Comment by ChuckMcM
2 years ago
They miss my favorite: "Yes, we'll invest we just don't want to be 'lead'."
That is code for: "You aren't going to find anyone who shares your idea of what your valuation should be so we are safe telling you we'll invest if you find a 'lead investor' because that person doesn't exist."
It gets funny/twisted when you do find a lead and go back and now there is some other goal post that is keeping them out of "this round."
Not necessarily. It could also be code for "We can't write a check big enough to lead your round". E.g. a seed fund who writes $1m checks isn't going to lead a $5m round. The VC would be putting themselves out of a job if they wrote a $5m check when they told their LPs their fund target was $1m checks.
"We're in if you find a lead" is kind of notoriously code for "no".
If its a fund that has led rounds before then yes, but if its a new fund or small fund then it might be part of the GPs proving they can get deal flow to their LPs before raising a larger fund
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"We're in if you have a lead" is basically the starting point before you ever talk to a VC. Some other VC being willing to invest $5m is itself often considered a strong enough signal to invest some significantly smaller number than that while knowing literally nothing about the company being invested in. Even VCs which explicitly told you no may reconsider if you find a lead.