The article explains why the VC doesn't want to give the referral, but it doesn't explain how it can hurt me to ask. If you have ever sold something, you know, you have to ask a lot of unlikely people for help before you get any.
Well, it'll hurt your future relationship (should there be one) with the VC, which could be detrimental further down the line if they remember you. Plus, if every VC behaves like this, it'll hurt you because nobody will ever refer you and therefore you waste the few seconds you spent typing out the question.
I can see this from both sides. We are trained as entrepreneurs to ask, ask, ask. If they say no, ask them who might say yes. But if they say no because they're a biotech late-stage VC, and you're after social-web angel funding, so they read your first two sentences and then turned off - what value does a referral really have?
It all comes down to doing your homework, IMO. If someone who should be interested declines, they can probably help you. If you're mass mailing every VC in Silicon Valley and asking for introductions from those who bother to reply to your poorly-targeted pitch, well, you've got a bigger problem than a VC writing a blog post about you.
Well, it'll hurt your future relationship (should there be one) with the VC, which could be detrimental further down the line if they remember you.
Rejection's just a matter of business, but if he refuses to refer you and doesn't have a good reason (e.g. "everyone in my network is interested in biotech, and you're a web startup") he already thinks you're a loser and beneath consideration. At this point, getting his panties in a jam by asking a question he'll find annoying is a (small) benefit.
I agree 100%. His response doesn't make sense from the entrepreneur's perspective. Using his strategy, no one would ever make cold calls because they are annoying to the recipient. But the bottom line is they work enough time to make it worth the effort. In this case there is no downside to the asker. I have no idea if asking for such a referral would ever work but it seems to me this is a good example of nothing ventured nothing gained.
Of course there's a downside to the asker - the VC might actually make the referral. "Hi, I passed on this guy but you might want to take a look at him" is not how you want to go into a first meeting with an investor.
Worse: they could say yes, but poison the referral, ruining your chances with someone that (if you had gotten a different referral) would have invested.
I don't suppose that this effect is large, but it might be noticeable.
Don't think anyone would poison a referral? If someone wasn't impressed by you, they might agree to the referral anyway -- perhaps thinking they are being nice -- but when they tell the third party about you, they say "yeah, this guy didn't impress me, but I promised him I would refer him to you."
Comments
The article explains why the VC doesn't want to give the referral, but it doesn't explain how it can hurt me to ask. If you have ever sold something, you know, you have to ask a lot of unlikely people for help before you get any.
Well, it'll hurt your future relationship (should there be one) with the VC, which could be detrimental further down the line if they remember you. Plus, if every VC behaves like this, it'll hurt you because nobody will ever refer you and therefore you waste the few seconds you spent typing out the question.
I can see this from both sides. We are trained as entrepreneurs to ask, ask, ask. If they say no, ask them who might say yes. But if they say no because they're a biotech late-stage VC, and you're after social-web angel funding, so they read your first two sentences and then turned off - what value does a referral really have?
It all comes down to doing your homework, IMO. If someone who should be interested declines, they can probably help you. If you're mass mailing every VC in Silicon Valley and asking for introductions from those who bother to reply to your poorly-targeted pitch, well, you've got a bigger problem than a VC writing a blog post about you.
Well, it'll hurt your future relationship (should there be one) with the VC, which could be detrimental further down the line if they remember you.
Rejection's just a matter of business, but if he refuses to refer you and doesn't have a good reason (e.g. "everyone in my network is interested in biotech, and you're a web startup") he already thinks you're a loser and beneath consideration. At this point, getting his panties in a jam by asking a question he'll find annoying is a (small) benefit.
I agree 100%. His response doesn't make sense from the entrepreneur's perspective. Using his strategy, no one would ever make cold calls because they are annoying to the recipient. But the bottom line is they work enough time to make it worth the effort. In this case there is no downside to the asker. I have no idea if asking for such a referral would ever work but it seems to me this is a good example of nothing ventured nothing gained.
Of course there's a downside to the asker - the VC might actually make the referral. "Hi, I passed on this guy but you might want to take a look at him" is not how you want to go into a first meeting with an investor.
You are exactly right. There is no harm in asking. What's the worse that can happen, they say no?
Worse: they could say yes, but poison the referral, ruining your chances with someone that (if you had gotten a different referral) would have invested.
I don't suppose that this effect is large, but it might be noticeable.
Don't think anyone would poison a referral? If someone wasn't impressed by you, they might agree to the referral anyway -- perhaps thinking they are being nice -- but when they tell the third party about you, they say "yeah, this guy didn't impress me, but I promised him I would refer him to you."