Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Mike Hirshland, General Partner, Polaris Ventures (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: You were talking about public debate about angels versus VCs, throughout the blogosphere and how in some instances it has gotten pretty colorful.

Mike: Yes, it doesn’t make sense to be antagonizing an entire category of investors that you’re going to need to be partnering with.

So, figure out a better way to draw attention to yourself. Self-branded marketing is great and it’s important in this day and age, but I just think that’s not a well-advised way to do it. It seems counterproductive to me. It doesn’t help your entrepreneurs because you’re make it harder for them to get funding, not easier.

Irina: What should they be focusing on instead?

Mike: Helping the company they invested in. You know, make introductions, whatever their source of value is, whatever their expertise is. If they’re technical founders and they can help with the technical stuff or product advice or business development, making introductions, that’s what they should be doing.

Irina: What are your personal daily challenges?

Mike: It’s the 24-hour thing. There’s not enough time in the day. I’m kind of in perpetual motion, and I love all the stuff, and I want to cram as much of it in as I can. I haven’t, yet, figured out how to be two places at once or how to find more than 24 hours in a day. It’s just being overloaded with the flow of people, ideas, opportunities, meetings, and introductions. That’s the biggest challenge, to be honest.

Irina: Can you delegate anything, or is it impossible to delegate?

Mike: In this business, I really think so much of it’s a personal thing, both the evaluation side and the relationship side that I don’t think that model works very well to a great extent.

Irina: Thank you, Mike. Great insights.

This segment is part 9 in the series : Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Mike Hirshland, General Partner, Polaris Ventures
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