When entrepreneurs approach venture firms, they come bearing questions. Lots of questions. Questions like: “Do these people care about me?” “Do they have any expertise in my field?” “Are they going to be hard to work with?” …and so forth. This is natural. You’d feel the same way if you were showing off your pride-and-joy to a boardroom full of strangers. So we’ve always found it strange that most VC firms tend to settle for saying “Look at us! Look at all the logos successful companies we’ve worked with!” as if that’s supposed to be some kind of substitute for telling people who they are and what they stand for. To us, both ends of the VC/entrepreneur relationship are driven by – surprise – ideas. The entrepreneur has an idea, and the VC firm has (or at least ought to have) more than one thought on how to bring that idea to life. So we’re clearly very pleased to see Battery Ventures’ new Mortar-built website place a premium on ideas – the good ones entrepreneurs have had, the innovative ones Battery has used to promote them and of course, the results.
It’s a smart conversation to have. (And a rather stylish-looking presentation, if we do say so ourselves.)
