What Does A Successful Meeting With Venture Capitalists Look Like?

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In this day and age, it’s incredibly rare to walk into a meeting with venture capitalists and walk out with a signed check. What designates a successful meeting, according to Tim Wright, partner at Boston-area-based Grand Banks Capital, is three simple words: "Let’s meet again."

’That’s success,’ said Wright.

’The thing about VCs is, we’re experts in nothing,’ he added. ’We’re miles and miles wide and about an inch deep unless you hit on something I’ve done in the past.’

Too pique an investor’s interest, Wright said, ’You have to educate me on why this market is something that I’m going to get value from. A lot of time that’s validation from customers.’

’I’m not going to spend a ton of my time figuring out if you have a market, so if you don’t convince me you’ve got a market, we’re wasting our time collectively.’

Wright suggested entrepreneurs focus on presenting clear customer interest, an ’innovative approach’ to a problem, and a ’capital-efficient’ business plan.

How to know if the meeting went well? ’You’re just trying not to get a no,’ he said.

PUBLISHED NOV. 17, 2015