Wednesday, March 16, 2005

thoughtful investor

Martin Tobias, a venture partner at Ignition (principle backers of Jobster), had a great entry about raising money for your venture. He spent some time to talk about examples when ventures should NOT raise VC money.

Having started my career as an analyst for a smaller VC firm, I have always followed the new venture scene. Prior to Jobster, I had several opportunities to join early start-ups, but never felt overly compelled about the business opportunity in front of them. Obviously that was how Jobster was different and why I joined as the first employee.

Today, I do spend some of my free time chatting with my colleagues and friends about ideas they are hatching- it is exciting to be a part of this, and hope that I can lend some insight into how to do it right.

Martin's entry struck me, because I had just been talking to some guys about their early stage venture, and if raising VC money made sense. In their particular case, I told them to hold off, because their planned revenue model seemed to suggest that they could grow organically to a certain stage.

Not only that- but I asked them point blank why they wanted to raise money, and they did not have an answer- which to me means they are not ready for money yet...