Neumann rejects Jason Lemkin's view that VC is just packaging startups
Jerry Neumann · 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann · Apr 30, 2018 · at 19:34
Jerry Neumann responds to host Harry Stebbings asking whether venture capital is merely about packaging a product to sell to Series A investors for a higher valuation, referencing a perspective from Jason Lemkin.
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“I don't look at it that way. If you say it that way, it makes it sound like you're trying to gild the lily, right? You're trying to sell them something that's not actually true. I do think that you need to know what the company needs to look like to raise more money, and in some sense, that's equivalent, and that you need to guide the company to that A lot of conversations I have in the first year with founders are along the lines of your company needs to look like this. You need to get there or else we can't raise more money. So is that packaging? I think it's not packaging so much as actually making progress towards what the company needs to be. Packaging makes it sound like a surface thing as opposed to, you know, real change or real progress.”
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