Selecting the Right VC for Your Company: The Three "T"s

There are entire playbooks devoted to the qualities VCs are looking for in a startup's leadership; relatively few go toward advising those leaders on what to look for in a VC. But just as startup founders have different temperaments, forms of experience, goals, and strengths, so too do different VCs. This article draws on the first-person experience of its authors Sid Mookerji and Ross Kimbel, both partners at Silicon Road Ventures, with deep experience in the space to help point founders to the three critical areas of VC/founder "fit": Touch (high vs. low), Term (longer vs.shorter), and Team (how much of your VC's network you'll have access to).

These areas differ from the qualities that all VCs will have (or say they have), such as "operational expertise" and "industry knowledge." Instead, the three “T"s" describe a firm's orientation toward its portfolio company founders, including how much say a VC expects to have in a company's daily operations (Touch); whether the VC will be as present and active in down times as when the company's performance is "up and to the right" (Term); and how easy VCs make it for new founders to access their network connections (Team). This last piece is particularly important in today's market, as the limits of Al/ML are largely those of human imagination-limitations that can best be overcome.

Over the next three weekly posts, Mookerji and Kimbel will lay out SRV’s philosophy and experience with The Three “T”s beginning with “Touch” providing founders with valuable insights that can be applied to the thoughtful evaluation and selection of the best VC partner.