The AI Gold Rush and the Erosion of the Founder/Investor Relationship
Jake Crowley of Crowley-Capital spoke at our Online Investor Insights last week and focused, in part, on how transactional the investment process has become. It wasn’t all that long ago that, when when he was our investor guest at the event, David Arcara of Laconia Capital , asked, “How often do you hear that getting into bed with an investor is like a marriage? It’s not. If a marriage goes south, you can get a divorce. When you get into bed with an investor, there is no divorce. You are stuck with that investor for the life of your company.” He advised that founders get to know the investors before signing on the dotted line, and to do due diligence on them as well.
”When you meet a founder for the first time and they tell you they want a term sheet by Friday, I always respond with, “Really? Aren’t you at least mildly curious if I’m a complete A-hole or not?” commented Tom Lazay in a LinkedIn piece.
Times have changed and on the heels of Jake’s remarks, Micah Rosenbloom of Founder Collective made the same observation and offered his insights in LinkedIn post, commenting that “VC used to be a marriage between an investor and a founder. Now, for some, it’s a series of one-night stands;-)