First Impressions

Growth capital investments are much more than just inserting money into a company. If a company does not have a good CEO and management team, it will never grow into a great company. When evaluating whether or not to give a business venture capital, this is something we evaluate.

Many people say that first impressions are everything. I do not entirely think this is true, but the more I speak with CEOs, the more I become a believer. If a company is hard to get a hold of, blows off calls, doesn’t give accurate information and is not very nice over the phone, then the chance of investment usually decreases. If we cannot get accurate information now, the company is usually hiding something and in the future, we will always have to be weary.

Also, at the expansion stage, CEOs are usually the best sales person in the company. If this person is not friendly when a potential customer/partner calls, it is not a good sign.

OpenView Labs also does a lot of hard work around different initiatives for our companies. If the CEO does not take the time to understand and appreciate labs, they will not implement all of Lab’s hard work and therefore not benefit.

In my time at OpenView, one thing I have noticed is that companies growing very quickly usually have CEOs that are very easy to get in touch with regardless of sector, personality or location.