Getting into the heads of Venture Capitalists can be a tricky job, but essential for raising large amounts of money. From forming, financing and developing over 100 early-stage companies and investing with instincts, Kevin Kinsella of Avalon Ventures provides advice to entrepreneurs on connecting with VCs.

1. 4 Pieces of Advice for
Founders Connecting With
Top Venture Capitalists
by Kevin Kinsella
Founder of Avalon Ventures

2. About Kevin Kinsella
Kevin Kinsella is the founder of Avalon Ventures. He is specialized in the
formation, financing and development of more than 100 early-stage
companies.
Prior to founding Avalon, Mr. Kinsella worked for Solar Turbines
International where he was in charge of all international joint ventures,
barter and counter-trade. Prior to that, he ran a technology exchange
program between the U.S. and Latin America, was an op-ed columnist of
the Boston Herald American and much more. Mr. Kinsella is a graduate of
MIT with a Bachelor of Science in Management with minors in Electrical
Engineering and Political Science. He is current on the Board of Directors
for many Avalon portfolio companies.

3. Getting into the heads of Venture Capitalists
can be a tricky job, but essential for raising
large amounts of money.

4. From forming, financing and developing
over 100 early-stage companies and
investing with my instincts…
Advice on connecting with VCs:

5. 1. Show Passion
Great ideas for new companies or products are
originally not thought to be great ideas. If great ideas
were just lying around, other people (or more likely,
other companies) would have thought of them
already and tried to do them.

6. Passion
Great ideas require a passionate
entrepreneur with a unique
vision of the future environment,
and specifically the future
growth of his/her particular
product or service, to push
these ideas and reality against
the naysayers.

7. Passion
When facing the long odds against success,
entrepreneurs must:
• Marshal a vision
• Get other co-founders to share it
• Convince relatives and/or VCs to back it financially
• Implement it
• Work days, nights and weekends to make it happen

8. Passion is a key ingredient to success.
It needs to be visible and is certainly one
of the things I look for in the founders we
at Avalon Ventures back.

9. 2. Deep Technical Domain
Knowledge
There is no substitute for expertise.
Being able to do something faster, cheaper and
better all stems from being ‘smarter than the
average bear’. Smarter bears have a greater chance
of success — and those are the ones we back.

10. Domain Knowledge
Entrepreneurs need to convince VCs
that not only do they have a great
product, idea and plan, but that they
are the one a VC should be hiring to
make it or do it.

11. Domain Knowledge
We spend a great deal of time assuring
ourselves that we have identified the A-Team
to execute on a business plan.
The nightmare scenario is to fund a company
and later find out that a rival fund has
actually funded the A-Team and Avalon
funded the B-Team.

12. 3. Execute On Plan &
Within Budget
An entrepreneur does not have the resources to
waste on gross inefficiencies and bad ideas for
which there is no accountability.

13. an example:
An Avalon-backed entrepreneur who built the first
privately financed vessel for the US Military since
World War II used no government contracts.
When asked in a public forum, “How have you been
so capital efficient?” his answer was, “Because it was
my own money on the line!”

14. Execute on Plan &
Within Budget
The more you can show that
even a small scale execution
has done well and that you
have been capital efficient,
the more attractive you and
your venture will be to
potential investors.

15. The Takeaway
Avalon seeks A-Team founders with
deep knowledge, expertise and
passion, and that have a vision that
will transform an industry.
While “investing with your gut” can
seem like an intangible method of
investing, we’ve found the right ways
of reducing the risk of our bets and
discovering A-Teams time and again.

16. Learn more!
Visit http://avalon-ventures.com/blog for more actionable advice
on early stage startups, VC funding and other entrepreneurial tips.