Matt Harris is a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. He discusses internal investment committee practices designed to avoid consensus bias when evaluating early-stage startups.
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“We have a rule internally that if everybody votes for a deal, we need to pause and rethink it.”
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More from Matt Harris
Insight
Matt Harris: Refusing rule-breaking founders sacrifices venture upside
“If we only back founders who are unwilling to break rules, then I think we're giving away a lot of the upside of our industry.”
Matt HarrisSep 23, 2019▶ 26:4220VC: Bain's Matt Harris on Why Valuation And Market Size Are Not The Most Important Thing At Series A, Why Backing Sociopaths Can Work & Late Cycle Momentum Investing & The Changes That Will Stay in Venture Forever
Insight
Harris: Entry valuation matters little if Series A ownership hits 18%-25%
“If you own 20%, 25%, 18%, something meaningful of a company that ends up being important, then it doesn't really matter whether your entry price was 20 posts or 40 posts.”
Matt HarrisSep 23, 2019▶ 13:3020VC: Bain's Matt Harris on Why Valuation And Market Size Are Not The Most Important Thing At Series A, Why Backing Sociopaths Can Work & Late Cycle Momentum Investing & The Changes That Will Stay in Venture Forever
Disclosure
Matt Harris: Fear of macro cycles has cost me a lot of money
“My deep and abiding fear and recognition of the cyclicality of finance and the cyclicality of technology has actually cost me a lot of money.”
Matt HarrisSep 23, 2019▶ 9:1520VC: Bain's Matt Harris on Why Valuation And Market Size Are Not The Most Important Thing At Series A, Why Backing Sociopaths Can Work & Late Cycle Momentum Investing & The Changes That Will Stay in Venture Forever
Disclosure
Harris: Bain Capital Ventures no longer co-leads Series A rounds
“Where we end up having to somewhat frustratingly draw a hard line is we generally don't co-lead Series A's anymore.”
Matt HarrisSep 23, 2019▶ 17:5520VC: Bain's Matt Harris on Why Valuation And Market Size Are Not The Most Important Thing At Series A, Why Backing Sociopaths Can Work & Late Cycle Momentum Investing & The Changes That Will Stay in Venture Forever
Opinion
Bain Capital: Market size is not the top Series A criteria
“We do talk about market size, but we surely don't think it's the most important thing at a Series A.”
Matt HarrisSep 23, 2019▶ 23:0820VC: Bain's Matt Harris on Why Valuation And Market Size Are Not The Most Important Thing At Series A, Why Backing Sociopaths Can Work & Late Cycle Momentum Investing & The Changes That Will Stay in Venture Forever
“At the lower ranks of our firms, we need to bring in the correct balance, correct being fifty-fifty at a minimum of men and women, and minorities should be added to this question as well, and we also need to lateral in senior investing talent at the same time.…”
Matt HarrisSep 23, 2019▶ 27:2720VC: Bain's Matt Harris on Why Valuation And Market Size Are Not The Most Important Thing At Series A, Why Backing Sociopaths Can Work & Late Cycle Momentum Investing & The Changes That Will Stay in Venture Forever
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