Ask HN: Best way to go about pitching a VC that's coming to your school? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best way to go about pitching a VC that's coming to your school?

4 pointspolymath215 comments

So I'm currently in my last year as a CS Major at a well known university. A prominent and well known VC/entrepreneur, who received his Computer Science MS from my university and whose fund is relatively young but has been featured on TechCrunch multiple times, is coming this Friday to speak to top CS students about "your career aspirations and opportunities for you through his firm."

One of my partners and I were invited (our other partner has already graduated). I've already written a comprehensive business plan for our idea, which is what I used that to recruit my 2 partners. I'm going to update it for this meeting specifically. We are also starting development on a beta version.

We were originally going to apply to YCombinator and a few other similar programs for summer, but seeing that this famous VC is coming to speak specifically to students like us, what is the best way to go about this?

At a minimum, we are looking for advice and mentoring. If we were to dream, he would give us seed funding just like that. We are hoping to land somewhere in between.

1) I am lacking the financials for my business plan. I have no historicals really to base my financial projections off of. I don't have access to the financial information of relevant private companies, whose data could help me get a sense of what's typical. Even so, should I somehow just put together whatever I can? I constantly read about how investors want to see financial data, but really, they're just guesses! Not sure what to do for this.

2) In addition to a business plan, should I create some sort of 10 piece slide deck, like the one suggested in Art of the Start?

3) Any other tips? Something I'm not mentioning that would allow you to provide better advice? Let me know.

We really just don't want to squander such an amazing opportunity. Thank you in advance.

A VC coming to a school is not looking for plans so much as people. Unless he has specifically asked for formal presentations, you're better off just talking informally and intelligently about possible startup ideas, rather than making the conversation be about stuff you're probably bad at, like business plans and slide decks. Just seem smart and energetic.

Thanks for the reply! I see what you mean, but at the same time, it isn't recommended to talk about our own idea? (versus other possible startup ideas) In my mind, this doesn't make too much sense, since we have already committed ourselves to one idea.

And, not sure if you meant it this way, but I wouldn't say business plans and slide decks are something I'm bad at. I actually prefer business over CS, but figured CS was a more worthwhile degree to pursue. I know in general CS majors are probably viewed as just coders that lack business acumen, but there are always exceptions! =]

And yes, thinking about it some more, I agree a slide deck is probably overkill to this type of meeting. Writing the business plan has allowed me to really know my idea in depth, so hopefully this will come through in conversation. Thanks again.

Sure, talk about ideas you're interested in. I didn't mean talk about random ideas. I meant talk about stuff at the level of ideas, i.e. what problem the world needs solved and how you might do it, rather than at the level of financial projections.

I don't think its a necessarily question of your business acumen.

Since the VC has a strong technical background (M.S. in CS), I would guess that they would probably be more interested in the course of a conversation in the "intellectual" / technical side of things rather than the mundane financial boring stuff.

Also, probably better than seed funding would be to connect with this VC, and see if you would like him to mentor you. If you're throwing a business plan and slide deck out it might seem like you are just another opportunistic gold-digger, whereas if you can just show how passionate and energetic you are, as pg suggested, its much more likely to lead to a longer term relationship.

If I had the luxury of talking with a VC one-on-one I'd formulate very open-ended questions while trying to keep discussion domain as general and abstract as possible.

In other words, steer clear from case studies and CS specific ideas, put yourself in the shoes of a VC, and figure-out what makes this guy tick (milk him for his experience not his judgment).

Keep your questions short, in his/her language, and open.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com