VCs are from Mars, CEOs are from Venus: Bridging the investor-entrepreneur gap
As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked veteran technology executive and angel investor Ron Weissman to share his thoughts on how startups can overcome the challenges of securing early-stage financing. This is the first of his commentaries and we welcome your comments.
By Ron Weissman
Why do some first-time CEOs find it hard to get to first base with investors? The product story that CEOs want to tell has often little to do with the business story that investors need to hear before they will invest. Product- or engineering-driven CEOs new to the VC world beg, “Please let me demo my product! It will change the world. For $500,000 you will own a piece of the next Facebook.”
But the story that investors need to hear is different. “How does your business work? How will you scale to become a profitable market leader? Is this the kind of business that meets my investors’ financial objectives?”
