Alana Levin pfp
Alana Levin
@alanadlevin
Increasingly believe that dinners are the lifeblood of VC
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Zach pfp
Zach
@zd
you talking about benchmark partner dinners? or VCs footing the bill for founder dinners? both?
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Alana Levin pfp
Alana Levin
@alanadlevin
the latter, with the caveat that it's not limited exclusively to founders
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Zach pfp
Zach
@zd
interesting why do you believe this?
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Alana Levin pfp
Alana Levin
@alanadlevin
It’s a common way relationships are built
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Zach pfp
Zach
@zd
yes ofc, im more curious about why you see this as the "lifeblood of VC" (i started my career in venture and not sure i agree with the original cast - i'd say the lifeblood of VC is sourcing / selecting / supporting the best founders on earth, and reducing that down to "dinners" just feels a bit... idk... reductive?)
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Alana Levin pfp
Alana Levin
@alanadlevin
Really effective dinners are a way to generate strong inputs to each of those! They’re low stress settings where you can get to know people much better (critical for selection, developing a network that can help founders, and being the first and hopefully only call when someone decided to become a founder themselves)
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Zach pfp
Zach
@zd
agree they *can* be great, but... 1) "really effective" is load bearing in this sentence 2) they're lower stress for the VC than they are for the founders 3) you're limited by geo unless you're traveling around the country/world all the time 4) as more and more VCs adopt this tactic for finding "idea stage" founders, the alpha gets competed away don't get me wrong, i love a good dinner - but if that's the "lifeblood" of the industry, it will trend towards average
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