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Charles Hudson, SoftTechVC speaks about all the changes in the venture industry. It was much simpler in the ‘old days’ for founders but now there are so many more sources of capital & so many more rounds that its hard for founders to figure out to whom should I speak about this funding round & what is the check size? There’s tons more firms & the landscape is way more fragmented & complicated. The good news with all this fragmentation as there are great new options for the ecosystems. Charles is a people person, he’s a Seed Investor & he invests in innovation. He gets really excited about people, he looks for people who are totally invested in the outcome of the startup. One of the funniest things that ever happened to Charles as an investor was that a founder came in to pitch & a few minutes into the pitch her laptop completely died. She got totally upset & they were clearly not investing in this talented woman because she got totally flustered. Charles suggested that they give her another shot because he had a previous meeting with her before & he found her incredibly compelling. They ended up funding her & his partner went onto the Board of that company so it all worked out well. Another great story, they have a DropCam in their elevator & they had a founding team that pitched. They thought that something was off & when they checked out the clip the team were literally screaming at each other in the elevator on the way down after their meeting. They decided not to fund them & the video clip gave them some sense about whey they felt uneasy about the interpersonal dynamics! He also spoke about how he reached out to someone in his network who synchronistically was interested in one of his portfolio companies. He feels that value add is in the eye of the receiver not the giver (wise statement)! His talent seems to be his intuitive punts that he takes. He likes to talk with the founders & he focuses on founder’s strengths. Awesome founders hire better, they build better products, they inspire people & press get excited about covering them. That’s his number one thing ‘Are the Founders Awesome!?’
