Associates love it, Partners kill it
by Aner & Gil

Here’s one underrated glass ceiling I am sure many of you hit at least once. You come up with a great idea. You build a great offering with all the right ingredients – valuable, viral, economic, technically cunning, innovative, inspiring. You assemble the right core team and put together a proof of concept prototype. Proud yet in dire need for funds, you begin your VC tour which seems to be going phenomenally well. Or so it seems. The associates’ eyes are glowing but the partners’ smiles are a bit nervous (or so you think but quickly suppress). You then receive a bunch of follow-up homework assignments with a clear target of buying time. When it comes to getting the right partners on board – you wait forever, or until you run out of money or drive, whichever comes first. What is it that makes that glass ceiling? The “associates love it but the partners kill it”, impossible to break ceiling?Does it mean the product is bad? Cool but without economic sense? Too early for it’s time? Too risky? Does it mean the team is not enough of a “major league” one? Here are a few options:

Remember, Its just another horse race:
The so-called-truth is that the partners are accountable and have a lot to lose by betting on the wrong horse. Since most horses are wrong horses, the more eccentric you go the tougher it is for you to explain. Herewith is the dilemma and challenge. To succeed you must be unique while positioning your service / technology as a strong and familiar horse. The wider you deviate the more safety handles you need to provide the VC to make the partner feel this play is safe and logical. Unfortunately the V in the VC is much less dominant then the C.

Face it - the grey hair factor works:
An opposite view is that experience is the most substantial factor (“What the associates haven’t learned the partners have already forgotten”). Experience grants you that unexplainable sense of better quality decision making. If the partners didn’t like your super duper convergence, web 2.0, innovative and extremely viral product that’s guaranteed to reach at least 10 million users within 6 months, its not because they still use pigeons for mail or vapor engines for their. It is because they saw a lot of good and bad ideas and in retrospect can sense that there are too many holes in your story. They may simply not agree with your pitch and idea. Get back to the drawing board and come back when you’re ready.

VC’s need an org rehaul:
A different view claims that the venture industry needs to go through an organization change. The traditional vertical splits (“Internet”, “Mobile”, “Communication”, “) are in some cases obsolete. New, historically impossible connections between the mobile and the internet worlds are defining new spaces. The VC’s are not there yet, Most VC’s still split the territories the old school way If you built a convergence service that has interfaces between mobile and web including elements of communication or sharing, you might be in trouble. You better have some influential champion with you. The associates love you they just look at your service as users and think…viable – not viable, cool or uncool. The important question is whether you have a champion PARTNER that can take you all the way. If the answer is YES…your chances are higher. If NO – move on.
 

Viva le’ associates:
Truth be told we tend to lean towards the associates. We love Cinderella stories. The whole venture capital industry is Cinderella inspired. It would be refreshing to see more associates getting enough trust to follow through on their instincts. They are fresh, more updated and hungrier. We have met many that were simply very very smart. The industry would have been in much better shape if some great ideas that made it past the associates would have made it past the partners as well. The good news is that today’s associates are tomorrow’s partners. The bad news is that they will probably kill the associate’s innovative spirit once they are there. That’s the way life goes.

Aner & Gil
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