Hi all, Shawn Carolan here, partner at Menlo. I highly recommend talking with associates and analysts at firms, every funding starts with one internal champion and especially when you have a smart energetic guy like vineet get excited about a deal the partners listen! This is a major myth of the VC industry that anyone besides a partner is a waste of time. Most shops are pretty small so every fan counts. Good luck!

So many of us have dreamed of a chat roulette to match VCs and entrepreneurs...

My initial reaction was very positive, but then I checked the site, and I saw that there were only 3 slots of 10 minutes each. That doesn't sound like much. Can't you at least dedicate an hour to this, once? That would be 6 slots.

I hope if it goes well, you'd start having a repeat system. I'm all for every possible way that people can connect with each other, especially beyond email :-)

So this was just a start. We built the product over the last couple weeks and had a few people volunteer their time to try it out. Moving forward you'll see more dedicated times from folks. We had another listing out a couple days ago, but the 6 slots of 20-minutes each disappeared quite quickly.

Btw, if you don't mind. drop me an email vladik dot rikhter at gmail. I've been meaning to connect with you in regards to your current startup. Thanks!

Yeah really. Associates' enthusiasm (or lack thereof) has a huge influence on how well your interaction with a VC firm goes.

And 'access' isn't the only value from a call like this. I got very lucky and it turns out that Vinny knew a lot about the space I'm in. So he laid out what Menlo thinks are the two big strategic questions. If I have good answers for those, they'll be a lot more interested (and y'know what, so will other VCs). We even had time for me to try out potential answers to the questions, and get some quick calibration whether or not I was on the right path. Hugely hugely valuable.

I registered never got a call from the associate received a email about confirmation about the meeting

Do you mind dropping me an email vladik dot rikhter at gmail? We had a slight issue this morning with registration...

Great opportunity. A couple of suggestions, if you haven't done it before: (1) do up a mini-agenda -- yes, even though it's only for 8-10 minutes (2) don't do all the talking yourself (3) try to get his feedback on at least one key point so that you can incorporate it into your next communication to show that you listen and understand.

Great input, thanks!

By the way, if you couldn't get an appointment. Let us know here who you would enjoy talking to: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=d...

I would also like to see someone like Mark Suster do this. I think even 8 minute would be great: 1 minute intro, 4 minute product conversation, 3 minute shut up and listen to the VC.

That's a good example of the kind of mini-agenda I was talking about. (Most 10-minute phone call's only have 7 or 8 minutes talking time)

A good trick on the intro is to do your research on the firm first. I got his quick background and area of expertise and then did my 30-second self-description.

After that, instead of going into the product conversation I started by asking what he knew about the space, and then got his perspectives on current players and the strategy. It was only the last couple of minutes that I started talking about my solution. Your mileage my vary of course; if you're more interested in reaction to the product (or think that's your best selling point) then that's where to spend more time.

Should have left a 5 min gap between each call. That way you know he had time to jot some notes - prep for next call - use the bathroom or something, which would at least ensure his attention was on the call.

Nice of him to do it, but usually talking with an associate is a waste of time.

It all depends. If you have no access otherwise to VCs, this is at least a start. Also not all associates are a waste of time, I know quite a few that have brought a deal or even two to the firm they work at in one year.

Great point. I'm in Seattle, and have good access to angels and VCs here -- but it looks different in the Bay Area; I have some Bay Area connections but am not yet at the stage where I want to call in favors. So this is a total bluebird for me.

FYI, this is the second one we've done. One of the Sigma Partners guys also volunteered their time. We should have one more on the way from a smaller fund, hopefully they won't fill up as quickly so you can grab a time slot.

Excellent promotional strategy by Simply Hours -- giving a lot of value to the community while showing the value of lightweight scheduling and getting your name out there.

Thanks for the complement!

My experience differs. Funding is a "relationship sell", and associates can be very helpful -- or not, as the case may be. For their areas of specialty, they're often more knowledgeable than partners. And it's their job to help find unexpected new deals. Oh sure, I've dealt with some bozo associates in the past, but they're the exceptions.