After a 45-minute panel of Boston venture capitalists and entrepreneurs was over Tuesday, the impression was that the panelists had lots more they wanted to say—especially after seeing PowerPoint slides that showed some of the topics the panelists disagreed on. Among them: Boston doesn't have enough VCs (the entrepreneurs agreed) and Boston doesn't have enough entrepreneurs (the VCs agreed).
Moderated by the Globe's Scott Kirsner, the panel featured three well-known Boston VCs—Rudina Seseri of Fairhaven, Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge and Rob Go of NextView—along with two of the city's up-and-coming entrepreneurs, Nick Rellas of Drizly and Anna Palmer of Fashion Project.
While the issues they tackled were wide-ranging, a few themes emerged.
Social media hasn't done anything to reduce the importance of connecting in person
Social sites are a decent starting point for an entrepreneur that's looking to connect with a VC, but they're a bad way to get introduced, Bussgang said. Palmer said the old-fashioned approach of stalking a VC at events remains more effective. Go recounted that the co-founder of GrabCAD, Hardi Meybaum, arrived in Boston a few years ago and showed "an ability to quickly build social credibility" that became a huge asset.
You can't over-emphasize the importance of fostering more women and minority entrepreneurs
Seseri said that a "conscientious effort" needs to be made to increase diversity among funded entrepreneurs; she, for instance, seeks to ensure that 50 percent of the founders in her portfolio are women. "We as VCs are leaving money on the table on our returns if we're only looking at a certain percentage of the population," she said.
.@rudina11: as VCs we are only hurting ourselves and our LPs if we're not including women and minorities in our portfolios #BOSSOI
— Kyle Alspach (@KyleAlspach) June 16, 2015
Entrepreneurs really don't like being strung along by VCs
Palmer and Rellas both said that VCs who say no after a long process are a major frustration. "The 'slow no' is definitely painful," Palmer said. The entrepreneurs also questioned the value of providing financial forecasts to VCs for years down the road.
Bubbles, unicorns and the VC-entrepreneur balance of power
• Bubble: probably
.@ScottKirsner to @rudina11: you're declaring a bubble? @rudina11: "I think valuations are pretty high" #BOSSOI
— Kyle Alspach (@KyleAlspach) June 16, 2015• Unicorns: not enough in Boston
.@bussgang: I'm as big of a Boston cheerleader as anyone, but little bit sad to only see 3 unicorns in Boston #BOSSOI
— Kyle Alspach (@KyleAlspach) June 16, 2015
• VC-entrepreneur power balance: shifting toward entrepreneurs
.@robgo: VCs are proactively reaching out more aggressively than they used to— supply-demand balance has shifted #BOSSOI
— Kyle Alspach (@KyleAlspach) June 16, 2015
