Sex and the Valley
I must say that I’m really tuned with the Kevin Hale (wufoo.com co-founder) fanatical approach about creating meaningful relationships with users. I think this mindset approach is vital for any kind of relationships you creates. On This post i’ll try to outline some of my thought using the flirting methaphor and paradigm applied to the start-up & investors scene. Btw, this has nothing to do about the actual sexual life of geeks on the Silicon Valley ;-).
Let’s get it hot:
1) The Offer: VCs and investors have money. They are for founders and startuppers what women are for men (at least at the beginning of the relationship where attraction is the main driver). They explicitly states what they can give and why they may give it to you. Are they whores then? I would says they’re rather more like women seeking to marry you with a clear exit strategy on mind from day 0 (this may be usefull then).
2) The demand: Entrepreneurs and startuppers have ideas and projects to takle a market but they need some kind of money to make it happen faster, bigger. This is are like the hormons that drives theyr sometime obessesed hunts.
3) The flirt: As for man-women relationships even if the goal may be clear from beginning it’s been prooved a bad idea to go direct and ask for what you seekin for, yep you can easily end up with a smack on your face. Strangely the same doesn’t apply on the other way around normally…
4) The marriage: as soon as they say yes to you, you are engaged, well actually you are married straight away. That’s why is really important to get out of the flirt as much as you can, because there is no going back afterward. Money can be very important indeed for the success of a project but you need to ponder if they are the right one for you. At the end you are going to give them a slice of your company and of your life.
So never go to an investor asking for their money, go to an investor to flirt with him, to know him more and let they know you more as well, a flirt to be made right is a push and pull relationship. Is during the flirt that things get exitings, and in a startup world is during the flirt that you can iterate your project, refine it make it bullet proof and if you really succeed in this process you may end up without having to marry at all. Work on your pitch, this is like working on your first impact approach, if the pitch doesn’t go smooth go back to work, when you’ll see that your pitch becomes a powerfull seducing tool during your flirts you’re on the right way to something and this is the biggest value you can get for your start-up and project, much more then money, and yes…flirting is free for all.
