Ex-FAANG engineers turned Founders- How do I land meetings with VCs?
Posted by Clucker10@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 114 comments
I worked at a FAANG for nearly a decade and now I want to launch my own startup. I have an idea for a SaaS business with a clear product, a market with competitors over whom I have a clear efficiency/upside over, and a working, end-to-end MVP that I could sell to a customer today. From the few people that I do know in the startup world, this + my employment history ought to be enough to at the very least get meetings with early stage VC funds.
The problem, or at least one of the problems, I'm facing is that I don't know very many people at all in VC. I don't even know how to setup a meeting with a VC. I've tried cold-emailing and connecting on LinkedIn with partners at VC firms but those attempts have also been met with silence. My professional network is mostly other engineers in Big Tech, who, while willing to help, don't have obvious VC connections either. Friends and family have tried doing outreach on my behalf, but quite frankly, I don't come from a socioeconomic background where folks are in positions to mingle with others that work in VC.
My question to other ex-FAANG members is how should I approach VCs to setup meetings? How do I specifically leverage my technical expertise and experience to get meetings that the average Joe on the street would not be able to book? Outside of YCombinator, I don't know how, or where, I could reach out to a VC to setup a meeting without a prior introduction.
PS- In case someone asks why I would want VC instead of bootstrapping my product, I need help reaching customers moreso than getting funds. Fundraising would help flesh out my Front-End experience for my product, but crucially, it would help the lead generation process, which as you can tell, I'm not great at. I need someone to open doors that I can't on my own.
hitanthrope@reddit
I was a "FAANG-adjacent" engineer for some years (meaning I worked for a company who hasn't quite made the acronym but is a household name web company in roughly the same kind of league.... later turned startup CTO for two VC funded companies.
The answer, unfortunately, is warm connections are everything. These guys get hundreds of cold emails a week. Unless you have something that really captures their attention, there is just too much noise. The good news is, they are not really stingy with their diaries. It's their job to meet prospective investors, but they can't meet everybody who contacts them with a business plan.
It can be a good idea to speak with angel investors. These groups are usually a bit easier to reach and they often have connections with VC firms (many of them are successful founders themselves who can intro you to the firms they have worked with), but you do need to go out there and meet other founders, angels, and just generally be in the "scene". If you are a solo technical founder, you should scout for a co-founder who can bring in these kinds of connections. A lot of people will bullshit you, so make any significant equity arrangement contingent on them introing to somebody who will sign a term sheet.
In my case, I was the co-founder, in that I was, in both cases, approached by a CEO who had already worked on those connections. I wouldn't have been able to do it myself. My skillset is different.
Incidentally, VCs are typically *very* reluctant to invest in companies that have a solo founder, so even if you could get the time in their diary, you'd do well to find a good co-founder anyway.
Also, I would have to say that VCs are also incredibly reluctant, in the early days certainly, to pay founder salaries, and they usually want you to also have skin in the game, so if you are not already sitting on 6 figures that you will invest yourself (even if it is to pay you own salary), then you also have an uphill battle.
Sadly, the reality of all this stuff is that already being fairly rich is a very significant advantage. Bootstrapping can be a better option for those not in that position.
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
Do you mind if I DM you?
greyspurv@reddit
I am a serial entrepreneur can I DM you?
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
Sure!
greyspurv@reddit
I did not sure if you saw it
hitanthrope@reddit
Not at all. Go ahead.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
You're close, but until you start securing some actual customers through actual sales you're not going to be taken seriously.
Your lack of success with cold outreach isn't due to your socioeconomic background or your lack of network connections. It's because ex-FAANG engineers who want money for an idea are a dime a dozen.
If you want to get the attention of VCs, you need to start selling your project to real customers.
You also need more to stand on than "Ex-FAANG". This might be hard to believe with your background, but being an ex-FAANG engineer is a net negative signal by itself for VC success. Why? Because FAANG positions are narrowly scoped to engineering tasks, whereas founders need to be broadly experienced with running a business. You're already showing signs of this by focusing on your MVP but missing the fact that it's not a real business until people buy it.
You have perfectly summarized why VCs are not interested. You're still thinking of every problem as an engineering problem, and you imagine the customer acquisition and business problems are things that VCs will solve for you.
