{"id":10680,"date":"2020-10-15T20:51:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10680"},"modified":"2020-10-15T20:51:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T03:51:09","slug":"top-five-things-investors-want-and-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10680","title":{"rendered":"Top Five Things Investors Want (and Need)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Julie<\/a>

Julie Henley McNamara and Jason Spievak of Entrada Ventures, photo by Daniel Dreifuss for Santa Barbara Independent.<\/p><\/div>\n

With a career as an investor and founder spanning\u00a0three decades and a broad range of technologies\u00a0from agricultural sciences to virtual\u00a0reality, Entrada Ventures<\/a> cofounder Jason\u00a0Spievak<\/a> believes these five things are critical for attracting\u00a0investors.<\/p>\n

1 <\/b>INTEGRITY <\/b>\u201cThere\u2019s some core criteria that we look for,\u00a0and job one is integrity, far and away. Because if you can\u2019t\u00a0trust someone, you can\u2019t rely on them and you can\u2019t work\u00a0with them, so that is absolutely binary. There is no wiggle\u00a0room on what I call situational ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n

2 <\/b>THE RIGHT FIT <\/b>\u201cDoes this person have the skill and the\u00a0experience to do the thing that they need to do to succeed\u00a0in their role? Are they actually the right person for the job,\u00a0so to speak, in terms of skills, experience, and aptitude?\u201d<\/p>\n

3 <\/b>A WINNING MINDSET <\/b>\u201cWe all, unfortunately, know people\u00a0who were raised from childhood to believe that success happens\u00a0to other people and it\u2019s their job to get the ball to the\u00a0one-yard line and toil away in anonymity while somebody\u00a0else makes it happen. We really want to invest in folks that\u00a0believe that they deserve success.\u201d<\/p>\n

4 <\/b>SOMETHING TO PROVE <\/b>\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit esoteric, but do they\u00a0have something to prove? You want to bet on someone \u2014 I\u00a0don\u2019t care if you\u2019re proving it to your mom, your dad, your\u00a0teacher who gave you a B, your coach who didn\u2019t start you,\u00a0your boyfriend who broke up with you. Who feels like they\u00a0have something to prove? They work really, really hard. And\u00a0they work hard when no one\u2019s watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

5 <\/b>CHEMISTRY <\/b>\u201cWould you want to sit next to this person\u00a0on an airplane for six hours? The only guarantee is you\u2019re\u00a0going to spend a heck of a lot of time together when you\u00a0invest in someone\u2019s company, and as a result, you want to\u00a0enjoy that time. You want to be learning; you want to look\u00a0forward to that time together and not roll your eyes when\u00a0you see their name on the phone, so it\u2019s pretty important.\u00a0People talk about investing in someone\u2019s company as being\u00a0like a marriage. It\u2019s more than marriage in a way because\u00a0you can\u2019t get divorced.\u201d<\/p>\n

BONUS POINTS: <\/b>PROVEN TRACK RECORD <\/b>\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely an\u00a0overwhelming amount of evidence out there that shows\u00a0that founders who build and successfully exit a company\u00a0are more likely to do it again. So a proven track record is\u00a0ideal. However, when you\u2019re doing early-stage investing, as\u00a0we like to do here in the region, it\u2019s often the case that this is\u00a0the first company for these founders; otherwise, they would\u00a0not necessarily be seeking early-stage capital\u2014they would\u00a0have it already.\u201d<\/p>\n

entradaventures.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tech<\/a>

Tech Talk Special Issue for Santa Barbara Independent, published October 1, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tech Talk Special Issue<\/a> for the Santa Barbara Independent<\/em><\/a>, originally published on October 1, 2020.<\/p>\n

To read the issue as it appeared in print, please click here, Tech Talk 768_10_01_20<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>