Ask HN: Investor wants access to Google Analytics/MailChimp/Quickbooks etc data? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Investor wants access to Google Analytics/MailChimp/Quickbooks etc data?

18 pointsbasicfounder7 comments

We are raising our first round of investment and have been in business with lots of ups and downs.

Talking to a a VC firm in East Coast; they want their team to go through our accounts, social media metrics, GA and history of orders etc.

What are your thoughts and advice? Should we disclose with them it all. I don’t want to share it with him, but it might put the deal off since some of our detailed metrics are not good enough.

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Easy answer: if you don't already have this material in your pitch deck, you're probably a bad investment.

Comment below disturbing, you want to be transparent before during and after the investment:

> it might put the deal off since some of our detailed metrics are not good enough.

I strongly agree.

A good VC is in the look out for a good business potential, not impressive decks. You can always hunt down some "stupid-money" VCs instead. I would advise against it.

These are legitimate requests if you are in latter stage due diligence. If you are at this stage, you should be at a point where you are pretty positive that the firm and its people will be accretive if they do decide to participate in your company.

It's a bit dicey if you've gone through preliminary chats and into DD while not being 100% about the people at the firm yet. Definitely don't just jump off the DD train since it can be hard to get that rolling again. However, do get a beer or lunch with them ASAP and really try to get a hold of whether you trust them and want them as partners.

This, if you are in the latter stages they will want to see everything you are saying is true. If you're projecting a hockey stick growth, but don't necessarily have the numbers to back it up that's ok, projecting is just guessing in any business. None of the good VC's I've done business with would be put off by this. If you've overinflated your numbers 20%,then it's time to have a heart to heart with your champion at the VC firm. If they are senior enough to get the deal done and they believe in you/your team, it may not matter. VC's invest in people as much if not more than a company.

No matter what happens be honest with these people, the VC community is small/close knit and if this goes bad because you weren't honest from the get-go EVERYONE will know.

Of course they want to see all of it, they are potentially investing into your company, they have to make sure they will get a return on their money. If your company is not worthy of their investment, then its not worthy. You cant lie to your investors...

If they are doing this much due diligence then they are good investors and if they invest then it's a good signal that you are doing something right. If they don't invest then it's a great opportunity to learn from them as much as possible as to why they think you are on a wrong path and how to fix it.

I would only ever share that level of data if we had already signed a term sheet and were in the latter stages of DD.

The sad fact is that there are unscrupulous VC firms out there that are just looking to mine you for data. Either for the benefit of a company already in their portfolio or as a comparison point for another deal they are considering.

Trust your gut.

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