A look inside a typical VC’s pipeline (a must-read for entrepreneurs)

venturebeat.com

3 pointsduvok2 comments

If I looked at these #s through the lens of a SaaS business, they sound terrible.

1200 leads (pipeline deals) >> 10 closed customers (investments)

A VC wouldn't invest in a SaaS business with those metrics and the SaaS business prob wouldn't be around for long with those metrics. But somehow, this is a good thing in VC. It's good marketing - "we are harder to get funding from then it is to get into Harvard". But the process is ultimately terribly inefficient (and non-scalable) for all parties.

I'm also wondering how many of those pipeline deals are from accelerator-backed start-ups and how many of those don't realize bootstrapping is an option for some. It just seems like lately, if you have an idea, you make a landing page (gotta validate that idea) then apply to an accelerator, ship a buggy MVP w/ little test coverage, then hope for VC funding. There are a lot of things that could and should be improved upon within the start-up ecosystem.

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