- As a prior entrepreneur myself,
as founder and CEO of LearnVest
that got acquired by Northwestern Mutual,
having gone through five rounds of venture funding,
we believe there are a few key things
that entrepreneurs should think about
before they pick and vet their own investors.
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- One of the first things that we think is really important
when it comes to picking an investor
is you want to make sure that you can be yourself.
You're gonna marry that person.
When you decide to sign up and take capital from someone,
they are going to be around your business
for the duration of your business.
Building a business is 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, and often it's gonna take a decade.
If you're gonna feel on edge around somebody
or you if you feel like you're not gonna be able
to always speak your mind and be really honest,
it's probably not gonna be the best partner
because you need them in the boat with you
and you need to start rowing.
The second thing that you're gonna want to do
is a working session.
You want to really understand
when people are rolling up their sleeves
what their style is gonna be like,
what's that gonna look like,
and truly just sitting with them for an hour or two,
talking about your business, your pros, cons, problems.
I always call it the three-dimensional chess
that you need to play to be able to make sure you know
how to build that business, you do that working session.
The third thing we always say is really get references.
Talk to other founders that they've backed.
Talk to founders they backed where things have gone well
and maybe things haven't gone as well.
You're gonna get a real sense of what is this person like
on good days and bad days.
And then the fourth thing is really getting a sense
of how this investor is tangibly gonna help add value
to your business.
Some investors can open doors.
Some investors are gonna be in your local neighborhood
and they're gonna be able
to help you get talent on the ground.
Some investors are gonna come with all sorts of knowledge
because they've been in the industry for so long.
And I always say every dollar is as green as the next
until it's not because it actually comes
with high impact in some great way.