And lots and lots of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Think about this behavior for a moment. Yet we venture capitalists and entrepreneurs stick together like a roving band, working and eating at the same places, staying in one another's orbit. Many times I have sat in one of the brown leather booths at Buck's and overheard things that I should not have heard about corporate mergers, or the potential firing of an executive, or just some juicy gossip all the while munching away on my pancakes. I've got my own theory.
Venture capital is hard.
Decisions that you help to make may lead to millions of dollars of loss or profit for your firm to say nothing of the lives of people whose jobs partially depend on what you decide. The managers of the companies that we fund marvel at this herding behavior. But in their favor, the venture capitalists' proximity to one another makes the entrepreneur's job of raising money easier. An entrepreneur can schedule numerous meetings sometimes up to four in a row for one day, and just zip up and down Sand Hill Road to get to them. I can't tell you how often entrepreneurs make sure to drop hints that they're seeing other venture capitalists.