That's not really true. We showed up on a couple VC's radars before there was any real credible reason for us to have done so.
I think there's the assumption that because raising a round can be tedious that actually getting in touch with VCs must be too. As it turns out, once you show up on the startup radar some VCs will want to get you in their tracking database so that they've already made a connection at which point you are trying to raise money.
The last one that we had contact us was doing only growth stage investments for companies doing $2mm in revenue per year ... and we're still in beta. It was pretty clear from the start (and we told them that before the call) that they weren't really looking to invest in us, but wanted to have us checked off a list.
Most VCs have a small set of partners and a larger group of associates / analysts. The latter are basically functioning as scouts but don't in general have the power to decide on investments. Getting noticed by them is nice, but it doesn't say a whole lot -- it's their job to be noticing things.
I think there's the assumption that because raising a round can be tedious that actually getting in touch with VCs must be too. As it turns out, once you show up on the startup radar some VCs will want to get you in their tracking database so that they've already made a connection at which point you are trying to raise money.
The last one that we had contact us was doing only growth stage investments for companies doing $2mm in revenue per year ... and we're still in beta. It was pretty clear from the start (and we told them that before the call) that they weren't really looking to invest in us, but wanted to have us checked off a list.
Most VCs have a small set of partners and a larger group of associates / analysts. The latter are basically functioning as scouts but don't in general have the power to decide on investments. Getting noticed by them is nice, but it doesn't say a whole lot -- it's their job to be noticing things.