Why VCs say NO 99% of the time

And why we do too

(Note: Republished to highlight due to popularity)

Venture Capital investing is a very tough game...and very lucrative if you are good at it. Part of my job at Microsoft is working with VCs, so I have learned a lot about the way they think...and why they say No to 99% of the deals they see.

Fred Wilson has another great post today on Venture Fund Economics which I covered in my previous post. After posting that I remembered a blog post by Jeff Bussgang, of Flybridge Capital Partners. In it Jeff explains why VCs want to see every new startup...but say no 99% of the time.

"As one wise old VC once told me, "the trick in this business is to spend very little time on a lot of deals, and then a lot of time on very few deals."  In other words, see everything to be a better investor, but exert a very tough first filter so that you only spend time on very, very few deals.  In my experience, a typical VC has the bandwidth to actively "spend time" or actively work on only one to two deals at any given time and perhaps 10-20 in a year -- as compared to those 300-500 they get exposed to."

What are the odds? - VCs are exposed to about 500 opportunities a year. They spend time seriously looking at about 20 companies a year, and invest in two or three. So, they say no about 99% of the time.

We all say no 99% of the time - I would guess that every one of you reading this blog have a stock portfolio with 5 to 10 individual stocks or mutual funds. There are more than 5,000 publicly listed companies to choose from, and another 5,000 mutual funds. But, out of 10,000 possible companies you chose 10 to invest in. Why? Why did you reject the other 9,990 companies? Obviously there are more than 10 good companies to invest in. Other investors chose to invest their money in the other 9,990 companies...why not you?

We invest in people we know and companies we understand - We do this in our own personal investing, and VCs, with rare exceptions, do the same when they make decisions. We all say no 99% of the time, and we reject perfectly good companies, but we invest in things we feel comfortable with.

Find the right VC match - Don't be too quick to change your strategy or company pitch just because the first batch of VCs rejects it. It is all about finding the right VC that is interested in what you are doing and comfortable in the market space. Don't waste time trying to convince a reluctant VC. Move on and spend the time finding the right VC for you...that "gets it" the first time. There are at least 1,000 VCs in the USA. They all have different investment tastes...just like all of us do. Go for it!

(Note: This post was re-published to be featured on our front page of the newsroom.)