Robert Mowry

Expertise enables a nuanced understanding of industry challenges, trends, and innovative solutions, shedding light on the unknowns. Continuous learning, research, experimentation, and sharing insights through platforms like blogs and podcasts are vital for harnessing this expertise in making informed investment choices. Personally, some podcast series have been as enlightening as a full course curriculum, packing valuable insights from fellow GPs into 40 hours of listening.

Direct questioning can elucidate their vision, values, and expectations, while inquiring about challenges, failures, and learnings can gauge their honesty, transparency, and feedback. Such interactions also facilitate rapport, trust, and alignment when seeking a venture capital partner for your startup, ensuring a well-informed decision.

Distinguish between talk and track record by examining their history of deals and exits, shedding light on their investment strategy, criteria, and performance, substantiating their claims. Assess their support for portfolio companies, negotiation skills, and exit expertise to gauge their proactive deal-making capability instead of reliance on others.

Evaluate a potential partner's industry reputation by attending events and webinars where they speak or moderate. These platforms let you assess their communication skills, expertise, and presence while observing interactions with others. Additionally, observe their behavior on the golf course and how they treat service staff, which can reflect their honesty, integrity, and thoughtfulness.

Evaluating their digital footprint and the feedback they receive from various sources can provide valuable insights into their credibility and online presence. Discrepancies, such as hundreds of upvotes on LinkedIn posts but hundreds of downvotes on Reddit comments, may indicate a disconnect or an enabling community that warrants caution.

To gauge a potential partner's industry reputation through referrals, reach out to reliable sources in your network within the same field. Specifically, seek recommendations from colleagues, clients, or industry peers whom you are mutually connected with on LinkedIn, as they are less likely to be cherry-picked and can likely speak to a broader experience than just those associated with their successs. Their feedback can provide valuable insights into the partner's credibility and standing.