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Re:VCs aren’t your friends by smabie on Thursday May 16, 2024 @03:03AM (#40375899)
If you're brilliant and idiosyncratic and delivering something truly compelling, then vcs are more than happy to look past these things. God knows how many very eccentric founders have received funding
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by max_ on Thursday May 16, 2024 @03:06AM (#40375916)
It is impossible for something in very early stages, that needs money to be "truly compelling".

For VCs a compelling product means great traction but to get great traction you need initial funding so it's always a catch 22.

Re:VCs aren’t your friends by threeseed on Thursday May 16, 2024 @04:23AM (#40376245)
Traction doesn't always mean paying users.

Even just having people on a waitlist can be all you need.

Re:VCs aren’t your friends by ganeshkrishnan on Thursday May 16, 2024 @09:52AM (#40378482)
I have 70 trillion people on the waiting list. It doesn't mean anything. Only people that pay for your product matter
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by MichaelZuo on Thursday May 16, 2024 @04:02AM (#40376155)
Not if they are a bonafide super genius, then it's entirely possible.

That's the minimum bar without traction however. A regular genius isn't that impressive.

Re:VCs aren’t your friends by kabouseng on Thursday May 16, 2024 @06:02AM (#40376707)
VC's don't have the ability to distinguish between genius and super genius...
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by MichaelZuo on Thursday May 16, 2024 @07:18AM (#40377066)
The competent ones can.
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by llamaimperative on Thursday May 16, 2024 @08:48AM (#40377695)
That is a ridiculous claim belied by the distribution of positive outcomes in VC. Any VC making this claim with any confidence is immediately dismissible IMO. I would literally never speak to that person again.

Like in all fields, true competence comes with a deep skepticism of one’s own capabilities. Especially in a field absolutely chock full of luck, uncontrollable variables, motivated reasoning, and outright deception.

Re:VCs aren’t your friends by fuzzfactor on Thursday May 16, 2024 @11:36AM (#40379659)
I would say that if an investor was intending to partner with someone who was uniquely advanced intellectually, it would be from spending enough time directly with the potential partner to be able to well recognize the upper echelon like it could not be accomplished any other way.

The most competent at this would sensibly not be relying very much on slides at all, and capable of clearly seeing beyond the factors like luck and uncontrollable elements.

It couldn't happen overnight, and especially not in a single slideshow, much less an email.

What happens when a founder is open to investment and only a super-genius capitalist would be appropriate?

The relevance of a slideshow might still mainly be in the "signaling" more than anything else.

Re:VCs aren’t your friends by MichaelZuo on Thursday May 16, 2024 @08:00PM (#40384846)
There aren't foolproof methods, but effective enough methods.
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by data_maan on Thursday May 16, 2024 @09:06AM (#40377902)
How about a stable genius?
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by fuzzfactor on Thursday May 16, 2024 @11:47AM (#40379778)
As we have seen, you can be very stable at ones utmost intellectual level year after year, and sometimes it can amazingly be someone who is naturally the complete opposite of advanced anyway.
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by data_maan on Friday May 24, 2024 @03:13PM (#40469529)
Not quite sure if you got the joke or not. In case you didn't: I was referring to how Trump referred to him once: as a very stable genius haha :D :D
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by MichaelZuo on Thursday May 16, 2024 @01:02PM (#40380628)
A stable super genius is quite literally even better.
Re:VCs aren’t your friends by p_l on Thursday May 16, 2024 @03:37AM (#40376056)
That usually happens once you already gain traction.

Getting the critical capital to get there is big problem, and I recall some places explicitly snubbing VCs after having to get to "impressive" without them.