Levine requires immediate bad news alerts in exchange for unvarnished feedback
Jeremy Levine · 20VC: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on Why We Are In A Fallow Period For Consumer, Why It Is Bogus That Operational VCs Can Add More Value & 2 Golden Rules To Always Tell Entrepreneurs Pre-Investment · Jun 26, 2017 · at 11:30
Jeremy Levine is a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. He outlines the two mandatory communication commitments he establishes with founders before investing.
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“I, when I invest in companies or as I'm about to invest in companies, I have sort of two golden rules that I will often discuss with an entrepreneur before we consummate a, an investment. The first one is I always say, You have one obligation to me if you take capital from Bessemer and have me on your board or not on the board. And that is anytime something bad happens, I expect and deserve to be told immediately. And the reason is because if something bad has happened, if you don't tell me about it, I can't help. And if you wait until you've solved the problem, then you missed out on the chance to get someone else's point of view or someone else's help in solving the problem. And also, I don't want you to feel like you're running your company and sort of managing me. I want you to feel like you can tell me everything that's going on. The flip side, of course, is when good news happens, something great happens. Whenever you feel like getting around to telling me that's fine, you know, you don't need to rush for that. But when bad news happens, you have to tell me right away. And then the second thing I do is I make a commitment in reverse, which is I promise to call it like I see it. And sometimes that message can be hurtful or insulting if I think a CEO is doing something really poorly or making bad decisions. And sometimes it can be reassuring when things generally don't seem to be going well, but I think some great things are happening. But my commitment back in exchange for knowing when anything bad happens right away is to always call it like I see it and not to mince words.”
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