As the year draws to a close, I thought I'd gather up the stats that I've been collecting over the year and share some of this data with you.
Total number of business plans received by JLA: 1553
Total number of no harm/no foul meetings: 382
Total number of Formal Pitch meetings: 185
40% percent of all presentations had some type of a mistake. Either, oops sorry that's not right, spelling, or some other nit that people wanted to change on the spot.
Only 3 (!!) out of 185 formal pitches started out with "check this out" diving into a demo vs. a Powerpoint deck. Sad but probably a painful reality about what people think they are supposed to do. I love demos and playing with the stuff, go figure. On the other hand, virtually all of the informal, no harm/no foul meetings, generally had people just talking and either demoing or painting the big picture. Very different.
Average time to a "no" was 30 days. This is from a survey I did in November, polling 45 companies I knew had been out looking for money. That's bad. A no should take 24 hours at worst, immediately at best. I have not been perfect in 2006 either so room to improve.
32% said no. This was in response to the question: "Do you believe the VCs you pitched showed you, at a minimum, respect for being an entrepreneur". This was really bad. And depressing, actually. As the basic, comfy world the VC community lives in, continues to erode/change, being polite and treating entrepreneurs with respect, is more important than ever. It does seem to be going in the other direction with stats like this. You can read Matt Marshall's piece over at VentureBeat concerning the rude treatment Mark Suster of Koral received at the hands of VC firm Granite. I've set my Blackberry to ring/buzz only for my family and only high priority at that. If you come to my office, make the time, you get the time. Settle for nothing less.
18. That's the number of people who sent me thank you, following up, I got some money, notes out of the 382 no harm no foul meetings. That's actually an amazing number as 20% of the people who take my advice, get money. The preceding line just goes to prove that with numbers you can make any statistic say anything.
Biggest road trip eye opener.
While on the road with Shel Israel, I was able to sit back an enjoy watching, up close and personal, the spotlight on Shel when it came to blogging and passion about one's topic. In three separate events, I was not important, rather blogging and the blogging book author was. It was great. All over Europe blogging, Web 2.0, Social Media and all the stuff was taking off. Watching people hungry for knowledge combined with somebody eager to share was a blast. I've always told people that the key to success is to hire/hang around people smarter then you. Shel is working on a book called "Global Neighborhoods" and is doing it out in the open, more or less, on his blog. I'd encourage all of you who blog, hang out on/in the Internet to head over to his blog and give him feedback on the various proposals he has posted. Good luck with the book, Shel.
Most newbie CEO Award: Jeremy Wright, b5 Media
When Brightspark Ventures and JLA did the b5 investment, we talked a bunch about Jeremy as the CEO. We decided that we were going give Jeremy the shot and set our expectations accordingly. What followed has been some oops, ouch (bet that hurt) and yowsa but to our extreme delight, Jeremy rocks. In terms of personal growth, he has been amazing. In terms of the company, ahead of plan, below expenses are the summary points. The VC community talks a bunch about "the people" and "investing in people". Jeremy is a pleasure to work with and simply reaffirms the notion that, in the end, it is all about the people.
Most honest/raw "Pitch"
A guy came in, sat in my office setting up his laptop. We are making nice nice conversation and he asks, before you were doing this VC thing, what else had you done. I replied with the usual which included my stint as a U.S. Air Force type. This person stopped setting up, stares at me for a minute and says: "If you were part of the war machine that threatens to destroy all that I stand for, I can't take you money because it would be blood money." Uh, this was 20 something years ago and we were not involved in any conflicts at the time. Doesn't matter, as he was packing up, blood stains never come out. It was one way to get a free hour back. And for those of you keeping track, I didn't score it as a pitch. You have to have the laptop actually on before the meter starts.
Best conference 2006: reboot 8.0
Held in Denmark, last June, reboot continues to be one of my favorite places to hang out, catch up with old friends, and meet new ones. Super city on top of everything else. I had the honor of speaking with Hugh who continues to be a great guy, great friend, and solid grounding point in making sure I'm not taking any of this too seriously.
Worst VC phrase ever: Let's continue the dialog.
Since I've been working with Matthew Dunn, the CEO, of MusicIP on the fund raising (we've got term sheets, whoo hoo!), I've been shocked/disappointed/disgusted in the general "nothing changes" world of Venture Capital. Just say no is perfectly fine. Let's continue the dialog is an evil phrase that should be banned from the English language. I can only say that for every rude, you've just got to be kidding moment, that I've been subjected to, I've created yet another item that I'll never do to you. The 2007 package of no harm no foul meetings now comes with the no blackberry surfing guarantee. Should you see me take out my Blackberry, you'll receive a free term sheet (1x liquidation, non participating, pref), a new meeting, and the change to win a new car. Shezzz.
Best "Seth Godin" Project.
I spend time teaching/training/working with MBA classes at several Universities around Toronto. I met up with a young lady who was a big time fan of Seth and his books, all of them. She wanted to prove that the mere chance of being included in something special could be the start of a Purple Cow. She decided to grab a particular URL and simply put a logo on the page with the words, "Finally, it happens" on the page along with be the first to know, sign up here. She only told one friend with the sentence, check this out, I've heard it will be cool. That's it, nobody else, nothing else done. About 23,000 email addresses later, she was on her way to the famous TechCrunch 65532 magic number. I can't tell you the name of the site because it will mess with her results. The hits from around the world, the emails to 'info@', etc all of this makes for a fascinating project which I look forward to sharing with you in 2007.
Hopefully, as you wind up your year, the look back for you will be full of positives and momentum for your 2007 activities.
great post. thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Susan Wu | December 20, 2006 at 21:20
Hah, well at least I got an award. I always get the best awards. At this year's TVG (wow, that was still only like 7 months ago?!) it was a pink suitcase. Now it's the most newbie award. I'm holding out for "Belly Dancer of the Hour" next ;-)
Posted by: Jeremy Wright | December 21, 2006 at 06:12