Todays VC email tip

I enjoy getting email from entrepreneurs, reading about great ideas and, hopefully, finding some good things to invest in.

You’ve read, probably, blog postings about VCs not signing NDAs, Confidentiality Agreements, etc.  By and large, mostly true enough but that’s not the point of this blog entry.

Lately, I seem to be getting an increasing amount of email with business plans or financials or large power point presentations. They either come with an NDA or a separate piece of mail comes later with an NDA.

Here’s my suggestion: If you want to send me (or any VC I’d imagine) an NDA first, you will get the standard response for that particular firm.  Sending the NDA with the materials, in most cases, will probably either get the whole email dumped/deleted or the plan will be read and ‘thanks but I don’t sign NDAs’ will follow.

I don’t know if somebody out there suggested this as some type of slip stream legal protection or what, but it really makes you look kinda goofy and (according to some legal folks I asked) not going to do whatever you are trying to accomplish. 

Not a good tactic.

Comments

[Jeremy Wright]

I can't possibly see how that would go over well. But then personally I was never a fan of the whole NDA for VC's thing anyways.

[viinnie mirchandani]

Rick, our industry has way too many non's - NDA,s non-competes, non-dilution. Then it becomes whose attorneys are more intimdating. At Gartner we would not sign NDAs but were anal about non-competes. You know how VCs are about non-dilution. Every one has a good justifcation which comes down to my interests are somehow unique. I had a large vendor wanting me to sign a 10 year NDA. what stays steady beyond 30 days? We are a smart industry refusing to acceopt that most of this is non-sense...

[shel israel]

I've always wished I could handle my consulting business by first getting paid, then writing the proposal that seemed apt. I will gladly sign an NDA, if someone will pay me first.