You need to regroup and reassess. Either partner up with someone who knows how to do sales and build a company, or learn to do these things yourself. Until your idea turns into a real business with real customers, real sales processes, and people who can keep the growth going, it's DOA. VC money isn't going to solve these problems for you. You have to solve these problems for yourself and then the VCs will be interested in pouring more money into the business machine you've built.
Regular-Active-9877@reddit
This all sounds right, but it might be helpful for you to explain how you know this to be true (like what personal experiences lead you to these conclusions).
TBH, I don't know if I buy the argument that you need to have customers lining up before you get an investment. There are plenty of products that you simply can not sell as a one-person operation.
Maybe VCs aren't interested, but I imagine there are other investors or potential co-founders that OP could find helpful at this point
AdministrativeBlock0@reddit
Former founder who went through an accelerator, raised two rounds of VC, and spent 2 years building a business. The post is spot on. My startup failed because as good as our product was (or more accurately, as good as my cofounder and I thought it was), we didn't have the skills to sell the product to people and we failed. You can make the best tech in the world but if you can't sell you will fail. Nothing sells itself.
As for traction before a VC round, it's much easier if you can show you've found a market already. That means more VCs will be interested, which will result in a better round as far as terms go. You can still raise without having the market for but it's really hard.
geekhaus@reddit
A company that has a (think high school report card)
Product and Engineering - D
Marketing and Sales - A
Will almost always beat a competitor with the inverse. The most elegant code rarely wins.
Also, currently at FAANG as SRE Sr Mgr. Have been first engineering leadership hire at 2 companies with exits. The typical SWE engineer scope at a a FAANG company IS wayyy more narrowly focused than at a five, 15 or 150 person company.
ShoulderIllustrious@reddit
I don't think folks understand just how true this statement is.
We pay for a particular product that has the worst codebase I've seen in my life. The only ingenuous thing I see in there is the guy implemented his own protocol...a plain text protocol. For shits and or giggles, IDK which. Somehow they sold this product to enough folks and got popular enough to be acquired by the likes of hillrom/stryker. It doesn't scale well and horrible to reason with because so much state is implicit and shared to entities that don't need it.
This is kind of why when my relatives talk about sending their kids to high end CS schools to learn the best. I'm like it's not about what you know only, it's more important who you know than what you know.
Regular-Active-9877@reddit
The downvotes from the "don't even bother trying" crowd are very interesting, I must say. I was genuinely curious about the poster's experience. I guess dogma is preferable here?
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
Sorry you’re getting downvoted. To be honest, I didn’t really say anything that isn’t well known among the entrepreneurship literature. You’ll find similar advice if you read startup books or blogs or even follow VCs on Twitter.
I have some very minimal experience working on the VC side of things (enough to learn it wasn’t for me) which gave me a little insight to the other side of the fence. The amount of cold inbound pitches that even a little-known VC receives is extremely high. So many people like the OP have an idea but lack the skills and experience to execute on it, but expect VCs to make their company work for them. It doesn’t work that way. VCs want to see a highly functioning team first, proof of a viable business second, and the idea is a distant third. The OP has an idea but not a team or proof of viable business.
Regular-Active-9877@reddit
Thanks for your reply. Everything that you're saying makes sense and fits within what I've heard anecdotally.
I wasn't really trying to challenge the general premise, though I was/am curious about how this plays out within different industries.
In e-commerce, for example, it makes sense that you need a proven viable product (i.e. real paying customers) before VCs would take an interest.
However, in high-stakes industries (e.g. medical, security) I don't imagine it works like this. The customers in these industries will not sign up for your MVP.
Similarly, scientific fields that may involve lucrative patents must have a very different investment model.
valence_engineer@reddit
The VC eco-system is a lot less friendly than it was two years ago. Interests are are above 0, a lot of IPOs didn't happen (thus LPs didn't get their money yet), there's a presidential election in a month and what happens with AI is a coin flip. It's very hard to get VC money nowadays unless you have a year+ long relationship the the VC in question or you have revenue (or at least letters of intent). Not impossible but very very hard.
mamaBiskothu@reddit
I bet OP ignored every person who tried to give constructive or honest criticism about their idea or venture. I know I have been whenever some kid who thinks they’re hotshot because they got a google job fresh out of college is the next Zuckerberg pitches such an idea.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
I doubt it. Entrepreneurship is weird because nearly everyone you talk to in person defaults to being super nice, excited for you, and flattering. They’ll tell you what a great idea it is, how cool it is that you’re building something, and say cliched things like “remember me when you’re a billionaire!”
