Sometimes I just shake my head in wonder and disbelief. Before the story, yet another “If I did this to you during the past 8 years, I’m sorry” admission.
A couple of VCs in the US heard about what I was doing and both (partners not Analysts) asked for a call to chat. This was two separate firms. Yep, they called me. Yep, I know these guys for 10+ years. Yep and yep. Read on.
Call one:
All the hey how’s it going, cool, whatcha up to gets out of the way within 3 minutes. So, off I go into my pitch and in the background, I’m hearing the unmistakable clacking of the keyboard AND the standard BONG of Vista’s ‘are you sure’ dialog boxes when stuff is getting deleted. In other words, VC One is going through his email while I’m speaking on the phone. Thank you very much.
Call two:
Do you have Skype? Here’s a tip. Turn off the sounds or mute your PC. Yeah, you guessed it, Skype chat while call number two is going on. Danke mein freund, danke.
As I wrap up this week with a closing, I am not fussed about any of this. In 72 hours, the bank, accountants, and lawyers will all be happy.
But if you are wondering how reputations are created, multiply my little snippets times, oh, a billion instances and there you have it.
Shezzzzzz…..
Heh. I feel bad about just using the keyboard to type my notes about the conversation when I'm on the phone!
Posted by: Brooks Moses | November 10, 2009 at 03:30
Get a Mac! :-)
Rick -- this is a variation of video taping yourself giving a presentation. I *hate* doing this -- but you learn so much by being forced to watch yourself. I need to do this more -- but I rather run naked through a rosebush.
Nose twitches, voice tones, argh! Now we can add keyboard pings and Skype pongs to our non-verbal communication.
In a way, its kind of like reading someone's mind.
I have often been tempted (and occasionally do) start speaking nonsense -- just to see if they are listening.
Next time this happens, you should start going all buzzwordy on them and see how long it takes for them to notice :-)
Posted by: Pat Moore | November 10, 2009 at 12:19
Hi Pat.
Im on a Mac! Watching me is slightly scarier than watching hot dogs being made.
Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by: Rick Segal | November 10, 2009 at 12:23
on the brighter side, maybe VC#1 was typing up your term sheet and overwriting the one he/she had prepared for what he thought earlier to be the next google :-)
.. and VC#2 was skyping his banker to see how many millions he had to spare to plunk on yours.
congrats
Posted by: gou | November 17, 2009 at 12:16