Who makes the best fit at a VCIC event?
Judges
Each event has a panel of 6-12 judges. The ideal panel looks a little something like this:
- 4-8 venture capitalists: from a variety of sectors, stages, fund sizes, etc.
- 2-4 early stage investors: angel investors or seed funds.
- 1-2 accelerator folks: though not current investors, they know the ecosystem inside out.
- 1-2 serial founders: great to have their insights, though they have a different perspective from investors.
- 1-2 limited partners: as direct investing has become more common, LPs have become more active.
- 1 -2 VCIC alum: preferably a regional or global winner currently working in the startup ecosystem.
- Others who might round out a panel:
- Educators
- Attorneys
- Other service providers
Startups
With “VC” in the title, VCIC is ideally suited for startups raising a Series A, having already raised significant seed funding. That said, bluntly, it is almost impossible to fill all of our events every February with “ideal” candidates. More often, we will also have promising seed-stage startups in the mix and may even include pre-seed. Even for early-stage, we ask startups to request an equity round. At each event, we try to get a good mix of startups, representing a variety of sectors, stages, funding requirements, etc.
The perfect founder for VCIC is an individual who is somewhat new to the fundraising process. One founder likened VCIC to, “an accelerator for the fundraising process.” Seasoned founders also like to participate in VCIC because they recognize the time/value benefit of the event, “the most value for time invested,” both in terms of the diversity of the feedback as well as the value of the connections made, all condensed into an intense morning!