In my multi-part series, Eat Your Own Dog Food, I’m attempting to walk the talk and try, as best I can, to document much of this adventure with commentary aimed at the start up community. I hope it will help those of you looking to start/run your own thing.
Today’s installment is sub-titled “Your idea sucks but I’m not going to tell you because I want to be nice and polite.”
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been meeting with people from three loosely categorized groups: Users, Investors, and potential employees. All of these people are trusted, keep things confidential, etc, etc.
Shock #1 (not): Uh, yeah it is totally personal. I always thought this was the most important value I could provide as a VC: feedback and constructive criticism. As I started getting this ‘friendly advice’, I did have both sides of the kneejerk reactions. I soaked up the love and “dude that is so awesome, let me sell my kids and give you the money” feedback. I also bristled at those ‘people’ who ‘didn’t get it.’ Yeah, it can be personal.
Advice: Frame the discussion to get value. To try and get more clinical, I’ve started to show people a SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) chart with the threats/weakness part almost empty. I then say, you’re good, help me fill out these two sections. I get great feedback with this introduction. Since I’ve framed the discussion a bit, the person I ask feels good about giving solid feedback and I get into intellectual mode (mostly). The net result is solid feedback with the receiver (moi in this case) being in the right frame of mind to get it.
Shock #2 (not): You really want people to speak freely. Joe Catalfamo from SummerHill Ventures, is a good guy and exceptionally smart. When he gives feedback, he ties it to experiences he’s had in the field directly, with portfolio companies, or both. This is exactly what you want. Joe will give you data points that even if you disagree with, are points you need in your bag of answers.
Advice: Ask the right question(s): This is a variation of my first advice point. “What have you seen out there which tracks along my path” OR “You’ve invested in this space, why do you think the space is hard?” My point is to get the feedback. It all goes into the mix.
Keep in mind this has nothing to do with a VC saying yes or no. This is about the process of getting feedback. I mentioned Joe, not as a VC, but a trusted guy who’s opinion I trust.
It’s on you (and me) to create a framework/environment where this frank/open/detailed feedback can be obtained.
[Update] A guy sitting here in the airport asked me what I do. Gave him the pitch. Said "Son, that seems prety dumb, mobile phones are going to get back to just being phones. You kids try to make things too complicated." See, feedback... <sigh>... I can take it.
Can you pitch your startup to us (your readers)? Would love to hear it.
Posted by: Ravi Sohal | August 14, 2009 at 00:27