What happens when you put seven startup investors on stage at a casual event, where ties are discouraged, jokes are made, and cocktails are on hand? You get some brutal honesty.
Straight talk and telling it like it is were the themes of our August Tech Cocktail Sessions event in DC, where we were joined by a diverse panel of local investors:
- Paul Singh: Founder of Disruption Corporation, general partner of the Crystal Tech Fund, former partner at 500 Startups
- Dan Mindus: Founder of NexGen Angels, investment director at CIT Gap Funds
- Don Rainey: General partner at Grotech Ventures
- Song Pak: General counsel and chief compliance officer at Revolution Growth; SVP and deputy general counsel at Revolution
- John Backus: Cofounder and managing partner at New Atlantic Ventures
- Steven Konsek: Program director in the Small Business Innovation Research program at the National Science Foundation
- Penny Lee: Principal at Venn Strategies; also working with 1776’s fund
From this event, we learned Paul Singh’s 7 Dirty Secrets of Venture Capital and 6 Lies VCs Tell You. We also learned more about what they look for in founders, whether location matters, and what industries they’re excited about. Here’s the full video: