One thing that struck me was that both Ron and Marc said they mostly invest on referrals. Ron said that almost no-one came in unannounced anymore - every seed investment was a referral from someone he knew. Marc said that almost every A round was a referral from Ron or someone else he knew.
My question is: If you can't get seed funding without already knowing someone in SV, who are you supposed to know and how do you get to know them? Is there no way but to work at another startup first and then branch out once you've made connections with the management/board? Or go to Stanford and hope your professor has connections like Google?
My question is: If you can't get seed funding without already knowing someone in SV, who are you supposed to know and how do you get to know them? Is there no way but to work at another startup first and then branch out once you've made connections with the management/board? Or go to Stanford and hope your professor has connections like Google?
Edit: Obviously YC is an option too ;)