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March 19, 2009 (3:39 PM) by Ainslie Simmonds
What venture capital clients care about
When venture capital (VC) or private equity firms are your client, they bring a laser focus to the question “What do clients care about?”. The answer is simple and pervasive in every interaction you have: speed and return.
Speed. When venture capital firms make an investment in a company and want to bring a product to market, there is a premium on the need for speed. VCs need to see a return and time is measured in hours and days, not months and years. That fast pace seems to be a complete disconnect for traditional agencies that have huge organizations to navigate and a fondness for long, extended PowerPoint presentations. Traditional agencies are so much more comfortable working with consumer companies that are currently planning for 2012. By 2012 VCs most likely will have exited their current portfolio of companies and may have even moved on to an entirely different strategy to follow market trends. They get in, the get out, and they want to make money in the process.
Return. Venture capital and private equity want to make money. Lots of money. But they also have a deep appreciation for the need for investment to create that return. They are willing to spend into anything that works and they will quickly stop spending against anything that doesn’t. They know experience counts and don’t want to pay for anything but seasoned talent. An agency that isn’t focused on the results, can’t staff with experience or isn’t completely comfortable with the marketing ROI will fail.
So what should venture capitalists look for in an agency? A nimble organization with the ability to execute quickly and no hand-offs from strategy to execution. They also need a firm that lives the results. Not one that says they live the results but one that knows, in every level of the organization, that success is only defined one way — making the numbers. So let’s go make money. Fast.
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