Being a Startup Investor is not easy, it never was and never will be !
Whether one is a GP or a CIO or VP or Principal or Analyst with a VC or Family Office or with an Investment firm or a Corporate there will always be some or all of the following things one will be dealing with all the time :
a) Under-subscribed funds - and hence figuring out the need to cast a wider net for LPs and building a solid track record
b) Deployment Pressure - and hence the herculean task of unearthing gems, securing a seat in Captable of the promising ones and most importantly not succumb to the complacency and smugness of - we-have-huge-deal-flow so need to go connecting with other co-investors and Networking portals like The Great Unicorn Hunt - this was a good plug and the non-existent pun was intentional :)
C) Driving Growth and Exits : VCs hate portfolios that only look awesome notionally but LPs hate that even more. This calls for working closely with founders and helping them relieve a bit of burden of growth and exits by driving the introductions and easing the demands on their bandwidth.
This could mean large teams to Network to attend events, invest a lot of time in commuting to events to increase the rolodex but thats still limited to radius of your city. How does one continue to rely on people you know but at the same time aggressively build the network to three or four times the people you currently know- without wasting too much time searching for the needle in the proverbial haystack where you are spending hours attending events, sitting in traffic just to wave, show up basically destroying your ROI on time spent.
Well you could two things , one is look for haystack that is relatively smaller, highly concentrated ( yes like The Great Unicorn Hunt) and hunt in places where the Needles are equally keen and looking for you !
This is where Pyjama Networking comes in. You could actually wave, connect, do an Elevator Talk, Request for an email or phone number from the comforts of your Pyjama simply by accessing your Networking Suite
Pre-requistes :
1. You need to have a complete profile on The Great Unicorn Hunt with a professional pic , Bio once you have chosen a role that best describes you. Remember your profile is not made Active and displayed on the portal unless there is a professional Pic, a Bio.
2. You should have the time to invest atleast an hour every week to send Elevator Talk, send a Wave, Request email ID and ofcourse reply to folks who have expressed the desire to connect with you.
3. You should respect the community and interact and show patience since contrary to what Mr. Rumi says, not everybody you are seeking may be seeking you !
Join The Great Unicorn Hunt if you have not joined and if you have, Welcome Aboard !