一份风投服务协议A Venture SLA
一家新的风险投资公司有机会打造自己的品牌。风险投资领域最近涌现的品牌，都源于透明和创始人友好。YCombinator 让年轻的新技术人才得以进入硅谷。500 Startups 在全球范围这么做。弗雷德·威尔逊（Fred Wilson）写博客谈论这门生意。马克·安德森和本·霍洛维茨（Ben Horowitz）支持创始人成为上市公司的CEO。罗恩·康威（Ron Conway）不知疲倦地把他投资的公司与自己的庞大私人人脉连接起来。AngelList 免费提供投资者和人才引荐。Founders Fund 明确让创始人套现。First Round Capital 打造并运营一个内部平台。布拉德·菲尔德（Brad Feld）、马克·苏斯特（Mark Suster）、Floodgate、Felicis、Freestyle、Softech、Harrison Metal、Baseline 都秉持透明、创始人友好的理念。
大多数风投可不是这么运作的。想象一下，一位年轻创业者走进一家风投公司说：
“我们帮助客户，但不告诉他们具体是怎么帮的。我们的核心产品是大众商品，却不公开定价。即使公开了，也还有大量隐藏成本。客户必须批量购买，超出他们的实际需求。我们可能花好几个月才能让一个客户上手。我们拒绝大多数客户，却不给他们一个明确的答复。他们得不到专门的支持。他们不能选择或更换自己的对接代表。我们不承诺未来继续为他们服务。我们有数百个采用同样策略的竞争对手。现在，我的支票在哪儿？”
这种事连车管所（DMV）都做不出来。只有当供应商对买家握有权力时，这才有可能。随着公司建造成本越来越低，这种权力正在被侵蚀。大多数优秀的风投公司都明白这一点，并建立了声誉来抵消上述大部分问题。这就是“聪明钱”的含义。
但突破口就在这里。没有人把它量化，也没有人作出承诺。少数公司开始这么做了——Passion Capital 有一份用通俗英文写成的条款清单。加速器们当然也这么做。
但哪里有作出严格、量化承诺的风险投资呢？一份服务水平协议？
想象一下这样的推介：
“你好，我们是创始人友好资本（Founder Friendly Capital）。我们
• 给你一个快速明确的答复。3 次会议，2 周，是或否。 • 签署一份通俗英文的、创始人友好的条款清单。我们自己承担法律费用。 • 1 倍清算优先权，对公平交易没有否决权。四周内做出决定。没有单方面的保密协议（NDA）。 • 未来我们永远按比例跟投，或者把我们的股份卖回给你。 • 未经至少 50% 创始人同意，永远不会引入外部 CEO。 • 你将获得以下资源：我们招聘人员 X 小时的服务时间、Y 人脉网络的接触机会、与你的合伙人共度的办公时间。 • 投资额超过 $X 获得董事会席位，低于该金额则担任董事会观察员，不控制董事会 • 没有期权池稀释——投资前估值就是真实的投资前估值 • 最低投资金额为 $；最低持股比例为 % • 选择你的合伙人——不必不好意思开口 • 本轮融资的 10% 可用于创始人套现 ……”
改改数字。改改条款。重要的是透明。与其把每个选项都留着、处处留有余地，不如事先做出艰难的选择。一家自愿约束自己的风险投资公司，将被视为创始人友好、聪明钱，而且永远不会缺少机会。
There is an opportunity for a new VC Firm to brand itself. Recent brands in Venture Capital arose from transparency and founder-friendliness. YCombinator gives new, young, technical talent an entry into Silicon Valley. 500 Startups does it globally. Fred Wilson blogs the business. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz back Founders to be Public Company CEOs. Ron Conway tirelessly connects his investments to his huge personal network. AngelList gives away investor and talent introductions for free. Founders Fund explicitly cashes out Founders. First Round Capital builds and operates an internal platform. Brad Feld, Mark Suster, Floodgate, Felicis, Freestyle, Softech, Harrison Metal, Baseline all have transparent, founder-friendly philosophies.
That’s not how most VCs work. Imagine if a young entrepreneur were to walk into a VC firm and say:
“We help our customers but don’t tell them exactly how. Our core product is a commodity, yet we don’t disclose pricing. Even when we do, there are substantial hidden costs. It has to be bought in bulk, more than they want. We can take months to onboard a customer. We reject most of them but don’t actually give them a straight answer. They don’t get dedicated support. They don’t get to choose or replace their representative. We don’t commit to serve them in the future. We have hundreds of competitors with the same strategy. Now where’s my check?”
Not even the DMV could get away with this. It’s only possible when the supplier has power over the buyer. As companies get cheaper to build, that power is eroding. Most great VC firms know this, and have built reputations to counter much of the above. That’s what “smart money” means.
But there’s the opening. No one quantifies it or promises it. A few are beginning to – Passion Capital has a Termsheet in Plain English. The accelerators of course do this.
But where’s the venture capital with a strict, quantified promise? A Service Level Agreement?
Imagine this pitch:
“Hello, we’re Founder Friendly Capital. We
• Give you a quick and clear answer. 3 meetings, 2 weeks, yes or no.
• Sign up to a plain-English, Founder-Friendly Termsheet. We pay our own legal costs.
• 1x Liquidation Preference, no veto on Arms Length transactions. Four weeks to decide. No one-way NDAs.
• We’ll always do our pro-rata in the future or sell you back our stake.
• Will never bring in an outside CEO without at least 50% Founder consent.
• You’ll get access to the following resources. X hours of our recruiter time. Access to Y network. Office hours with your Partner.
• Board Seat above $X, Board Observer below that, no Board Control
• No Option Pool Shuffle – the Pre-Money is the true Pre-Money
• Minimum investment amount is $__; Minimum ownership percentage is __%
• Choose your Partner – don’t be embarrassed to ask
• 10% of the Round can be used for Founder Liquidity
…”
Change the numbers. Change the terms. It’s the transparency that matters. Instead of leaving every option open and wiggle room on everything, make hard choices up front. A Venture Capital Firm that voluntarily constrains itself will be viewed as Founder Friendly, Smart Money, and will never be short of opportunity.