Founders should reference check VCs by calling their unlisted portfolio founders
Ben Narasin · Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM · Jul 14, 2026 · at 6:41
Ben Narasin, founder and managing director of Tenacity Venture Capital, describes how startup founders should conduct due diligence on prospective VC investors before taking investment.
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“Why don't you call their founders and find out and not the ones they tell you to call. Here's the trick I tell my founders. You have a VC like, okay, great. Give me some references. Great. Here you go. Okay. Now give me the list of the founders you funded, or you look on their site and you look at the founders they funded. Now do a separate Google search or these days chat GPT and find out the founders they didn't mention. So if they've got a list of 30 companies on their website and you find 33, call the three they didn't list. Find out what happened when things went poorly.”
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