What characteristics do Venture Capitalists look for when funding entrepreneurs?

Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago at 1:31 pm. 0 comments

Looking into funding for Zen and working on my dissertation (looking at the entrepreneurial mindset) got me thinking about this question. VCs care about the personality characteristics of the entrepreneur. I was reading an article that highlighted the essentials necessary to be an entrepreneur. Of the 10 essentials listed, 5 were personality factors. VCs wanted to fund entrepreneurs who were capable of maintaining sustained effort. This basically means in order to get funding from VCs as an entrepreneur, you have to show your passion, commitment, motivation, etc. VCs also like to fund those who have demonstrated leadership in the past. Obviously if a person is a serial entrepreneur on their fifth business after several successful businesses, VCs will look on them more favorably, but certainly previous business or community leadership could help convince VCs that one has what it takes to run a company. VCs were also looking for people who understood risk. This means more than just being a risk-taker, but more about being smart with the types of risks. It was also important to VCs that the entrepreneur have previous experience in the field. One of the other personality characteristics is the ability to articulate the venture well. One has to be dynamic and persuasive enough to get the VCs to invest emotionally (and financially) in the company.

There are many other personality characteristics I’ve read about from need for achievement, optimism, and self-confidence to independence and opportunity recognition. I am curious if people have some other interesting ideas about the characteristics of entrepreneurs.