It’s just how people encourage other people. It’s easy to mistake it for validation of the startup. The only real validation is getting sales, though.
Trollzore@reddit
This is not true. I have a few friends who were thrown money at them from YC just because they had an idea and a pitch. They invest in people for their background in the field on problems they’re interested in solving. That’s all I know.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
That would be a seed-stage accelerator, not a VC firm investment. It sounds pedantic but it's a big difference.
Also, YC invests primarily in teams first, ideas/pitches second. They want to see high performing teams apply. They also famously shy away from solo founders like the OP.
geekhaus@reddit
Yup. Currently at FAANG as SRE Sr Mgr. Have been first engineering leadership hire at 2 companies with exits. The typical SWE engineer scope at a a FAANG company IS wayyy more narrowly focused than at a five, 15 or 150 person company.
myevillaugh@reddit
A few VCs have told me they will never take cold calls. They view the ability to network and get a warm introduction as an important skill. One even said emailing them through their public contact email got you put on their blacklist. Maybe go to some alumni events. I used to meet them through places like General Assembly and other incubators.
If you have an MVP, you need to get customers. I suggest getting a cofounder who can sell. You need to show traction or VCs won't be interested in investing after the meeting.
QuitEnvironmental585@reddit
Why even have a public contact email then tho
myevillaugh@reddit
To be assholes and make sure only the right kind of people get funded.
transcendingtravel@reddit
Ah, the struggle is real! It's not just about having a killer MVP or FAANG on your resume. It's pipeline building too! You should network strategically. Consider attending startup events or joining founder communities where VCs often hang out. Maybe you could try offering your expertise in forums as a way to start convos.
Get smart about using tools too to get a leg up and automate things—a little bit can help streamline the process. For example, start with ChatGPT to draft those cold-email intros. It's decent but not game-changing. Or Regie.ai / Lavender.ai is another one. I've found PersonalizeThat slightly better for crafting cold emails since it adds that personalized touch, considering it researches your prospects - and the emails are super authentic too. Use Crunchbase. All of this research might just help you break the ice with those VCs. Good luck!
kaflarlalar@reddit
Do you have a co-founder? This is one of the big reasons that non-technical co-founders even exist.
FactorResponsible609@reddit
How to find a non technical cofounder for a technical founder? Specially a one who has network and influence. Angel list and all exist but it’s not worth while to take such risks just because of the bragged profile.
While actively working with one, one might be surprised with the working culture / ethics of the other founder? How does founders go on trials, is it even a thing? How do you split the equity?
Adept_Carpet@reddit
If you don't have the network to pull in an investor or a cofounder that you would trust with your children's future who has a great fund raising network you just aren't in a great position to launch a startup.
Stuff like a good idea, the right work experience, an MVP, etc is as important as the right pair of boots is to climbing Mt Everest. It's good to have the right pair of boots, you probably need to have the right pair of boots, but it's not the really valuable thing (in business as in mountain climbing, what matters is having the right people with you and supporting you with lots and lots of money).
NormalUserThirty@reddit
im not ex-faang but one option is to win start up competitions. gives exposure plus $20k to $50k.
WhichCause@reddit
Try
As you mentioned, you tick quite a few of the boxes, so: good luck!
Tuxedotux83@reddit
I find it really interesting that people who worked for FAANG are special or something, it’s just a myth.. it goes away quick once you realize it. The only thing I see as an advantage if you have worked for FAANG long enough and at a Senior enough Position is your professional network which light be able to introduce you to really good co-founders or other „founders“ that might be interested in checking out your product (if it’s B2B), other than that it’s just like anybody else
upsidedownshaggy@reddit
It's probably the same reasoning as people who go to prestigious universities/colleges and join frats/sororities. It creates an easily identifiable thing used to relate to other people.
Like if two people come to you with a tech related business idea and the only things you know about them are person A) worked at Google for 5 years, and person B) worked as a shift manager at Wal-mart for 5 years, but both have the same product idea most people will give the ex-Googler a shot because of the prestige of working in FAANG.
teslas_love_pigeon@reddit
Not really a fair comparison, at least have the people in this hypothetical google suckfest work in the same industry.
upsidedownshaggy@reddit
No. The guy mentioned gas station workers. Sure they can make it big, but you’re lying to yourself if you think being an ex-FAANG dev doesn’t give you advantages in the business world as a founder vs a gas station employee
teslas_love_pigeon@reddit
Once again use the same industry dude. Compare a normal software engineer with your chad fuckster google dev.
