it's not you, it's me
The VC incentives that nobody tells you.
Fundraising advice assumes the decision is mostly about your startup. And sometimes it is.
But there’s a second ledger you don’t see. How much dry powder does that VC have left for the year? If they just joined, maybe they’re hungry for a deal. If they’ve been there a while, maybe they’re near board capacity. What’s the firm’s pacing like, and how does that translate to concentration in your sector or stage? Is there a founder who the fund has backed and values who might see this as competitive down the road? And what’s that investor’s pull internally as it pertains to managing the process and getting deals across the line.
You’ll probably never hear these details.
But some of it you can infer:
A fund writes its initial checks over roughly 2-3 years, so a partner deep into a fund can be enthusiastic and structurally unable to lead.
If they do lead, that’s 2-3 new deals a year, not a quarter.
From what I’ve seen, partners start getting pickier after about 7-8 board seats.
Seed funds need at least 10% ownership and are usually targeting 15-20%.
This isn’t about over-indexing on investor psychology. It’s about being deliberate on who you reach out to, who has capacity in addition to the right experience, and how you navigate when things go off the rails. They might, even if your deck is absolutely cracked.
Hi! I'm Monica, a former venture investor turned operator. Currently advising, investing, and writing On Paper about what building companies looks like from both sides of the table.