This whole VC Associate thing is stupid. Of course it’s both good and bad, depending on if you’re GP or founder. From a founder’s perspective, the odds aren’t good: some tiny fraction of a convos that start with an Associate will go anywhere. From a GPs perspective — Associates are awesome! They talk to a million people a week and we wouldn’t have sourced BigCo without them! It’s kind of like debating are BDRs good or bad — it’s both. They can waste buyers’ time but are also often necessary.
This whole VC Associate thing is stupid. Of course it’s both good and bad, depending on if you’re GP or founder. From a founder’s perspective, the odds aren’t good: some tiny fraction of a convos that start with an Associate will go anywhere. From a GPs perspective — Associates are awesome! They talk to a million people a week and we wouldn’t have sourced BigCo without them! It’s kind of like debating are BDRs good or bad — it’s both. They can waste buyers’ time but are also often necessary.
@NadimHossain Odds of converting a 1st meeting into an investment are low at most firms. Associates are not BDRs. They. run the entire investment process in conjunction with GPs and the best ones have considerable influence on the eventual outcome.
@NadimHossain I think the only question that matters is: as a founder, would you meet with firm X even if it’s longer odds they’ll invest? Really depends on the founder and their leverage in the round…
@NadimHossain Any founder who ever got a deal done by replying to an associate reply here. Tell us who it was. Easy.
@NadimHossain Agreed — incentives are misaligned for either party
@NadimHossain Shouldn’t this create adverse selection? If VC assoc convos are low EV for the startup, wont the highest quality startups filter themselves out? They’ll find some other way to get funding. And isn’t that net bad for the VC fund? Doesn’t seem like win-lose can exist in the longrun
@NadimHossain Will give a simple no BS take on why founders feel this way abt analysts? If a VC partner reaches out to a company, would he prefer talking to the Founder or his deputy? Same goes for a founder. He wants to speak to one who matters not one who is available at that time