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The Importance of Proprietary Deal Flow in Early-Stage VC

Both Sides of the Table

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? One of the major calibration pieces for me was where to find deal flow. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. It is not my proprietary deal flow.

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Leadership is More Than a Memo

Steve Blank

Chasing deal flow has resulted in many VCs leading the race to the bottom in startup ethical behavior. With the reckless and naïve abandon of founders who had no clue what they were about to tackle, we had just started Ardent , a supercomputer company. Here was the day I got that lesson.

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Accelerators And Seed Deal Flow

Haystack

It feels like a tsunami of deal flow , and for me, I’ve outlined how I pay attention to inbound flow in terms of what gets priority. And one of the sources of that flow are the new accelerators (I’m lumping incubators, accelerators, etc. Ultimately, the buck stops with the founder.

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Why Early-Stage VCs Should Be Careful About Intros from Bankers

Both Sides of the Table

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? One of the major calibration pieces for me was where to find deal flow. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. It is not my proprietary deal flow.

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Thoughts on Organic Deal Flow

View from Seed

Similarly, the best kind of deal flow for a VC is organic deal flow. On the more organic side is when the founder and investor have a pre-existing relationship. Maybe you’ve backed the founder before, or have just known and shown mutual respect for each other for months or years.

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Top 3 Startup Winner: Digs

The Startup Magazine

FUND is a national connector of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and industry experts with a focus on deal flow and making connections. My co-founder (Chad Johnson) and I are both architecture graduates, so housing has always been a passion of ours. Team Info: Co-Founder: Pat McLoughlin.

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The NextView Ventures Manifesto

View from Seed

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, we’ve been the lead or co-lead investor over 80% of the time. .