In Venture Capital, Experience Matters Also

Last week Firas Raouf, one of my peers in OpenView Partners, wrote a blog titled “In Venture Capital, Size Does Matter” which referenced a Silicon Valley Bank report discussing how smaller Venture Capital Funds that provide early stage and growth capital outperform larger ones.

This phenomenon has actually occurred across all industries and one I have always pointed to as an example is the mutual fund industry. A recent article published in the Monday USA Today business section, “Can a mutual fund be too popular”, supports the logic in the SVB report cited by Firas in his blog.

The reason I am referring to the blog Firas wrote last week is this: I believe that, in addition to a fund’s size, there are two other major indicators of success that all founders and CEO’s of expansion stage companies need to consider.

These two key ingredients that can help expansion stage software companies reduce their risk and maximize their potential for a successful exit are:

• Operational Experience
• Strategic Consulting Services

OpenView partners is a Boston Venture Capital firm that is in many ways different from traditional Venture Capital firms. All of our partners have major operational experience in the software industry. Just look at the backgrounds of Scott, Firas, Mark and myself and you will start to understand why we are different.

Now take the next step and look at the backgrounds of some of the OpenView Labs team (who provide Value Added Services) like Cynthia and Brian, as well a couple of our advisors like Jeff Sutherland and Luke Hohman (Yes they actually do work with all of our portfolio companies) and you will get a better sense of how we can help you build a great business.

At OpenView Partners we believe it is not merely about the money. Rather, it is about how you leverage the expansion capital to build great businesses and reach a successful exit.