Tuxedotux83@reddit
Depends if you refer to top notch Unis or really prestigious where your family must have connections for you to be admitted - at the latter you make friendships that are much more elaborate than at FAANG.both are good for connections at the right places just different levels
daddyKrugman@reddit
It’s about forming connections, FAANGs do make it easier, especially if you’re in Bay-Area/Seattle
It’s not uncommon to get invited to founder groups, or meetings. Believe me a FAANG senior engineer would a significantly easier time making the connection jump to a VC than a Home Depot senior engineer.
VCs have these biases too, there’s a reason so many bullshit startups end up with hundreds of millions in funding by ex-google/apple/meta employees.
Camel_Sensitive@reddit
This is true if you're a non-technical cofounder, in which case most of your resume is going to be bs regardless. Anyone can develop contacts through any walk of life, including gas station attendants.
Technical cofounders, on the other hand, can gain skills at FAANG and FAANG adjacents that literally don't exist anywhere else, because those companies need to solve problems that nobody else actually has. The vast majority of ex-faang doesn't fall into this category, and your average tech-bro definitely can't tell the difference between those that do and those that don't. but it's the driving reason why having big software driven company x or y is a big deal.
Scarface74@reddit
And a startup doesn’t have to work at the scale of BigTech and unless you are the one who actually built the underlying base level of services, you aren’t building at scale. You’re taking advantage of components and building on top of proven scalable technology.
For instance the team who built the Elastic Kubernetes Service - AWS’s version of Kubernetes, never had to worry about “building at scale”. They built on top of pre-existing scalable components.
I can name plenty of other services that worked similarly.
Potato-Engineer@reddit
At the same time, a FAANG is a big-enough company that a developer will have a smaller breadth of experience. In a small company, you'll wear more hats.
Working at a FAANG does mean that you got past a FAANG interview, though, so you beat out a lot of other really qualified applicants -- so you're something special, but more because you got in than because of what you did there.
It's a mixed bag, but it definitely looks good on your resume.
PPewt@reddit
However, one of the "nobody elses" who don't have or care about those problems is the startup they're trying to found.
boboman911@reddit
We are though. The quality of engineering and bizops is a whole different caliber compared to any other company.
MassiveStallion@reddit
You need a sales guy who knows the VC founders personally, or with a track record of finding VCs. An engineer trying to sell to a VC is like a salesman trying to code. It's not going to work.
Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg...these were all sales guys. They had some basic coding skills but once they hit 100k do you think they spent most of their day coding? No. All of them hired engineer teams that did most of the work as soon as they had the money.
JazzCompose@reddit
You need a very well written business, product, technology, marketing, and sales plan in addition to a very compelling and concise pitch deck.
Then drive to Palo Alto and knock on VC doors.
VCs like founders who have successfully started and run firms in the past, so if they like your idea they will put in people they know and trust with a good track record.
It can be done, but it is not easy. Knowing well connected people can help.
sieabah@reddit
For the love of god stop talking about being ex-faang. Is your claim to fame how many LC’s you’re able to solve? You clearly didn’t succeed high enough at an alphabet soup company to be offered enough equity to be able to bootstrap your own idea.
That sentiment alone should solidify how a VC views you and your team. You’re riding on the hype of teamblind and chasing TC. If you won’t find the cash to fund yourself why should anyone else put the work in to pay for your experiment? This isn’t the same economy from 6 years ago where VCs are funding terrible juice pressing keurig knockoffs.
Rain-And-Coffee@reddit
Yeah you and everyone else bud.
Bootstrap your product, get 100k users then think about the next step.
Scarface74@reddit
This amazes me about the OP.
