Charles River/Quick Start/Susan Wu
Fund: Charles River Ventures
Posted by pc-vip on 2007-11-16
Seeing the mixed bag of reviews and ratings of CRV, CRV-QS, and Susan in particular makes me think "yeah, that's right". Mixed Bag.
I followed the steps for CRV-QS, and knowing that Susan was the assigned gatekeeper reached out to her seperately. She was polite, direct, and reasonably prompt.
Is that the goods news or the bad? I'm not sure. While I'm a big fan of smart people trusting their own judgement and instincts in making decisions, I found Susan's rationale for rejecting us from consideration to be incredibly short-sighted, especially given the small nature of a CRV-QS investment and the firm's ability to structure the deal any way they chose.
Sure, nobody enjoys hearing that their baby is ugly...and Susan didn't really say that. What she did say (I'm not kidding), is that the SMB space is too fractured to make investing in a company that is trying to do business there make any sense.
That might be enough to frustrate anyone, but in my case, I asked for a referral to a partner responsible for more traditional VC deals. Susan simply ignored the request.
As I said: mixed bag.
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