20VC: AngelList's Parker Thompson on How He Evaluates Startup Founders & Why The Move To Series A Is Harder Than Ever?

Parker Thompson is a Partner @ AngelList and creator of popular parody Twitter Account, Startup L Jackson. At AngelList Parker has made investments in the likes of former guests, Algolia, Realty Shares and Keen IO. Prior to joining AngelList, Parker was a Partner at 500 Startups in SF and his illustrious path prior to investing includes Pivotal Labs, co-founding PlaceSite, preserving the interwebs at the Internet Archive, and working on digital copyright at UC Berkeley's iSchool.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Parker made his way into the world of early stage investing from the world of operations?

2.) How does Parker look to evaluate startup founders? What questions does he like to ask? What traits does he like to see in the core exec?

3.) Why does Parker think "not enough traction" is a BS VC excuse? How should VC's approach saying no to founders? What are the real reasons a VC is saying no in this case?

4.) Why does Parker believe the jump to Series A is bigger than ever? What has caused this? What metrics do startups have to achieve to make this move successfully?

5.) How should founders determine how much money to raise? If they can should they raise a 'warchest'? Why should founders not be concerned with dilution in the early days?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Parker's Fave Blog: Stratechery, Nuzzel

Parker's Fave Book: The Modernist Cuisine

Parker's Most Recent Investment: Common Networks

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Parker on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

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