failings as they were theirs. Calacanis — Okay. Questions? Audience Member 1 — One of the founders I talked to earlier said that the lead on his seed round didn’t even touch or try out his product. Do you play with or use all the products pitched to you? Katz — Usually someone in our office does. It does not surprise me with seed deals. A lot of times with seed deals it is purely the entrepreneur. It is, ‘this guy is going to thrive somehow. He may or may not have it figured out right now, but he is going to iterate along the way and get there’. The fund amount may only be twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars, and the the investor is taking a bet on the entrepreneur. It is hard to try Software as a Service (SaaS) products. Some of these things just don’t apply to the investor. For dating apps we might have the guy in our office try it. Instead of relying on just our one experience with it, what is more valuable is talking to many different customers who do use it. That gives us real feedback. Audience Member 2 — You said to start early when building these relationships. Does that mean we should be talking to series A investors now even though we are not at the stage to be raising series A? Katz — It’s not it is something you have to do, but it is helpful. If we know each other now. And I see your week twelve presentation, and it is that much better. And as you start to get more user data, you send me a some updates. Not every day, but every couple months saying ‘hey this is what is going on. We are going to be pitching in about four months’. And then you reach out to me in four months; I will go back and look at those emails, and I’ll remember those conversations and pitch — I’m coming in much more educated than if I never met you. Jason — I think it is wise. We have a lot of folks in our first and second class of the incubator. They took the time to meet with venture capitalists early. All the sudden it is a year later, and they have had three meetings. Now things are not a ‘no’. They are a ‘let’s keep talking’. Really what you’re trying to do is connect the dots to make that line. Your building credibility along the way. Audience Member 3 — Jason said on an older This Week in Startups (TWIST) that he finds it really off putting when a CEO does not lead an investment conversation. Do you have an tactical advice on who should be presenting in the meeting? Katz — I think the CEO does need to be the CEO. It can be confusing when too many people are talking. I’m fine with other people jumping in. Especially if it is on their area of expertise. You want to get a feel for how the company is actually managed. My personal pet peeve is when people come in and they are both called founder. You don’t know who the CEO is, and they don’t know who the CEO is. That will end up being an issue at some point. Jason — That is a red flag. Co-CEO is an even bigger red flag. Katz — And married couples are an automatic no. Jason — It almost never works. But, when people come with co-CEOs, it is basically like they are institutionalizing disfunction. ‘This is a dysfunctional relationship. We are not even aware that everyone sees us as a red flag.’ Or they are aware of it, but they do it anyways even though everyone has determined that co-CEOs never work. Whoever is the best communicator and leader should be the CEO. Whoever is the best technical should be the CTO. Audience Member 4 — You said that the CEO should be talking, does that apply to mainly the presentation or the questions too? Katz — I don’t want the CEO to be the only person to answer questions. If there is a question specifically about a sales strategy, and the VP of sales is in the room, it is great if they take it. But the CEO runs the show. Jason — In a functional company the CEO would be the one to direct the question. If one of you chose to be the CEO, and one of you chose to be the chief product officer. The product officer would take questions about the product. Katz — We don’t want anyone in the room to be a wallflower. If somebody is in the room and never says one word, bad — don’t even bring them if that is the case. Jason — Rolling up with too many people is also a bit of a red flag. It is usually two or three people. When more than that come the company looks dysfunctional. Katz — Also sit on the same side of the conference table. It