What Happens When a Venture Capitalist Googles YOU?

As a ghostwriter, I’ve been hired by several venture capitalists to become part of “The Team” to make a Founder/CEO market-ready. Without breaking any NDAs, or confidences, I wanted to explain the process behind this, as I’ve not seen it written about before and I want to be helpful.

My argument, essentially, boils down to this: if a Founder was more strategic about their personal / public presence earlier in the game, they could be further ahead when the time comes to go big (rather than flame out). Also, and I’m treading very carefully here, if a technology start-up team has already invested in their “myth” they’d have more control over the messaging and output as the IPO, or buy-out exit, approaches.?

The Meeting

Let’s start here. A Founder has a brilliant idea. They do a great deal of research in their prospective sector. Perhaps they’ve already recruited an equally brilliant future CTO, maybe even someone good with money - not that any of them have much right now. They’ve rented someone’s garage, spare room or splurged on a co-working space and, suddenly, through extensive networking they’ve snagged a meeting with a venture capital firm.?

The deck is ready, the one good suit is back from the dry cleaners, shoes polished, or conversationally-worthy sneakers removed from the perspex display box, and the team shows up at the appointed time. So far, so good.?

However, in my experience, rarely does a Founder think about the process from the VC firm’s perspective. Failing at the first hurdle because one has not viewed oneself from “The Money’s” POV is an absolute waste of time and effort.?

Behind the Scenes at the VC Firm

All those people sitting outside the conference rooms in VC firms? Those are the brains and many have PhDs from Caltech and MIT, so do use their academic titles with deference.?

Many of these staffers (or contractors, it’s hard to tell these days), have extraordinary encyclopedic minds and are multiple SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). They are the people who will be ascertaining whether you have a really good idea for a business, and whether there’s a sufficiently robust TAM (Total Addressable Market) for the aforementioned idea.??

Then there are those who are charged with finding out whether a Founder (and team) are a good bet. These researchers (and I’ve done this work, it’s akin to private investigator-style dossier creation) will look at EVERYTHING, scraping together a picture of who you are as a person.?

When I say everything, I mean everything. If you’re in the crypto game or looking to win tech contracts with government agencies at some point, they’ll often do Dark Web searches too. Just to check you’re not hanging with a nefarious crowd.

Unless you’ve got ahead of the game, the results might be patchy - or not pretty at all. You’re too new in the game to have hired a publicist to clean up your image (if tarnished) and it’ll cost you so much more later if that’s what they need to do first.?

The Solution

Take a long hard look at your publicly-available presence as if you were a detective examining evidence.?

Are you proud of everything you’ve said online? If not, remove it, pronto. How’s your bio? Still got irrelevant stuff from college there? Upgrade and polish. Said anything useful in the way of illustrating that you’re worth investing in? If not, start writing thought leadership pieces and getting them placed in credible locations. It’s unlikely you’ll have the budget for a ghostwriter, so consider collaborating with someone smart you kept in touch with from the English or Journalism department to hone your message and make it read well.?

Get a better headshot. You’re about to enter the big leagues. A power pose and a decent haircut go a long way to demonstrate confidence. Edit everything. Check there are no embarrassing party pics from homecoming lurking online. What you might have found amusing at 19 will come back to haunt you later in life.?

Everyone knows that start-up entrepreneurs are extraordinary people. They need to have a very high tolerance for risk, fear, unbelievable pressure and recovery-from-failure. To be able to steady the ship, but also whip up a crowd of employees into excitement so they continue to support the dream. But when powerful people - institutional investors and wealthy individuals - put their money into a fund, they expect the venture capitalists to manage it well and provide a return (eventually).?

Previously, with the old guard of VC firms, who-you-knew got you in the door. But that’s changing. With the announcement this week that sports champion Serena Williams is committing full-time to Serena Ventures, her investment firm, the VC playing field is expanding - and getting really interesting. Without a reliance on old-school-tie networks, there will be much deeper research into a prospective’s public / private presence to ensure they’re worthy of capital-and-time based support.

There are some Founders who make it look as if they woke up looking hip, slick and cool, with seemingly off-the-cuff remarks demonstrating their independent minds. But, with the benefit of age comes experience, and I saw some of these people in their early days - believe me, they weren’t so polished back then. At a crucial juncture, somewhere between Series A and the first Exit, their investors drafted in a “Team” of professionals to overhaul their protégé and get them ready for the limelight. It’s a deeply impressive behind-the-scenes operation.?

If you’re a Founder, get ahead of the game and start building a professional presence from day one. So when a VC Googles you, they’ll be deeply impressed by what they find - and want to invest, because you’re someone worth investing in.?