After a debate that several of us had at a recent DealMaker Media event in Los Angeles, my friend and fellow SoCal venture capitalist Peter Lee wrote a post
recently about the different roles within a VC and spent much time on
the role of an associate. VC’s keep different titles but the most
common that I’ve come across that are investment professionals are (in
ascending order of seniority): analyst, associate, principal and
partner. These are the permanent members of a VC. Then there is the
EIR (entrepreneur in residence) who is usually at a VC for a temporary
period of time and other individuals such as venture partners or
operating partners.
The process for raising money from a VC is a sales process and as
such much of what is taught in enterprise sales can be applied. My
initial career was as a software developer, database designer, product
manager and then project manager. So running a sales process wasn’t
originally in my professional toolkit. Some of the best advice came
from a senior sales coach in Germany named Kai Krickel who ran a
consultancy with the appropriately name of TEDIC (the excuse department
is closed). He had formerly run country operations for a very
prominent enterprise sales company called PTC. I’ll cover more sales
lessons in a separate section of the blog, but for now some thoughts
about people you’ll meet in the VC process:
1. Some people have authority (A)
Somebody with authority is a decision maker. That’s obviously a
good starting point in any sales process. I’ve always subscribed to
the “call high” philosophy of sales where you hope that your initial
entry into any organization is the highest level at which you can
usefully be introduced. In a VC firm the people with authority are
clearly partners, although some firms have principals that also have
authority. But don’t confuse authority with “sole” authority. Often
times in a VC firm, as with enterprise sales, getting to yes requires
multiple partners to agree. And don’t assume that because a person’s
title is “managing partner” or “founding partner” that this necessarily
means that person has more authority than other partners. In every
firm, VC or otherwise, there are people who get deals done. They are
people who are persuasive (see point 3 below), who compile relevant
facts and who are willing to put their reputations on the line to get a
deal done. You’ve likely dealt with this if you’ve done sales or biz
dev in your job. You’ve likely met SVP’s in companies that never seem
comfortable with pushing though decisions without a large number of
other people validating the decision. The same can be true with VC
partners – some push deals through and some seek broad consensus or air
cover. But anybody that has authority (read: a vote) must be treated
seriously. You need to understand and get to know the interests,
issues and concerns of every person who has authority over the decision
that your firm wants. Every person with authority has a vote. And
don’t assume that just because you have a partner as your “champion”
that it means that you don’t need to spend time with the other partners
so that they also feel bought in.
2. Some people have influence (I)
I’ve made it clear that my preference when I’m selling is to always
“call high” but let’s face it – you can’t always start at the top. In
VC you might get an introduction to a partner through a colleague of
yours who is a lawyer or an entrepreneur but the partner may ask for
the deal to initially be screened by somebody more junior in their
firm. Don’t view this as a slight. When you think about a typical VC
who sits on 5-7 boards, has to raise money for his/her firm so that
they can invest, has to help run the operations of their fun, is
swamped with inbound emails or requests for meetings and gets involved
with industry events like speaking at conference, there is always going
to be a need to get some leverage by having trusted resources help
evaluate your company.
When you spend time with analysts, associates, principals and even
EIR’s realize that many of them have “influence” (e.g. they can
recommend whether or not your team gets more time and attention). But
just remember (as per Peter’s post) that they are not check writers.
Kai taught me in sales to be careful not to make assumptions that
because somebody’s job title is high that they have influence or
because a person’s job title is lower means that they don’t have
influence. And each analyst or associate may have different levels of
influence with different partners. So how could you find all this out?
I have heard some people in VC round table debates say not to bother
spending too much time researching the individuals of a VC firm – you
have more important stuff to focus on. I disagree. I think if you’re
running a sales campaign to raise money and you’ve identified a firm
that you think will be a good fit for you that you should put in the
time. And frankly if you do get a term sheet one day these are the
people you’ll be working with so the more you know them (and their
reputation) the better. The most obvious way to know about your
contact’s influence is to network with portfolio companies or other
entrepreneurs that have pitched this VC before and get their insights.
If you build good rapport with the non-partner resources then you
might be able to get clues from them about how to get deals approved by
the partners. See if they will help you figure out which partner is
likely to be most interested in your company’s space. And get advice
from them on how to best manage the approval process. Importantly, ask
for their support in getting the partner meeting set up. These are all
things that an enterprise sales person would do in their sales process.
3. Some people have influence & authority (IA … aka Egg Breakers)
Obviously the people that you REALLY want to get access to are the people with both influence and authority. These are the 
people
I call “egg breakers” because they’re willing to get rough to get
things done. These are the people that will metaphorically (or
sometimes literally) slam the table and say “we need to do this deal
and here’s why …”. They not only have a vote at the table but the
skill & will to get decisions made. Very few investment decisions
are unanimous “no brainers” – just imagine having been pitched Google
in a world where you had previous search engines like Alta Vista or
given the success of Yahoo! Imagine having been pitched Facebook in a
world where MySpace seemed to be running away with market share or more
recently having been pitched Twitter when Facebook seemed unstoppable.
Your goal in any sales process is to find and nurture egg breakers. VC
is no exception.
4. Some people have No Influence & No Authority (NINA)
But of course the people you need to be the most careful about
spending too much time with are people with No Influence & No
Authority (so called NINAs). In enterprise sales these are the people
that worry me the most because they are often the easiest to meet and
spend the most time with you. I’ve worked with many sales reps over
the years who spend time with time-wasting NINAs because they’re easy
and make you feel good. NINAs will tell you that your products are
great and that your competitors stink. It’s hard to go into the lion’s
den and see the people who are most cynical or give you a rough time.
So many people naturally gravitate towards NINAs. Remember that not
only can they not make decisions but the I is key – they have no
influence. People tend not to listen to them very much or they don’t
have good political support to get initiatives approved.
How do you know when you have a NINA? Aside from the obvious point
I always harp on about (asking portfolio companies and other
entrepreneurs that have pitched to them before), the best way to tell
is when you ask them to help you with the next step (e.g. getting to a
partner meeting) and they’re either not able to do it or they keep
requesting 3 more meetings before getting there.
NINA’s take on another form in VC, though, which are the “VC
Zombies”. These are the funds that are at the end of the life on their
investments and do not seem to be able to raise a new fund. They
continue to take meetings with entrepreneurs but they never fund
anything (because they can’t). These are very easy to flush out with
some basic research: how many deals has the fund done in the past 3
years and when was their current fund raised (many funds are 10 years
in length). No new money, no new deals = NINA.
The only way to deal with NINAs in enterprise sales or in VC is to
go directly to somebody else in the firm who has either influence or
authority. Or talk with a different VC.
(Cross-posted @ Both Sides of the Table)
