We raise growth capital for tech companies, so I spend a lot of time with CEOs who are choosing a new investor from between Firm A and Firm B.  Picking your investors is a critical decision that has long-term consequences.  Given the investors are often future Board members; you may be hiring your boss.

While the investors are busy scrubbing your background with calls to former colleagues, customers and classmates, you need to make time to do the same to them.  The sources of information on your potential investor include: (i) the investor, (ii) the references the investor provides (usually happy portfolio CEOs) and (iii) references you discover (often less happy portfolio CEOs).  In this post I will discuss the first group.  I will follow this with a future post on questions for portfolio executives.

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