Don't collect celebrity investors. It's not a predictor of success. In fact, it may be a predictor of failure, because it's a sign that founders (a) lack confidence and (b) prefer fundraising to building stuff.
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You do know founds look at you and YC as celebrity investors right?! :-) If the “celebrity” can bring early users, team members, and signal quality to down stream investors it is worth it... by having Travis on
@TWiStartups early, we landed the first three city GMS (for example)
Having a few celebrity investors is OK. It can happen naturally, and does help convince new investors. But there is another quite distinct mode founders sometimes slip into, where they get many more investors than the startup needs, and there's a clear pattern to who they are.
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This feels like a hot take generalization. Getting buy in (and money) from celebrities is an impossible task for an unknown founder. Speaks volumes in a positive way, really.
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Please go into more detail. What are historical examples?
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And the founders seem to have the attitude that 2 birds in the bush is better than one in the hand. They totally overthink their investor line-up vs. closing good offers quickly and getting back to work.
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It’s all about crossing the chasms and organic growth is much more sustainable in the long run
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Although one pro of “celebrity” investors is that they have more skin in the game, they not only risk their money but their reputation too.
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It feels like you’re talking about a broader phenomenon that I also see: where the founders are completely absorbed in fundraising, promoting and dealing, and the substance of the enterprise falls to the wayside. “Fyre Festival” syndrome.
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Sorry
@paulg, that's a lame answer.@Jason was spot on. However, I disagree that having celebrities is good since it distorts market signals. How can one really know if it's a great business model when early customer are blinded by the celebrity.#Lean#Startup#CustomerDevThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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