Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Jeff Clavier, Founder And Managing Partner, SoftTech VC (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Jeff: Sometimes people will catch my attention. Someone the other day reached me via Twitter. I looked at what he was doing. It was a 20-year-old kid who was trying to put a company together, so I gave him some advice around how to think about his valuation, how to think about his raising money because he didn’t really know.

I told him, “Figure out how much you need and then ask for that. The next question I’m going to ask after asking how much do you need is, what do you need it for? And if you can’t answer what for, then it’s not going to happen.”

So, we had a brief conversation by e-mail. I wish I could be able to do that with each entrepreneur who reaches out because they spend the time to access me.

The problem is that I don’t have time because my obligation, my duty, my mission is to help my entrepreneurs and they take priority. The real way to get my attention as an entrepreneur is to use tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, whatever to figure out who is close to me, who is between us – LinkedIn is perfect for that – who is my connection to you and get these people to reach out to me.

Irina: Pre-screen it for you, right?

Jeff: Yes, it’s pre-screening a bit, but it’s also making sure that you have good reason to reach out to me. Many people will say, “Hey, you’re an investor, here’s a plan,” and then I get random things, like components or the other day someone reached out and said, “Hey, there’s this fantastic business in China.” And I’m like, “Great, but I don’t do anything in China. I don’t even do anything in France. I just invest in the United States.” So, many people will send you stuff without figuring out who you are and what you do.

Like, someone sent me a pitch yesterday and then called and said, “Hey, we sent you an e-mail.”

I said, “What did you send? Why did you call me about the e-mail that you sent?”

He said, “Well, I wanted to make sure that you received it.”

I said, “OK. I received it.”

“We’re raising $50 million.”

And I said, “I’m a seed investor. Why would a seed investor do a $50 million round?”

“Oh, well, you know, you’re very famous.”

I’m a seed investor so, you know, you have to have that filter in. Apart from saving my time, it’s making sure people understand why they’re reaching out. And if someone – like in the case of the latest investment for me – and it’s one of my most trusted friends and advisors and mentors who said, “Hey, I like that entrepreneur. You should definitely meet.” And if he or she says, “You should definitely meet,” I’m not even going to ask a question, I’m going to meet that person. And then through the meeting, and so on and so forth, and in the end I make an investment decision. It’s the process.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Jeff Clavier, Founder And Managing Partner, SoftTech VC
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9