:: VC Undercover ::
Recently, the American press was all
excited about a guy named Jamie Kiggen. Who is Jamie
Kiggen? Well, Jamie is an analyst for "Credit
Suisse First Boston" bank. Now, Jamie found a
unique way to for his analysis of Amazon.com. He went
and worked for a few hours for Amazon's distribution
center in Delaware (Where all Israeli start-ups are
registered). After working for a few hours there, he
concluded that all the employees there were happy, and
thus issued a "Buy" recommendation on
Amazon.
This is something which could have
interesting implications for VC people. In general, the
people sitting in VC companies both in the valley and in
the wadi make an educated guess whether to invest in a
company or not. How do they make the educated guess?
They see a nice PowerPoint presentation made by the
founders and the BizDev team (if such a team exists...).
These days, they even go over the numbers, maybe see a
technology review. But they rarely talk to the *people*.
Now we all know, that you can have the
best motivated people in a start-up and it will still
fail (I really don't have to iterate the reasons for
you, you know them...). But - If a start-up company
doesn't have happy, motivated people - It doesn't stand
a chance. There is just no way to withstand all the
hardships and ordeals that life in a startup includes
without being really into it.
So - If you're trying to raise some money,
and suddenly you have nicely dressed people coming on
board as QA technicians, secretaries and delivery
people, Make sure you smile a lot around these people.
They're probably VC people, trying to asses your
company.
Wadi Writer # 3
(Maroon)
WadiList@mail.com