“I have this great idea for a product. But I have no idea how to sell it to make money. Why isn’t any investor interested in me?”
teslas_love_pigeon@reddit
ex-FAANG just ain't what it use to be.
mamaBiskothu@reddit
Post 2010 it never was. Just a bunch of kids who sincerely believe they’re Albert Einstein because they got a faang job and the insane paychecks.
nickchomey@reddit
Im a nobody with a sliver of your experience, but it seems like you ought to at least *try* bootstrapping. Sell it to that customer today, get good feedback, get some more customers, hire someone for marketing or whatever etc... At that point:
1) VCs would be much more interested because you have actual sales, rather than imaginary ones
2) you might not even need the VC
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
I'm trying my best, but I'm getting stonewalled even getting conversations with potential clients all on my own, let alone closing deals. A big reason why I want to get a VC is to have them help make introductions.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
If you can't get customers, your business isn't viable in its current state.
VCs won't invest in a business that can't get customers. VC investment won't get customers for you.
I think there is something big missing from your business that you don't recognize yet. Until you solve that problem and get some real sales, trying to contact VCs is a waste of time.
Figure out the problem. Address it. Get customers. Show that growth to VCs and they'll take a look.
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
I can't exactly get customers if I can't even setup a meeting with them, it's a bit of a different story when a VC can actually set up introductions with other companies that they work with
delphinius81@reddit
VCs won't get you customers. A co-founder with marketing / sales experience will.
How are you going about trying to acquire customers? Cold email? Yeah thats getting ignored. Linkedin messages? Spam!
Are there conferences for this field? Other meet up events? Go there with your laptop and show people how things work.
VCs are not a replacement for a sales department.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
VC's reach is limited to a small number of portfolio companies.
Having been on both sides of those intros, let me tell you what happens: Portfolio CEO accepts your meeting request because it came from the VC and they want to keep the VC happy. You spend a lot of time preparing and talking to the portfolio CEO. Portfolio CEO nods along to be nice and then says something like "We don't have the budget for it this quarter but we'll be in touch". You both part ways.
Getting VC money is not a substitute for a sales strategy.
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
I genuinely appreciate the insight!
DuckDatum@reddit
This is rough because you haven’t given any details about your product. Can you not have self-guided user acquisition; a signup page? Use Google Ads, A|B test different channels for market fit. You can run an account for $1 a day I believe, so decide on a budget and a strategy. Track everything. Maybe your customers will sign themselves up.
ZestyData@reddit
If your product & sales pitch looked too good to pass up, they'd respond to you.
VC aren't going to get you meetings. VC get you funds, you get yourself the meetings.
valence_engineer@reddit
No it's not. They send an intro email. Everything else is on you and that's 95% of it. It's a multiplier on what you can do on your own. But a multiplier of 0 is still 0. Sales is hard.
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
Believe me, if I could get introductions, I would be happy as a clam, because that provides me with actionable information and feedback I can use
valence_engineer@reddit
Find what physical events your clients go to and go there. A lot. I mean daily if you can. Twice daily even. Do the same for VC events. The same for founder events. The latter two can be leveraged to get you intros to the former in their network.
Also, you almost certainly won't get real feedback from anyone who doesn't already have equity in your company. That's co-founders, advisors and VCs with signed term sheets. Everyone else will give you white lies to not burn a connection.
su_blood@reddit
My cousin is in VC, I don’t think VCs help you very much. You don’t need a VC, you need a co founder who specializes in sales
Scarface74@reddit
VCs literally have hundreds if not thousands of investments (YCombinator). They don’t work for you. They want to put money into a business model they see as successful and accelerate it.
Algorhythmicall@reddit
VCs may help where they can, but generally speaking they expect you to get customers. What’s your GTM strategy? You don’t have one yet, and to be frank, that is the hard part here. If you know your market, you should know who uses your competitors stuff. Find a way to pitch one of those customers. Then keep doing that. There is no way around this.
The first things VCs are going to ask is what is your go to market strategy. Figure that out first, and test it, and iterate. Welcome to the grind.
freefoodisgood@reddit
Not ex-FAANG and not a founder, but I have over a decade of startup CTO experience, have been the technical leader for a company from $50k/preseed ARR to $100mm ARR/series C, and do startup advising on the side (currently working for an investment studio advising pre-seed companies).
The general sentiments you're getting from the comments are correct in my experience.
Ex-FAANG means little for a technical co-founder unless you were a key player in the same area your startup is focused on, thus bringing relevant knowledge. Some of the companies I've advised have ex-FAANG CTOs and while they're brilliant, they've never dealt with the challenges of scaling an engineering/product team or selling to customers. Not saying ex-FAANG is bad, but it's certainly not an advantage.
