{"id":47204,"date":"2023-10-20T15:52:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/if-you-do-something-really-great-vcs-will-swarm-you-airtree-ventures-paul-bennetts-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:52:48","slug":"if-you-do-something-really-great-vcs-will-swarm-you-airtree-ventures-paul-bennetts-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/if-you-do-something-really-great-vcs-will-swarm-you-airtree-ventures-paul-bennetts-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you do something really great VCs will swarm you\u201d: AirTree Ventures\u2019 Paul Bennetts &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/l_ideas_445.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_ideas_445\"><\/div>\n<p>Geography and warm introductions don\u2019t make a difference to AirTree Ventures investment director Paul Bennetts, he says if you\u2019ve got a great startup idea, he\u2019ll jump on the next plane to meet you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bennetts took part in an Ask Me Anything on Product Hoist where he fielded all sorts of questions from entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He played down the idea that founders should get an introduction to venture capitalists they would like to pitch to.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo something great. It\u2019s that easy or hard. If you do something really great VCs will swarm you. And then it won\u2019t matter how to get in front of them \u2013 social media (that will work), camp outside your office (that will work), use a PR person (that will work) or a mutual connection (that will work),\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would play down this idea of needing an introduction. I didn\u2019t need an introduction to meet my wife-to-be so why would a VC need one for an investment? If a young Einstein wants to meet me \u2013 firstly I count my lucky stars and secondly he can reach out anyway he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>AirTree Ventures has a $60 million fund that focuses on seed and growth stage investments. Over the past year or so the firm has invested in <a href=\"growth\/growth-strategy\/online-furniture-marketplace-brosa-secures-2-million-investment-from-airtree-ventures\/2015072115143.html\">online furniture marketplace Brosa<\/a>, rostering software startup Ento,&nbsp;<a href=\"growth\/airtree-ventures-barking-up-the-right-tree-with-pawshake\/2014121513842.html\">pet-sitting marketplace PawShake<\/a>, <a href=\"growth\/glamcorner-raises-seed-funding-from-airtree-ventures-hoping-to-emulate-rent-the-runways-success-in-the-fashion-rental-market\/2015043014646.html\">graphic design startups Design Crowd<\/a> and <a href=\"financing-a-business\/venture-capital\/canva-raises-77-million-prepares-to-launch-canva-for-work\/2015050414663.html\">Canva<\/a>, and <a href=\"growth\/glamcorner-raises-seed-funding-from-airtree-ventures-hoping-to-emulate-rent-the-runways-success-in-the-fashion-rental-market\/2015043014646.html\">designer fashion rental startup GlamCorner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t subscribe to a sector focus,\u201d Bennetts says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just looking for amazing Australian teams building tech enabled businesses. That\u2019s the best part of my job \u2013 I have no idea what\u2019s going to cross my desk next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To check out the full AMA, which includes Bennetts&#8217; thoughts on what types of startups his cat would invest in, head over to Product Hoist.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>Want to grow your business<\/i> <a href=\"startupschool\/events\/how-to-use-instagram-to-grow-your-business\/\"><i>with Instagram?<\/i><\/a> <i>StartupSmart School can help.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geography and warm introductions don\u2019t make a difference to AirTree Ventures investment director Paul Bennetts, he says if you\u2019ve got<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9,28,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}