The breathless hyperventilation over founders turned VCs was always silly.
The skill set for a great founder and for a great VC are quite separate. Both need to be smart and to have good communication skills, but most of the other skill sets are very different.
Founders are focused – they spend ten years turning one company into a success. VCs are flibbertigibbets. We look at 5 different potential investee companies and read updates on several existing investees each day – permanent ADD.
Founders need to be experts in building companies. They are product visionaries, marketing experts, salesmen, sales managers, and people managers. VCs sit on the sidelines, figure out if a founder can do these things, and then give usually unwanted advice that is mostly ignored.
Founders are people people. They need to manage people, work with investors, work with customers, work with partners. VCs have the money. Everyone wants to be their friend. They do not need to be people people – they are money people. Many famous VCs are notorious jerks.
Founders are visionaries. They make big concentrated bets on the future. They believe against the odds and the evidence. VCs are cynics. We make bets on dozens of companies, we love them all – they are our babies – but we know most of them will die. We bet based on the odds and we analyze the evidence.
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If you want to invest in Emerging Markets startups with tickets as low as USD 2,500, please reach out to Reflect Ventures [https://www.linkedin.com/company/reflect-ventures/].
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