(Left to right): Chris Gillings (5V Capital), Kirstin Hunter (Techstars), Alex Khor (Afterwork Ventures) and Gemma Clancy (Overnight Success). Source: supplied
On Wednesday of SXSW Sydney I appeared on a panel alongside Alex Khor (Afterwork Ventures), Chris Gillings (5V Capital) and Gemma Clancy (Overnight Success) called Mythbusters: the Australian Startup Culture Edition.
We unpacked five myths covering areas such as: VCs are a good objective source of startup advice (myth); product-led growth means you won’t need a sales team (myth); you have to move to Silicon Valley if you want to be successful (myth); and the founder life is only for young people (spoiler alert – also a myth).
But the most controversial myth was that VCs make data driven decisions.
The panel was split two votes to one, and the audience was similarly conflicted, with a large chunk of the audience (40%) voting that they believed this to be true.
At a superficial level it’s clear that “data” (in terms of observable objective facts) plays a smaller part the earlier stage an investment decision is made.
For me as a pre-seed investor, I use a six-part criteria when making investment decisions: team, team, team, market, idea, traction.
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