There's a big reason that funds pass or ghost on investments, but they would never share it with founders. It's entirely subjective and often just based off gut instincts.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and marketplace businesses. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $400k to $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.
About Rich Maloy
Rich's mission is to rebuild the American dream through entrepreneurship. He works with early stage startups transforming the world, giving all people the opportunity to grow, learn and earn. With prior careers in finance and sales, he's now focused on startups investing through SpringTime Ventures where he is a Managing Partner. He's a father of two young children and loves sci-fi, skiing, and video games.
Rich:
I was going to save this episode for Friday, but I thought I'd end Friday on a happier note. In fact, I even debated if I should record this episode at all. But I felt that I really owed it to you, the listeners. The folks that have reached out to me and said that the VC minute has been great and that they appreciate it so much. All of that means so much to me and I feel that I owe it to you, the listener, to dig deeper, to share this one really gritty truth with you. The reason that many investors may be passing or ghosting you, is because they don't have faith in you to build the business. And that is based completely on subjective experience. In most cases, they've spent what, 30 minutes with you? You even hear some investors talk about how they know within 60 seconds, if they're going to invest in a person or not. Whether an investor has spent five hours with you or 60 seconds, they're making a judgment call on your ability as a leader. Here's the thing, we're wrong about this all the time. And I would say that in many cases, we don't even feel like this is appropriate feedback to give. And of course, nobody's going to tell you this directly because it's... shitty. And it's unfair. And it's based off of just maybe a gut instinct. But friends, the flip side of this coin is that that investor is not the right investor for you. If they don't believe in you, and you can't convince them that you're the leader to take this all the way, then they shouldn't be on your cap table. My friend Josh always says, we are all beautiful, flawed human beings. And I love this. So go find those beautiful, flawed human beings that believe in you in your beauty and your flaws. That want to back you to build and grow your business.