Increasingly believe that dinners are the lifeblood of VC

Investing @variant, writing at https://backoftheenvelope.substack.com/

you talking about benchmark partner dinners? or VCs footing the bill for founder dinners? both?

the latter, with the caveat that it's not limited exclusively to founders

It’s a common way relationships are built

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?)

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

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)