Things I'd do if I ran a big VC firm
- lower management fees so that they cover necessary expenses an reasonable salaries (e.g. 200K, not 3M). basically be like a startup and only make real money when your investors make money.
- keep a database of every employee of every company I invested in. so for example when a company goes under, you can help their employees and your investments by finding jobs for the best employees.
- negotiate group discounts with the best vendors (lawyers, accountants, cleaning services, SEO services, real estate brokers) and give every company a list of those vendors
- have everyone at the firm blog/tweet and let them do so authentically, even if it means sometimes criticizing the firm.
- have regular discussion groups where companies discuss very tactical issues and share solutions.
- stop kidding yourself that you add a lot of value beyond recruiting/intros/governance/financing/selling companies. this let's you relax your "need to own X% of the company" rule and also lets you focus on things you really help with.
- have offices that look and cost like startup offices. or better yet, don't have offices at all - spend your time visiting companies.
- kill the partner presentation. too much emphasis placed on presentation skills. instead go spend a day working with the CEO before you invest to get to know them in their real habitat.
- change the accounting so you can start caring about IRR more than just amount of money returned.
- spend lots of time networking with press & potential bizdev partners so you can make valuable intros when needed.
- have far fewer meetings with startups - screen them better beforehand (the "kissing lots of frogs" problem)
- have far fewer meetings in general
- don't talk/tweet/blog about your vineyard, yachting, golfing etc while you tell your CEOs to work non-stop and be frugal etc.
- use your brand (and/or join together with other VCs) to recruit top talent (particularly engineers) from top schools. tell top students they are guaranteed a job in your portfolio even if the one they join goes under.
- have standardized, simple legal documents to keep seed and Series A financing costs under $10K.
- say no to companies. saying "come back later" feels like a free option to you but actually hurts you and the startup in the long run.
- never miss a meeting or show up late without apologizing
- no smart phones in meetings. better to just not take the meeting or make it 15-30 minutes but actually listen.
update:
- i'd hire some female investors (and maybe some male receptionists).
