What do you do with their advice?
And what happens if you dont agree with their suggestions?
If they didnt, they wouldnt have invested in the first place.
And it seems this philosophy has really paid off for Vivino.
Its also raised $221 million in funding and rolled out a global wine marketplace.
You know your company best thats why Zachariassen believes you shouldnt let investors get involved with details.
Theres a level of granularity here thats important.
Investors shouldnt get operational because theyre simply not qualified to do so.
This was a big change that reached far beyond just the scope of the startup.
So you should sometimes listen to investors… and sometimes not?
That doesnt sound particularly helpful.
Dont worry though, Zachariassen breaks down his approach to listening to investor feedback.
The first point is to be aware of is at what stage the investor joined.
Angels arent divine
Getting angel investors can be a bit of a minefield.
Its the point where you have the biggest risk of getting someone on board thats… really shit.
The further you go up the chain, usually the better investors you get.
Thats at least my experience, says Zachariassen.
The solution is just making sure you get new investors in that are more ambitious all the time.
But should you then do everything bigger investors say?
The great thing about bigger venture funds is they think, uhm,bigger.
Zachariassen really enjoys working with VCs like Balderton as theyve seen multiple companies theyve invested in become unicorns.
But that doesnt mean they say youshoulddo a particular thing.
A good investor doesnt do that.
Good investors will nudge and say things like have you thought about this?
And provide examples from other portfolio companies.
They should nevertellyou what to do, but they should definitely influence your direction.
And when they do, theyre usually right.
Because once you do, you know its serious enough to listen to.
Founders always say the same thing, yeah youre right, but were different.
You always think youre so fucking special, but maybe youre not.
Certain things are just the same no matter what.
So be careful of letting angel investors dictate your strategy, especially when theyre not thinking big enough.
Story byMar Masson Maack
Mar tries to juggle his editorial duties with writing the occasional weird article.
He also loves talking about himself in the third person.
