Venture Capitalists as a Target Market

At many startup companies, the CEO consumes much of his time trying to secure funding from investors, often venture capitalists. The CEO is essentially trying to sell venture capitalists a share in the company. Therefore the product is the company, and the venture capitalist is the buyer.

Has any product manager researched this market? Conducted one-on-one interviews with prospective investors? Identified the top three problems that prospective investors face? Segmented and sized the market of venture capitalists?

Comments

Brandon said…

I would say for most startups the founder/CEO is the product manager so this is something they will typically have done. I always few the CEO of a startup as the first product manager. Whether they think they are or not they are typically playing the role.

Wed Aug 10, 03:34:00 PM 2005

Roger L. Cauvin said…

Well, that's my question: does the founder/CEO really perform product management on the market of venture capitalists? We know they meet with investors to try to sell the company, but have they performed the research? Have they segmented and profiled the pool of prospective venture capitalists?

Also, is it appropriate for the person selling the company to also be the person researching the market for the company? It's usually important to separate these roles.

Wed Aug 10, 04:07:00 PM 2005

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