the spark tank effect
why showing up live is the only way founders and vcs actually know each other
we held a pitch event this week with 30 vcs and 20 founders in one room.
the magic wasn't in the pitches. it was in the four hours between. one founder and one investor talking for 45 minutes. another pair finding a use case that neither had mentioned. a third realizing they both knew the same person from 10 years ago.
i've sat on a lot of zoom calls. i've done a lot of inbound. and i've never seen the real conversation happen through a screen.
live events are weird now because everyone's async. that's exactly why they work. when you pull 50 people into one room, the friction of logistics forces actual connection.
the presentations are the excuse. the meetings between pitches are the actual product.
this is why anyone telling you that venture is becoming remote is missing something. the remote layer is real. but it's made the in-person layer more important, not less.
if you're a founder and you haven't been in a room with your target investors yet, you haven't actually started fundraising.
when was the last time you saw someone in person that changed a decision you thought was settled?