I think the best investors are the ones who always have their portfolio companies in mind when interacting with anyone in the industry. Whether it is someone that can be a distribution partner, customer, or employee.
The small things go a long way. Sending emails on news from competitors, checking in by phone a couple times a month, and connecting CEOs with other CEOs that they have invested in and can learn from is key. Given them some angels/VCs are funding dozens of companies, the ones that can remember your engineer's names really says something.
Lastly, it is all about chemistry. Every VC has its mix of partners, some better than others, You want to find someone who really believes in you, the team, and the vision, and work alongside you rather than trying to get a few percentage points more. A good indicator of time that they can spend with you is the number of board sets they occupy as well. If someone is currently on 8 boards, chances are that their mind is in quite a few places at once.
Agreed, however if you follow the money many of the angels already co-invest and have receive financing from very specific VCs, will be curious to see what happens if they try to go more head-to-head with later stage deals.
The small things go a long way. Sending emails on news from competitors, checking in by phone a couple times a month, and connecting CEOs with other CEOs that they have invested in and can learn from is key. Given them some angels/VCs are funding dozens of companies, the ones that can remember your engineer's names really says something.
Lastly, it is all about chemistry. Every VC has its mix of partners, some better than others, You want to find someone who really believes in you, the team, and the vision, and work alongside you rather than trying to get a few percentage points more. A good indicator of time that they can spend with you is the number of board sets they occupy as well. If someone is currently on 8 boards, chances are that their mind is in quite a few places at once.