VCs won't talk to you until you have traction and revenue. Likely in the 10s or 100s of thousands in ARR. The typical path I've seen for funding is bootstrapped/angel -> accelerator/seed -> VC. The idea is that each level of funding unlocks the door to the next one. Your angel investors help you build and may set you up for a seed. Your seed investors introduce you to your Series A VCs. Series A VCs bring in a larger VC for your Series B, who then helps you get acquired by some strategic partner or PE.
You seem to think that VCs will intro you to customers, but that just isn't the case. VCs expect you to bring in the customers. At best someone at the VC firm will have a connection inside a potential company you want to sell into, but the number of these opportunities is small.
From what I can tell your main problem is selling, and you won't get anywhere with your product if you can't sell it. You need to be able to sign several customers, both big and small, to show traction before anyone will take you seriously. If your product is truly one worth building and investing in, then you should consider adding a business focused co-founder. Someone whose job it is to cold call customers all day, go to industry conferences, do demos, play the social media game, etc.
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
Genuinely appreciate the time you took to answer this question! Do you mind if I DM you?
freefoodisgood@reddit
Sure
Scarface74@reddit
FAANG experience is almost completely the opposite of what I would look for from a startup founder.
Mountain_Sandwich126@reddit
Harsh haha, but fair
Scarface74@reddit
FWIW: my opinion comes from working with even “senior SDEs” on the various service teams when I was working at AWS in ProServe (full time client facing positions). I trusted an L4 former intern I mentored though their internship and first project they had when they came back to understand the “business side” than I did putting an SDE in front of the client
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
You don’t sound very professional talking like that. The last sentence doesn’t even make any sense.
Scarface74@reddit
Again I’m not on Reddit to coddle someone who doesn’t understand why they can’t get funding when they admit they have no go to market strategy or experience
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
And again, you’re just being an asshole and you’re not helping at all. You can sit this out and nobody would be able to tell the difference. You have contributed a net negative.
Scarface74@reddit
Sometimes the best “help” is to set realistic expectations. Would you rather me coddle the original poster? He is in way over his head and is completely clueless - he needs sales, customer facing experiencing etc. He is trying to jump to step four and think he is entitled to money and investor attention just because he has “worked for a FAANG”
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
You’re still being useless. Help an entrepreneur if you can. Don’t make a list of everything they need because that doesn’t help anyone. Help with tactics that you know work or sit it out.
I don’t believe you know any tactics so you can’t. But stop hijacking a person with a dream who needs some help.
Scarface74@reddit
He isn’t an “entrepreneur”. He has no business strategy. No go to market strategy and no customers.
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
Good for you - you’re still being an asshole. Does it make you feel superior?
Scarface74@reddit
Okay, what do you think his pitch deck is going to look like with no customer, no go to market strategy, etc?
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
They haven’t asked about how to build their deck. When they do, hopefully they find some experienced people who like to help.
I’m not sure if you’ve been following along, but there is no particular rule that suggests that founders have to know business at the pre-seed stage. If there was, teams of MBAs would get funded but they don’t. Instead, it’s teams of developers with good backgrounds.
OP just needs some help getting there. I think they deserve it because they’re a developer just like me. And I want what’s best for every member of my tribe.
Scarface74@reddit
You have to have contents for a deck. The deck defines the strategy, the challenges the opportunities etc.
It’s a forcing function. When he does talk to VCs and he can’t answer these questions, what do you think is going to happen? “Teams of developers” don’t get funding these days without being able to talk about how it’s going to make them money.
“Development” is just an implementation detail. I worked for a company three companies ago that was founded by two non technical brothers who outsourced development to another company.
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
And for the last time, you could help instead of bitching and moaning. You’re incapable of that and so now I’m going to block you because entertaining you is a waste of everyone’s time.
Scarface74@reddit
And you won’t admit that sometimes people need to hear the truth. It’s laughable and insult to actual entrepreneurs with a business strategy that you would call him one
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
Let me help with your English:
“And you won’t admit that sometimes people need to hear the truth. Calling him an entrepreneur is laughable and AN insult to actual entrepreneurs with a business strategy.”
Do you need anything else?
Scarface74@reddit
Internet rule 101: once you start correcting someone’s grammar that means you have already lost the plot.
