Andy McLoughlin, partner at SoftTech VC, discusses how seed syndicates without a deep-pocketed lead investor struggle to support portfolio companies when Series A fundraising hits a slowdown.
Insight
Startups Passing 150 Employees No Longer Need Hustler Founders
“When a company gets past a 150 people and, you know, start getting up towards, you know, 200, they don't really need the kind of hustler Founder there anymore. They need people who are going to adhere to processes and, you know, get stuff done and not trotting…”
Disclosure
SoftTech VC Avoids Outside Seed Plus Rounds as Red Flags
“What we don't generally do, though, is look at C C primes, or C pluses, or second Cs, or C twos, or C Bs, from companies that aren't already in the portfolio. Cause generally that smacks of a company that went out to raise a series A and failed.”
Insight
VCs Will Use Leverage Over Startups Whenever Possible
“Well, exactly, because, you know, the thing that you have to remember is that VCs are, at the end of the day, in the business of trying to make money, and if they have leverage over a company, they will probably use it.”
Insight
Enterprise Software Requires Top-Down Sales for Real Revenue
“Grassroots is great because it can just spread like wildfire inside an organization. It can move from org to org very virally, but I think, you know, to make real revenue, you kind of need to you need to be kind of selling top down.”
Opinion
Silicon Valley remains the best place to incubate global startups
“And I think if you believe that great entrepreneurs and great businesses can be born absolutely anywhere, but this is probably still the best place in the world to incubate them, then finding those teams and finding those people who maybe don't look, you know,…”
Insight
Series A startups compete against all fundraising companies, not just sector peers
“And, you know, given that there is such a glut of seed money out there and so many companies being seed funded, yet this, you know, the number of Series A deals is effectively the same, if not lower year on year. What that means is, and I, this is the exact wo…”