How to get a meeting with a VC

10/18/2012 2:20 PM EDT

Chuckles aside(!), I have to largely concur with the flow chart above!! I have not had to face navigating this flow chart since I prefer to be self-funded.

MP Divakar

10/19/2012 4:45 PM EDT

These days, you need to have decision diamonds of "are you in China?" and "are you actually building something?" as vectors out of the building, generally, if the answer is no. and yes, respectively.

10/21/2012 12:17 AM EDT

I have a sneaking suspicion that the VC selection process is more like a high school election/popularity contest than a disciplined process. It's been a few years since I've been in a VC meeting, but I doubt much has changed. There are a few genuinely thoughtful VC, but there also seem to be a lot that make funding decisions that really don't make much sense.

The thing i, though, that I don't think they'd have much better results if it really were about the numbers and probability of success. Once beyond a base level of competence, the type of person that can sell something, whether it be of value or not, to a consumer is likely to be able to sell that same thing to a VC.