Jason Calacanis (connector, founder of Weblogs, Inc. and respected serial entrepreneur) recounts an interesting phone call with an associate at a VC firm. An associate (as opposed to an analyst) is typically an entry-level, partner-track position within a venture capital firm. To be truthful, the nature of Jason’s conversation is similar to ones I’ve seen and heard in the past, typically between Type A personality entrepreneurs and traditional VCs.
The typical conversation plays out as follows …
VC:
- testing
- trying to understand
- testing
Entrepreneur:
- ego
- coy
- ego
Although this backdrop of talking over one another is amusing, Jason sums up some great core values about running a business:
- Hustle
- Passion
- Resiliency
These are basically the characteristics of winners and entrepreneurs. To be fair though, the VC is just trying to understand the business model and slot the investment opportunity. If you applied the three things Jason mentioned to a coin-op laundry place, you would have a successful business too. It would be hard to find a VC or even a roll-up firm pursue that kind of deal though.
Update (4/7/05): Brad Feld also weighs in on Jason’s post. Looks like the conversation pattern is frequently the same the whole way along the food chain in the VC (seller)-VC (buyer) discussions.
Update (4/8/05): Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed has a post on the marketing value of Jason’s post.