8 Investors aren’t your friends
- Are you decoding investor friendliness correctly? Be clear: it’s all business
- Will you be clear on investor motivations when they provide you with their advice?
- When it comes to a “good” exit, do startup and investor definitions match?
This is a hard but extremely important lesson to learn. You see, Venture Capitalists, and investors in general, are very personable and friendly, traits that are essential for them to be successful. When you are in their offices meeting them, everyone there is extremely nice. When the partner working with you interacts with you early on, they are so friendly that you will naturally be inclined to think, this is someone I could be friends with. That would be a mistake. To them, you are the key to their next payoff, period. You and your company are an investment, not a genuine source of social interaction. Proof of this happens if, say, things start to go awry after they have invested. Then it will be abundantly clear they are not your friend. And if things go wrong for long, they will get rid of you — snap! — just like that. And they will never look back or contact you again.
I was looking to pad my CEO skills by first being CTO at a new company where I could soak up sales and CEO DNA. Who would know better of such an opportunity than VCs? I asked myself. What could possibly go wrong?