At Utah Tech Week last month, Mobly co-founder and CEO Zach Barney hosted a panel with Idan Levy, principal at Watertower Ventures; Kristin McDonald, principal at Eniac Ventures; Saaya Nath Pal, partner at Jump Capital; and Grahme Taylor, partner at NIYA Partners. Here are a few quotes from the conversation.
What makes Utah an interesting market to invest in?
Idan Levy: Utah’s entrepreneurs and founder community are hard-working, technical and diligent. [There’s] high integrity here. … When a Utah founder tells me something, I don’t question its integrity.
Grahme Taylor: This is maybe the best place in the world to build a sales team. … It’s also a great place to raise a family.
Kristin McDonald: This is one of the few places where people actually want to move. … If you come here, the cost of living is lower, which is a really unique talent advantage.
Saaya Nath Pal: There’s a really high rate of success in your early hires, especially at the pre-seed and seed stage because everyone you bring on is a warm referral. It’s somebody that you’ve probably known. It’s kind of this ‘try before you buy.’ There are enough people to tell you how good that person is, so there’s a really high rate of success of the talent you bring on.
How can you stand out from the crowd?
Kristin McDonald: Geography is no longer a dividing factor. If anything, when I see a company is based in Utah, it’s a net positive flag in my mind. … Most of the companies I invest in are not [from] bump-ins — most are from warm referrals and introductions. … Leverage the awesome VC community you have here to let them help you make those connections. … Make it easy for people: send emails [with a pitch] deck and metrics. If you have somebody’s attention for one second, give them all the information they need to know this is a good fit. Don’t make them follow up.
Grahme Taylor: Lean in on the sales talent. … When you’re engaging VCs from outside of Utah, remind them what makes this place special and why you’re going to be able to build an absolute rockstar team. … Incredible business will speak for itself. I don’t think this happens very often, but if you have customers that really, really love you and introduce you to a VC, that’s a very good way forward.
Idan Levy: I always look at founders’ backgrounds. Does the founder know the industry that they’re building in? … I don’t know every industry, but somebody who worked in an industry for 5-10 years knows it.
Saaya Nath Pal: Remember that we want to invest in you, and you have the right to be equally as selective. … Take the time to do your research. Reach out to fewer people. Make it a thoughtful approach.
How early do you like to meet founders in their journey?
Kristin McDonald: VCs want to meet you as early as possible because we’re trying to measure slope. … I think it is in your interest to meet right when you’re ready to raise and not before because all of that information being out in the open is my advantage and potentially not your advantage. … Be guarded about how much information you share until you’re ready. Own your own narrative and make sure you’re controlling the story.
Saaya Nath Pal: If you’re going to talk to people early, be very curated about who those people are. Open yourself up more when you’re running a process, but just be a little bit careful. The markets change really dramatically in terms of how VCs are operating.
Grahme Taylor: I think it depends on the investment pace of the VC. If you know there’s somebody that does a lot of investments every year, [and you engage] as part of the structured process, they’re going to work with that. For a firm like us, we only do a small handful of investments every year later stage. … There are pros and cons to approaching people early versus approaching people with a structured cost.
What’s a red flag that immediately puts you off?
Saaya Nath Pal: There’s a really fine line between confidence and arrogance. I don’t think founders always appreciate that. … If I don’t like you personally, I don’t have a lot of skin in the game. … And please don’t name-drop in conversations. I don’t care [who] you’re talking to. … I’m going to invest behind my own conviction.
Idan Levy: One of the things that triggers me is when a founder kind of comes in saying ‘I needed a decision right now. What’s $250,000 for you?’ Listen, this is my career. This is my job. I’m in my partner meeting fighting for you, fighting for this company. If you don’t respect that process and everything that goes into it, how’s this long-term relationship going to go?
Kristin McDonald: [When people] throw out terms and timelines that aren’t real. Don’t do that.
Grahme Taylor: One of the things that really puts me off is if somebody bashes other people and talks really badly about them all the time.
