Comments on: Saying No In Less Than 60 Seconds

By: Why Don’t Venture Capitalists Tell You Why They Won’t Invest? | Mendelson's Musings

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:53:06 +0000

[...] say “no” all the time. (My partner Brad talks about “saying no” in a great post here). In fact, I say no to over 90% of what I’m invited to invest in immediately. On top [...]

By: The idea’s great, but the leadership team stinks… | Satya Murthy

The idea’s great, but the leadership team stinks… | Satya Murthy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:14:23 +0000

[...] in the context of how you invest your time is one thing – fellow VC blogger Brad Feld did a good blog post on this topic in the context of time management a while ago as did Y-Combinator’s Paul [...]

By: The idea’s great, but the leadership team stinks… | UpOff.com

The idea’s great, but the leadership team stinks… | UpOff.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:55:22 +0000

By: Why to prepare yourself even if you don’t need to raise capital « SiliconVerse

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:27:58 +0000

[...] It actually prepares you ahead of time: Now that you have actually gone through mocking that you need to raise capital from VC, you are well prepared ahead of time( you never know). This would help you for your actual 5-15 minute session with the VC where he/she can figure out if this company has potential to go to next level ( they can actually figure it out sometime in 60 seconds). [...]

By: Angels: Be Upfront and Say No | Venture Hype

Angels: Be Upfront and Say No | Venture Hype — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:03:01 +0000

[...] Daily Startup: Batteries Are Included [2] Art of Saying No [3] Saying No in Less than 60 Seconds [4] How Should VCs Say No – When It’s The Team?Thanks for visiting. Please subscribe to [...]

By: peHUB » How Should VCs Say No, When It’s The Team?

peHUB » How Should VCs Say No, When It’s The Team? — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:56:56 +0000

[...] in the context of how you invest your time is one thing – fellow VC blogger Brad Feld did a good blog post on this topic in the context of time management a few weeks ago as did Y-Combinator’s Paul [...]

By: The Best VC Pitch Tip That I Stole | CloudAve

The Best VC Pitch Tip That I Stole | CloudAve — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:24:02 +0000

[...] that’s why there’s so many memes about how to best turn down entrepreneurs (see Fred Wilson and Brad Feld). It’s also why my philosophy is, “if most of the people that I see I’m going to need to turn [...]

By: The best VC pitch tip that I stole « Both Sides of the Table

The best VC pitch tip that I stole « Both Sides of the Table — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:54:16 +0000

[...] why there’s so many memes about how to best turn down entrepreneurs (see Fred Wilson and Brad Feld). It’s also why my philosophy is, “if most of the people that I see I’m going to [...]

By: Paramendra Bhagat

Paramendra Bhagat — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:27:14 +0000

Like Nancy Reagan said, Just Say No!

By: charlie crystle

charlie crystle — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:28:41 +0000

VCs are in the business of "No". 300 proposals, 10 investments a year, that's a lot of no's. All that to get to a few great Yes's, because most of them won't be great–just good, mediocre, or bad.

When I raised for Mission Research, I got strong along by a number of firms that didn't want to say no but weren't seriously considering investing. Drove me nuts. Wasted my time. Wasted their time.

blogged about it 4 years ago here: http://article24cc.blogspot.com/2005/06/vc-blow-o... tone is pretty annoyed…must have been a fundraising week

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:31:04 +0000

Good suggestion. No – I haven’t seen “YES man”. I’ll take that as a recommendation!

By: Valto

Valto — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:28:30 +0000

I agree with the post itself. I think what would help (but not easy to implement) would be to have some "my expectations" autoreply, to help with the incoming emails. Thinking of Google filters:

1. setup filter with keywords (you know what they are) to send autoreply or send manyally using template (what is expected) and then archive.

2. another autofilter to highlight those incoming that have done/structured it the way requested. It's the least they should do, if they really have respect for your time.

Would that be an overkill?

PSS. Have you seen the movie "YES man"

By: gorky

gorky — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:58:09 +0000

I noticed that no one mentioned the "yes that turned to no overnight" scenario. Goes something like, "Yeah, we are interested in coordinating something with you, someone will give you a call or e-mail this week." No calls or e-mails follow. When inquired about the delay, you get a surprised huh and the Shaggy line: "It wasnt me"

I would say that's quite rare, but it happened to me.. It wasnt part a VC pitch, but more in the realm of coordinating a multilateral cross-border transaction.

By: Finance Geek » Maximising productivity in venture capital

Finance Geek » Maximising productivity in venture capital — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:18:06 +0000

[...] Feld posted a couple of days ago about Saying No In Less Than 60 Seconds in which he talks about the 10-50 times a day he has to say no to deals and meeting requests, and [...]

By: Ben Barren - Confessions of a Mad Man » The Technology Sometimes, it doesn’t a work.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:42:07 +0000

[...] If there is one benefit of employment other than rent a crowd friends, centrally located offices, a suggested social life, long list of can-do acquaintances, and importantly a transfer of substantial funds at the same time every 14/28/31 days : It’s that they provide or should The Technology. Or Just Say No in Less than 60 Seconds like RSS/Glue VC Mogul Brad Feld. [...]