While I might have missed an “an”, at least I know what an entrepreneur is…
eb-al@reddit
😂 was thinking the same. If you need to flash your salary card to make a point, you’re not making much of it
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
I’m confused. Would you mind answering a couple of questions for me?
Your first paragraph sounds like you’re in a seed stage. Why are you contacting VC firms as opposed to angel investors who write cheques in your sector?
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
I need the latter- I can bootstrap the cloud expenses (there's not much) but I get the impression (and it's hard to tell what the reason may be when the people I cold-email don't reply back) that people aren't willing to engage with a random person they don't know and can't vouch for.
Scarface74@reddit
Do you have any startup experience?
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
I've worked at a startup after leaving FAANG, but I didn't work on the business side. I learned a lot at my startup when it comes to building quickly and across multiple domains, but it hasn't really done much when it comes to the sales side
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
Scarface isn’t helping you mate. They’re the kind of distraction that you need to learn to ignore. It’s obvious that you need a lot of help, but spend your time on people who give solutions or on building your solution. Anything else is a waste of your founder time.
Scarface74@reddit
Yeah that’s kind of an issue don’t you think? Technology is an implementation detail. The hard work is getting people to pay more for your product than it costs to produce. That’s the entire idea behind being in business.
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
They certainly have more experience and a better attitude than you. Please leave this to the adults.
Scarface74@reddit
Sorry I’m not here to coddle anyone with platitudes. I assure you I have more startup experience and even experience talking to VCs than the original poster.
I was trotted out in front of investors over 15 years ago as the person who could talk tech in a way they cared about to get another round of funding which ultimately turned into an acquisition.
We got acquired for scraps. But at least we all ended up with three months of severance and I ended up negotiating a contract between the acquirer and one of their major customers to allow me to use the software I created to contract with the customer
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
Okay, so you failed and have a chip on your shoulder. That makes sense. But your contributions have still been a net negative and you could sit this one out. You haven’t been even remotely helpful.
Scarface74@reddit
I didn’t “fail” at all. It was my third job out of now 10 and around 10% of my working career and yet another means to exchange labor for money to support my addiction to food and shelter. It was no different than the other startups I worked for, the then F10 company I worked for next or the FAANG I worked for two jobs ago.
They all were a means to keep me from being homeless, hungry and naked.
Ok-Mission-406@reddit
Well, that’s how venture capital works too. You’re a stranger with a decent resume who can’t hustle your way to a warm introduction. That doesn’t make you look like the kind of founder who could hustle enough to return 20x on capital. Add in that you’re too early to even consider most VC firms and I’m not surprised you’re not getting replies.
You’ll still need your network for this but step down a stage. Find angel investors who have written cheques in the last 12 months and get warm introductions to them. A warm introduction can be as simple as:
“to: jimbob@somedomain.tld, fuckface@somedomain.tld
Jim-Bob,
Meet Fuckface. I worked with Fuckface at Goometsoft. She has an idea, I think it’s a good fit and I know she would do great things with some of your advice.
Take care,
Shithead”
toastytables@reddit
Set your LinkedIn description to “Stealth Founder” and wait
toastytables@reddit
Also read https://www.venturedeals.com/ so you don’t get fleeced
767b16d1-6d7e-4b12@reddit
I’ve met VCs hungry to invest by just going to networking events. I hate networking events in general, but you can get some value out of them
Gnaskefar@reddit
Go on Youtube and watch some videos on how the seed and startup world actually works in Silicon Valley, what order what happens and how.
You sound like you have absolutely no idea about the business part. Which I guess is a classic in this field, so you need educate yourself, and most likely find another person to get in the company with that skillset. But you still need a basic understanding of it.
Also I don't understand if you have an idea, or a product you could sell to a customer today.
Clucker10@reddit (OP)
I have a product that I can sell to a customer.
Scarface74@reddit
Has a customer actually given you money for your product? If not you can’t sell it to a customer nor do you know if a customer is actually willing to give you money for it.
Gnaskefar@reddit
Aight, but it sounded like you had just an idea.
Anyway, best of luck with it. You need an alliance with a business minded person who can sell it, and who knows how to play the startup game.
BraindeadCelery@reddit
VC is incredibly relationship driven. When you cold email pre-revenue, it's almost destined to fail.
