During a recent Spotlight Series conversation with Razor Suleman, BlueCat founder Michael Hyatt highlighted the many ways VCs can both help and hurt young companies.
Hyatt kicked off the conversation by pointing out three ways VCs can help your company: “critical strategic decisions, amazing hires, and big clients.”
But while Hyatt believes VCs can significantly help companies, he notes that VCs can also hurt companies when they’re “not growing fast enough.”
Hyatt says this doesn’t come as a surprise because anyone who invests their cash would want a return on their money.
“If you took off your entrepreneur hat and you were investing your cash…you want a return of your money,” said Hyatt. “So we’re all greedy piggies in a way. They’re just doing the job. They just want a certain growth, growth at all costs. Growth is a thing that’s prime.”
To stress the value VCs can bring to young companies, Hyatt gives the example of Toronto-based Georgian Partners, a growth equity firm that provides companies with additional team members at the time of investment.
“What they [Georgian Partners] do, which I think is so brilliant…[is] they don’t only put a board member in. They have an impact team and they’ll send four people into your company, and they’ll work in your company as part of the deal,” said Hyatt.
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