• Author: Mike Silagadze, CEO of Ether fi

  • Original text: (Cardinal sins of crypto VCs)

  • Compiled by: Zombit

Ether fi CEO Mike Silagadze shared on X the absurd behavior he encountered when dealing with cryptocurrency venture capitalists in the past. Have you also encountered these bad financing experiences?

1. Repeat the "initial meeting"

You had a meeting with a partner or associate and felt good about it. Then they scheduled another meeting with the other partners. When you get to the meeting, the partner has no idea who you are, you haven’t been briefed, and you haven’t seen the meeting minutes, so you have another “initial meeting.”

If this happens more than three times, it's even more outrageous.

2. Back Pull

A partner reaches out to you and asks for a meeting after hearing that you are raising funds. After attending the meeting, the partner did not show up and an assistant was sent instead.

It would be even more ridiculous if this happened over multiple fundraises.

3. Anonymous investors

You meet a VC through an introduction, they seem excited and schedule a meeting. When it came to the video conference, the VC was anonymous, and his avatar was still a damn Wassie (a platypus image). I heard that anonymous funds are the least crazy and most helpful investors on the shareholder list (irony).

4. elusive

You meet with the VC multiple times and they ask a lot of follow-up questions. Ask for more data, financial statements and development roadmaps. Then suddenly he disappeared, like a ghost.

5. Free options

You spend two weeks meeting with funds, answering questions and conducting due diligence. Then there is no news for a period of time, and you think the other person just disappeared. But after a while, I suddenly received a message: "How is the progress of this round of fundraising? Let's make another appointment." After the meeting, there was no news again, and it happened several times. This is not the last one, but they are raising a "free option."

6. Lao Wang sells melons

Have a 30-minute meeting with your partners. He spent 25 minutes telling his story.

7. Being "prostituted":

The VC fund schedules a meeting to get a deeper understanding of your strategy, technology stack, and data analytics. Then they disappeared. A week later, they announce an investment in your competitor. You have been "prostituted"!

8. Chaotic meetings

Within 30 seconds of a meeting, you can be sure the VC is doping. As the meeting goes on, he becomes increasingly belligerent, contradicting everything you say. At the end of the meeting, I’ll add this to you: “Let me know how I can help you anytime.”

9. Side missions

The partner has no idea what you are doing and the entire meeting is spent trying to convince you to do a completely different project.

If they do succeed in convincing you, that's awesome.

10. The young “wise man”

You speak to a 22-year-old associate whose only experience includes a three-month internship at Goldman Sachs and losing his winnings gambling on meme coins. He talks at length throughout the entire meeting, giving you advice. getoffmylawn.jpeg (American meme describing the disgust of older people towards younger generations.)

Okay, that’s it for now. We’ve seen these and more ridiculous VC behaviors during seed and Series A rounds.

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