Pavel Sima, CEO of VC overview web site, Sure
Sure
Entrepreneurial concepts spring up in all types of surprising locations. Pavel Sima was strolling on the pilgrim path that runs from Northern France to the Spanish metropolis of Santiago de Compostela when a thought occurred.
“I used to be pondering that each business has a overview portal, resembling Glassdoor for recruitment of IMDB for films,” he says. “However there was nothing like that for VCs.”
As he noticed it, firms trying to find VC finance have been discovering it onerous to assemble info on traders. It’s not merely a case of the sectors they have been eager about or the phases at which they prefered to take a position. From the skin trying in, it was very troublesome to determine whether or not or not a specific VC could be good to work with on a private or skilled degree. The seed of a enterprise concept was sown.
There are methods to search out out these items, after all. If you’re fortunate sufficient to be well-networked, you could possibly faucet into skilled information. Or you could possibly merely make a couple of calls to founders who’ve already taken funding and ask about their expertise. However researching traders generally is a time-consuming course of.
So, again on the pilgrim path, Sima mulled the concept of a overview portal nevertheless it wasn’t one thing he acted upon instantly. On the time he was working an analytics firm, a enterprise that required his consideration.
Quick ahead to the current day and Sima has launched Sure, a VC overview web site with round 6,000 critiques and an inventory of 33,000 traders. He hasn’t – it must be mentioned – launched into a completely empty market. Websites resembling VCguide and Panorama additionally supply founder-written critiques of enterprise capital companies and TechCrunch can be a significant supply of knowledge.
Arguably although, you’ll be able to’t have an excessive amount of info. When founders elevate fairness capital, they aren’t solely exchanging shares for money, they’re additionally coming into into partnerships that may – to a larger or lesser extent – outline the best way their firms develop on the route in the direction of exit. Certainly, the connection can even dictate the timeline for the exit. When the connection is sweet, it is a win/win. But when the partnership doesn’t work out so properly, issues can get fractious fairly shortly.
An Equal Footing
However can you actually encapsulate a VC in critiques? As most practitioners will let you know, fairness funding is a individuals enterprise. Earlier than signing on a number of dotted traces, each side have time to take the measure of each other and resolve “is that this proper for me.” So are critiques actually essential or helpful?
As Sima sees it, there’s completely a requirement for info that may degree the taking part in area and put founders on a extra equal footing with traders. “The connection is rigged in the direction of VCs,” he says. “If you find yourself a founder, you don’t essentially have a community, cash or attorneys.” In distinction, VCs have all these items. “So they have an inclination to have the higher hand.”
Added to that’s the truth that not all VCs – once more as Sima sees it – are nice to work with. “There are some superior VCs however there are additionally predatory VCs,” he says. Critiques present a method for founders to discreetly be taught from the experiences of others.
The Accuracy Conundrum
All properly and good, however particular person critiques aren’t all the time dependable. Anybody who has scrolled by way of Amazon product critiques will know that the identical product can get scores and critiques working from one to 5 stars. Put merely, critiques may be very subjective and if it is a drawback in terms of score easy client merchandise, can a overview portal actually signify the usually advanced relationship between founders and VCs with any objectivity.
Sima says the worth finally lies in quantity. The extra critiques that come onto the platform the extra helpful they are going to grow to be in a collective sense. One dangerous or good overview is perhaps a rogue. Ten critiques present a way more helpful consensus.
Sure has began with 6,000 critiques, with about 10 collected a day. The objective is to onboard many extra occasions that quantity.
Solely founders can write critiques and the platform checks out their credentials earlier than they’re revealed. However what motivates them to take action? Sima says there are a selection of things.”They (the founders)may need had a extremely dangerous expertise that they wish to share. Additionally, there’s a camaraderie amongst founders. And you need to overview to unlock the opposite critiques.”
The critiques themselves observe a construction, masking completely different elements of the founder/VC relationship. By structuring on this means, the positioning seeks to offer a full and complete image.
A Higher Pipeline
Sima argues that Sure has advantages for VCs in that may end in a greater pipeline of startups knocking at doorways. In the meantime, it is going to minimize down the analysis time for founders.
For the time being, the positioning isn’t monetised. Sima says a choice on the monetary mannequin can be taken after the positioning has been up and working for some time, with the choices together with membership charges, or prices for added worth providers. As issues stand, membership charges are the least favored choice.
Will it work? That may rely upon uptake by founders and – from a business perspective – the traction gained by related providers. Within the meantime, it gives a free means for founders to analysis traders from the consolation of their workplace chairs.