The best way to attract VC is ironically to not need it. I.e. sell your product such that you could in principle bootstrap. Then VC money is an engine to hire either sales folks to sell more or engineers to build better product.
But you raise on good numbers. Good numbers are income >>> Pilots > Letters of intent.
Or apply to any of the Accelerators like YC, AngelPad ... they take early teams, provide coaching and have network to VC and warm intros. Often they also invest a pre-seed round.
That is the last way. If you know any possible angel investors that can buy into your company and have relations to VCs this could be a way too. But it's risky because essentially you dilute without guaranteed upside.
AutonomicAngel@reddit
you got competitors? cold-call their sales people and ask them if they're looking to jump ship for a better opportunity. be exceptionally clear IMMEDIATELY thereafter (in the exact same breath) that under no circumstances are you soliciting for them to bring over their existing clientelle or book of business - and that you will immediately fire them and refer them to their existing company if they do. and record the conversation. and have your lawyer sitting in on the conversation. then listen to what they have to say.
do it enough times, you'll get somebody who isn't getting paid enough or advanced enough who is capable, and willing to do exactly what you need. they'll know the industry, the players etc.
eb-al@reddit
I don’t believe being an ex FAANG will work in your side, if that does, perhaps you should be asking in your internal chat?
Could even do harm, such as higher opportunity cost in the eyes of investor
theavatare@reddit
Start by looking at linked in and seeing who know people in venture capital make a list and talk to them. If that doesn't work look for a non technical cofounder in your space with connection to the capital you are looking for.
p_tk_d@reddit
Hey OP, feel free to DM me — for me it was just connections. I’m in Silicon Valley and went to a very well known CS school and so have lots of 2nd degree VC connections.
I’d look for friends who went to good business schools and leverage them. Once you meet one VC they are actually usually pretty open about introing you to others
valence_engineer@reddit
First of all, it's a terrible market to get VC money right now. The investors are cautious for various reasons and there's a ton of startups for various reasons.
Second of all, to be blunt, you are just another joe off the street. You were an engineer at a FAANG. So were 100k other people. You weren't a director (ie: can scale to 100+ reports), you weren't someone who made connections (ie: can get sales), you weren't a startup (ie: you know how to do this) and you didn't build a startup previously (ie: you have a track record).
The people getting VC money right now either hustle a lot or have a strong set of connections. Usually both. You should be going to 1 or 2 VC filled events per day. If you're not in SF (or maybe NY) then you should go there for 1-2 months so you can go to 1-2 VC filled events per day. They're pinging every single person on LinkedIn with a VC in their network to make an intro. No matter how little they know that person. The same holds true to getting customers. Go to events, connect with people, leverage your network, etc. The other thing is that events filled with VCs are also filed with founders. That's your network right there. They can refer you to VCs and clients. But you need to realize you aren't hot shit because if you act like it then no one will refer you to anyone.
Soccham@reddit
The only two start ups that I personally know of that have gotten funding lately were basically people who were already wealthy.
One had a cofounder with a successful multi-hundred million dollar exit and the other had two co-founders that were extremely wealthy and connected already.
This isn't 2020 anymore
valence_engineer@reddit
Yeah, you might get funding if you're the type of person who'd be on a phone call with investors and clients while literally in labor for the birth of your first child. Very few people are like that.
Cheap-Upstairs-9946@reddit
You should work for a startup before starting one.
DuffyBravo@reddit
The market and VCs could care less if you worked for a FAANG or not. Take your MVP and actually start to acquire real paying customers. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Until you actually prove growth/sales no one is going to give you a dime. The only way it doesn't work like that is if you have a VERY rich network (family/friends/etc) that are willing to throw you money JUST based on your idea.
SnooPeanuts8498@reddit
Then sell the product to a customer. Sell it to lots of them. If you're already making revenue, then the VCs will come to you.
The VC environment today is a lot different from what it was a year ago, when they were willing to write $500k to $1M checks to dozens to find that 1 unicorn. When the feds raised their interest rates, investors tightened their wallets and the bar to get investment was either they had to know you were already successful (i.e. a past exit that made investors a 10X return) or you have paying customers on your platform already.
zoddrick@reddit
There are sites that help link you with vc funding but crunchbase is probably the most popular. Depending on where you are you could also search around LinkedIn to find people who work at VC firms to try and set up a meeting with.