The VC decision making process can feel opaque and at times even capricious for entrepreneurs. Part of the reason is that many VC firms have complex internal partnership dynamics. This is especially true for larger firms with many general partners, since those firms need to have a way to come to decisions on deals. That often means that some partners are more senior and have greater say. It helps if your deal is brought to the partnership by one of those senior partners. But it does not follow that you should try to ‘switch horses’ if you are working with a more junior partner (unless you have a deal that VC firms are heavily competing for). The reason is that in most firms senior partners won’t take deals away from the folks who brought them in. And obviously it usually means you lose the junior partner’s support. Complex partnership dynamics may of course exist even when there are only a few partners. At Union Square Ventures we try to avoid this by having a consensus based approach in which everyone participates equally. We also tend to talk about deals early and often. Taken together this minimizes the risk for entrepreneurs that there is some last minute change of heart.

The VC decision making process can feel opaque and at times even capricious for entrepreneurs. Part of the reason is that many VC firms have complex internal partnership dynamics. This is especially true for larger firms with many general partners, since those firms need to have a way to come to decisions on deals. That often means that some partners are more senior and have greater say. It helps if your deal is brought to the partnership by one of those senior partners. But it does not follow that you should try to ‘switch horses’ if you are working with a more junior partner (unless you have a deal that VC firms are heavily competing for). The reason is that in most firms senior partners won’t take deals away from the folks who brought them in. And obviously it usually means you lose the junior partner’s support. Complex partnership dynamics may of course exist even when there are only a few partners. At Union Square Ventures we try to avoid this by having a consensus based approach in which everyone participates equally. We also tend to talk about deals early and often. Taken together this minimizes the risk for entrepreneurs that there is some last minute change of heart.