Should you respond to VC associates?

Today’s edition covers:

• Our accelerator database with the top 100 accelerators for founders (thank you Ivelina from PIN!)

• Top tech news / Twitter posts of the week

• Whether you should respond to VC associates, how they play a role at firms, and how to make the most of a meeting

This tweet made me laugh, especially as a former VC associate. As a founder, should you respond?

TLDR: I think founders should talk to VC associates, and not just because I was one formerly. I write more below on how associates play into decision-making at VC firms, how to make the most of an intro meeting, and how to avoid the biggest downside (aka wasting your time).

Refer other founders/startup operators/angels who would find content like this helpful:

100 top accelerators database

PIN put together a database of 100 top accelerators for founders including application links, deadlines, and sorting based on location, industry, and more. Find it here.

Most interesting things of this week:

A super thoughtful 100+ page consumer trends ft AI and Ozempic. WeWork might be done for good? Dave Portnoy is the owner of Barstool again “for $0” and this thread is an interesting deep dive past the headlines. More AI coming from big tech, incl Amazon for sellers and YouTube for creators. A bad week for companies collaborating with creators/celebrities, with MrBeast v Virtual Dining Concepts (creator of MrBeast Burger) and some backlash among BetterUp employees v. its Chief Impact Officer Prince Harry. A wild lawsuit centering around the Fearless Fund’s Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards Black women who own small businesses $20K in grants.

And maybe we should all just become UPS drivers:

Should you respond to VC associates?

How VC associates fit into a firm
This varies my firm, but VC associates are usually hired specifically to source and do diligence on companies. Some firms hire classes of analysts/associates just to source.

A big part of the role is also putting together research around specific theses that a firm has - i.e. they’re really interested in [consumer AI applications] and an associate is tasked with researching, creating a market map, and helping the firm understand if they should be investing in that industry, and if so, in what part of the stack of that industry.

How VC associates influence investment decisions
VC associates usually don’t have decision-making power, which is why they’re written off so much, but I do think they can be more influential than people realize.

This also varies by firm, but I generally think VC associates can help advocate for a firm doing an investment or influence how a firm thinks about investing (or not) in a specific space. They’re the ones doing diligence/analysis and putting together research for senior partners. Over time, associates tend to build expertise in specific verticals (out of personal interest, getting pulled in to see specific deals in an industry they’ve done a lot of work in already, etc) so their opinions start to matter more.

In my experience, associates can get partners interested in something they otherwise wouldn’t take a second look at. Associates can also kill potential investments