An investor passed on Chime's seed round despite a strong founding team. The reason: he personally thought the product "makes no sense" and couldn't see himself building it. This illustrates a common early-stage trap where VCs substitute their own product ideas for the founder's vision, rather than betting on the team.
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David Cohen missed investing in Lyft (then Zimride) because he was already an investor in Uber and thought Zimride's initial idea was flawed. He now advises early-stage investors to prioritize a strong team and their market belief over the specific initial product, as pivots are very common.
Instead of coaching unconventional founders to be more palatable for mainstream Series A investors, early backers should encourage them to lean into their unique traits. The investor's role is to help them find the right future partners who appreciate their peculiar worldview, not to change it.
Investor Chris Reisach argues that if an investment doesn't make sense to you, the problem likely lies with the business, not your intellect. He advises junior VCs to trust their confusion as an adverse signal. A founder's inability to clearly articulate their vision is a fundamental flaw, and investing without true conviction is a recipe for failure.
Live-shopping platform Whatnot was rejected by nearly all early investors because it started as a marketplace for a niche collectible, Funko Pops. The only VCs who invested were those who knew the founders personally and trusted their ability to expand beyond the initial niche, proving founder conviction can be more crucial than the initial market.
Thematic investors often develop strong opinions about a market. A key mistake is imposing that vision onto a startup, effectively acting as its strategist. True alignment comes from backing the founder's vision, not getting excited about how the company could fit the investor's pre-conceived thesis, which can lead to failure.
A truly exceptional founder is a talent magnet who will relentlessly iterate until they find a winning model. Rejecting a partnership based on a weak initial idea is a mistake; the founder's talent is the real asset. They will likely pivot to a much bigger opportunity.
Lonsdale recounts passing on brilliant founders with seemingly terrible ideas, only to watch them pivot and build billion-dollar companies like Cursor. The lesson for early-stage investors is to prioritize backing exceptional, world-class talent, even if their initial concept seems flawed, as they possess the ability to find a winning strategy.
While it's crucial to listen to markets and clients, founders must also be prepared to stick to their convictions when investors, who may not be specialists in their niche, offer conflicting advice. Knowing when to listen and when to hold firm is a key startup skill.
Early-stage founders may face rejection because a VC has a pre-existing bias against their market. A Buildots founder was told "I'm not going to invest in construction" but was offered a $4M check to pivot to cybersecurity, demonstrating some investors have hard "no-go" zones.
VCs often correctly identify a special founder but then pass due to external factors like competition or perceived market size. Reflecting on missing Scale AI, Benchmark concludes this is a critical error; the person is the signal that should override other concerns.
