Most founders never find out why a VC passed. In this session, two founders pitch to Bill Bryant, who spent 17 years as a partner at Threshold Ventures, the Palo Alto firm formerly known as DFJ. They get his honest read on the spot.
Over those 17 years, Bill took more than 15,000 pitches, served on more than 20 boards, and had 25+ successful outcomes worth $14B in realized market value. Before investing, he was on the founding team at Visio (acquired by Microsoft) and co-founded Netbot (acquired by Excite) and Qpass (acquired by Amdocs). Today he's an LP in more than 25 venture funds, mostly pre-seed and seed, and sits on the investment committee of four of them. He also mentors founders at Foundations, Plug and Play, Blue Startups in Hawaii, and StartX in Japan.
This is a live review of two real decks, not a lecture on fundraising. The presenting slots are set; everyone else joins to watch and learn.
What you'll take away:
How an investor reads a deck, and where he loses interest
What makes an idea feel big and novel enough for venture
The most common gaps in story, traction and the ask, and how to fix them
What an investment committee pushes back on before a deal gets funded
If you're raising in the next few months, or want to see how an investor actually judges a pitch, join us.
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