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Top 5 VC Mentors and Early-Stage Investors in Boston [Study]

Over the last 3 months, numerous entrepreneurs building early-stage startups or applying for the TechStars Boston 2012 program, and a few who are new to Boston have reached out to me to get my feedback on the Boston VC community.

Most of their questions have revolved around 3 areas -

1.  Who are the “best” VC Partners?
2.  Who are the “best” Principals / Associates, who actually provide value and are not just gate keepers?
3.  Who are the “best” micro-VCs?

More often than not, when an entrepreneur asks me about the “best” this or that, I get the sense that she is asking me about who is likely to invest in her early stage startup. I try really hard to give an unbiased opinion on the VC ecosystem in Boston, derived from a combination of my personal experience and anecdotes from other early-stage entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, apart from talking about how different Boston VCs invest in early-stage companies, I also try to impress on the entrepreneur that some of the VCs are truly generous with their time, advice and introductions through their network; i.e. – they make an amazing effort to be great mentors!

To get a better sense of the Boston VC ecosystem, I created a 4-question survey to get a wider range of feedback on 4 questions -

  1. Which Boston VC (Partner) is the best mentor?
  2. Which Boston VC (non-Partner) is the best mentor?
  3. Which Boston Micro-VC (Partner) is the best mentor?
  4. Which Boston VC is most likely to invest in an early-stage startup?

I sent the survey to founders from the TechStars Boston 2009, 2010 and 2011 classes, and asked friends in the Boston early-stage startup ecosystem to Tweet out the URL between January 1st and January 3rd of 2012.

Here are the results from 100 responses to the survey:

1.  Which Boston VC (Partner) is the best mentor?

Winner:  Antonio Rodriguez (with 19% of the vote)

Note:  There were 17 VCs who had 1 vote each, and I’ve filed them in the “Other” category

2. Which Boston VC (non-Partner) is the best mentor?

Winner: Richard Dale (with 23% of the vote)

Note: There were 6 Principals / Associates who had 1 vote each, and I’ve filed them in the “Other” category

3. Which Boston Micro-VC is the best mentor?

Winner: Katie Rae (with 21% of the vote)

Note: There were 5 Micro-VCs who had 1 vote each, and I’ve filed them in the “Other” category. Also, 3 people answered “None” for this question.

4. Which Boston VC is most likely to invest in an early-stage startup?

Winner: Atlas Venture (with 27% of the vote)

Note: There were 3 VCs who had 1 vote each, and I’ve filed them in the “Other” category. Also, 18 people answered “None” for this question, which I find very insightful and telling.

So there you have it. Now, go get these great VCs and Micro VCs to be your mentors, and then convince them to invest in your company. Good luck!

Notes:  

  1. I focussed this survey on VCs and Micro-VCs.  The Angel Investors in Boston are an integral part of the early-stage startup ecosystem, and require a separate post.  That’s for another day.
  2. Atlas Venture (Jeff Fagnan, Fred Destin and Dustin Dolginow), Boston Seed (Nicole Stata), TechStars (Katie Rae and Reed Sturtevant) and Apricot Capital (Jennifer Lum) are all investors in Kinvey.  But I only get 1 vote. :)

Editor’s Note: Sravish is part of BostInno’s insider network. This post first appeared on his personal blog.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/01/03/top-5-vc-mentors-and-early-stage-investors-in-...