David Lee at Startup School NY 2014

TL;DR

David Lee, a founding partner at SV Angel, shares three core lessons from his seven years investing: what SV Angel looks for in founders (people over ideas, ability to express vision, being a good listener who is strong-willed but flexible), what founders should look for in investors (value-add, not valuation or dilution), and the biggest lesson from Ron Conway – that reputation is your biggest as

Key insights

• SV Angel evaluates founders first, ideas second; they believe ideas morph but people don't.
• The single most important skill for a founder is the ability to express their vision to employees, investors, and customers – this is not about public speaking charisma but about authentic, infectious
• The best founders are great listeners in the sense of taking multiple inputs, processing them, synthesizing them, and forming a point of view – they are strong-willed but flexible, unlike founders who