Who is in Charge?
Fund: Clearstone Venture Partners
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-12-19
Clearstone is widely regarded as one of the best funds in Southern California. Jim Armstrong is clearly the reason. Jim is a great guy. The problem is that Jim often refuses to take a stand with his partners. Bill E. and William Q. are fundamentally different personalities and have a very different view from Jim. As a result it is tough to understand who is really in charge and who you should pitch. Going to Clearstone without having Jim involved would be a mistake but keep in mind that you *also* need to spend time with the other partners. They are smart investors with a relatively good track record and reputation. They are just a bit quirky. I also think that this issue will get better in time as Jim takes a more prominent role and gets more comfortable taking a firmer stand with his partners.
On a personal note, everyone at Clearstone is very nice. They are smart and can be great validation in addition to a good long term investor. They tend to be a bit emotional at times (so be sensitive to this) and they do have a bad habit of going dark for weeks at a time which is always extremely frustrating when you are trying to close a financing.
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