investment (post seed money) may be in trouble?

By: TeknoMage

TeknoMage — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:05:19 +0000

How much of an impact on the overall funding decision do VCs give based on an executive’s or developer’s name attached to a company?
For years, I’ve seen executives and directors migrate away from heavyweights like Cisco, Google, and the now defunct Yahoo to join a startup’s “board.” Subsequently, some of these small fishes are acquired by their former employers.

This leads me to my follow-up question: Is it in the interest of VCs to lure away executives for the sole purpose of having their startup acquired?

By: Arshad Syed

Arshad Syed — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:03:58 +0000

How does a VC assess whether a founding CEO has what it takes to retain the role during subsequent rounds of funding? Alternatively, when do VC’s decide to replace the founding leadership with outside talent?

By: brehanu

brehanu — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:09:45 +0000

Do you have a metric by which you determine a start up’s eligibility for your funding. e.g. giving weights to the metrics and getting a number.

By: huh

huh — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:01:44 +0000

How?

By: Vaibhav Domkundwar

Vaibhav Domkundwar — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:18:05 +0000

What do you believe is the right stage for a startup today (which can come a long way on bootstrapping and friends & family money) to see VC funding. Right stage with respect to (1) product development (2) user traction (3) revenues.

By: Brian G

Brian G — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:10:05 +0000

What does the US Olympic team need to do to not lose its total medal count lead at the next olympics in London? Yeah, it’s a technical question.

By: jp

jp — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:53:50 +0000

Are you ready to fund start-up companies in Asia especially the Philippines with plenty of Skilled IT professionals?

Do Asian start-up companies need VCs?

By: Boohay

Boohay — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:51:27 +0000

If you (VC’s) were starting a company, how would you do it without using Venture Capital?

By: poetslife

poetslife — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:03:50 +0000

How many sales and marketing people do you have?

By: some dummy

some dummy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:33:43 +0000

only 2 new questions in here (about The Funded – which no VC will touch publicly with a 10ft pole and the one about ex-google/paypal/etc ‘founders’)..

these questions are boring and every answer can already be found on kawasaki’s website

ask why VCs are all too scared to take risks and are too conservative in their investing
- they won’t invest unless other VCs do (lemmings)
- they *love* buzzwords (facebook apps! mobile tv! ad networks! google kil.ler! green tech!)
- why don’t they listen more, and talk less?
- why don’t they really help grow companies and let too many of them flounder and then blame the companies?
- why don’t they have enough respect for the Madison Avenue way of doing business (ads, revenue etc)?
- why are they all white males?
- why do they fund dumb companies just because founded by a previously successful entrepreneur?
- why do legal fees for the funding come out of the company’s money?

By: Public Relations

Public Relations — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:15:16 +0000

How important is unique Website traffic with good demographics and social bookmarking traffic to a Start up – and when deciding to invest in them.

Does this add to its attractiveness in your analysis of them and their potential ROI

By: Allen Sligar

Allen Sligar — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:13:42 +0000

Bang on brother.

Further:

From my own experience with VC’s:

What is the optimal exit multiplier you look for when considering an investment?

What exit horizon do you look for: 3, 5, 10 years?

As to web based/mobile games; How do you feel about the micro transaction model vs. Ad supported model?

Why would you pass on a start up with a product vs. a start up that was Ad supported?

What impact do you think Android will have in the mobile space?

By: Lewis

Lewis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:52:38 +0000

Since the WWW sprung into a existence just a year ago, Hollywood’s Recording and TV/Motion Picture business have done a two-step dance a la digital media. On one hand, they encourage consumers to remix, as long as these start-ups eventually become available for purchase on the market a la MySpace. On the other hand, they take down via copyright lawsuits and DMCA take-downs the most original, dynamic media creations, which has resulted in an emerging digital commons a la flickR.

So for Ashton and Jason and their girly start-up, will they continue to support this hypocritical policy or will they finally called for the creation of collection societies to allow the sharing of digital content over the web (as EFF has been promoting for now a decade – http://www.eff....ic-file-sharing)?

Not just for music, but now for rich video as well?

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » TechCrunch50パネルのVC向けに、厳しい質問募集中

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » TechCrunch50パネルのVC向けに、厳しい質問募集中 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:40:38 +0000

[...] [原文へ] [...]

By: chandra

chandra — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:23:12 +0000

What combination of age, educaton, expertise and experience make for an ideal team for a start-up?

By: Markus

Markus — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:12:11 +0000

What do you think about TheFunded.com ? If there were one or more extremely negative comment about you (or your firm) on the site, what would you (or your firm) do about it?

By: silicon valley dropout

silicon valley dropout — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:06:09 +0000

do the vc favors startups based in valley or ex google employee over those based elsewhere?

By: Paul Graham

Paul Graham — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:58:52 +0000

I wouldn’t describe things like YC as competition for VC funds. In fact, we are a supplier of new deal flow for them. Our real competitors are employers, because we’re encouraging people to quit their jobs to start their own companies.