Venture Capital as a Hyperlocal Game

A few weeks ago, Chris Mims of The Wall Street Journal wrote a great piece on the struggle between entrepreneurial energy spreading across the country while the dollars allocated by LPs in venture capital funds increases in concentration in the Bay Area. Specifically, Mims reports that while the share of U.S. VC dollars allocated to startups in L.A., NYC, and Boston roughly amounts to 20% overall over the past two decades, the share going to Bay Area startups has ballooned from around 30% two cycles ago to over 50% in 2016, when we saw many large funds scoop up massive LP dollars.

This is a touchy subject, because for a variety of reasons, the Bay Area isn’t the most welcoming place considering the costs and cultural corners, yet as the country emerges from the Great Recession stronger in aggregate, the “cap table” of that rebuilding has shifted dramatically to the coasts (and a few coastal cities in particular), and especially, to the Bay Area. Additionally, before I begin this post, I want to disarm the chorus in advance — I know that companies can be built anywhere, and that there are plenty of examples of VCs in the Bay Area investing outside their market, as well as great VC firms which are headquartered outside the Bay Area. There’s an advantage to being local, and those who breakthrough outside this chamber deserve extra credit, for the odds are more difficult.

The point of this post, however, is to share some observations on how location — either via proximity or distance — drives so much dealmaking, and then to share some ways to overcome geography. I’m reminded of the lyrics of a Tina Turner classic: “What’s love got to do, got to do with it? What’s love but a second hand emotion?” Just replace “love” with “location,” and the answer is: A lot.

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Why is location so important to LPs, those who invest in VC firms, and the VCs themselves?

1/ Only way for VC firm to exit is IPO or exit (or selling shares in future rounds). IPOs are rare, and becoming tougher given the startup narrative to stay private as long as possible. Exits are also rare, and most of those big exits (per CB Insights) occur in California. If location drives M&A, location will also then impact where a VC allocates dollars. (Location also helps drive a closer bond between VC and founder, which helps in cases like special liquidity events for an early investor to sell shares, among other techniques.)

2/ Proximity affords VCs more time to track a founder or investment. Whereas the seed world moves on quick decisions, I’ve seen many VCs track potential investments for about a year, either waiting for the timing to be right and/or to gain a better picture of the company and team. Here, proximity drives familiarity and eases the fears of an investor who may not otherwise have enough time to get comfortable with the risk presented to them.

3/ LPs want their GPs to be active managers of their investments. It’s possible yet still hard to be an active VC or Board Member when the company is a 6-hour flight with a connection away, but yes — I know — many do it. But, that right has to be earned. If you look at the folks who do this well, they are considered rainmakers by LPs. And, there aren’t tons of them.

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Ok, if this generally the reality, then what? Here’s how I briefly breakdown what startups at various stages should consider about Bay Area capital:

Seed – If you’re outside the Bay Area, raising seed capital in the Bay Area is hard. Seed capital is mostly institutionalized now, meaning those investors are investing other peoples’ money, and in order for them to get a return, they need to see a large potential multiple on what is a smaller check, and one where their stake will get smaller with success via dilution. For founders in ecosystems like LA, Boston, NYC, Seattle, Chicago, seed ecosystems have emerged thankfully to pick up the slack. Those funds can theoretically be more “active’ with their investments by being local, and theoretically help prepare those seedlings for future rounds, where the Bay Area may come into play. For those who are pre-seed or in the seed stage without much traction, it is really hard to raise a seed round in the Bay Area because local investors here have so many options to invest locally.

Series A and Series B “Classic VC Rounds” – Because of the economic incentives of traditional VC funds (firms managing $150m to $1 billion or so), those GPs have to allocate their dollars to the best economic opportunities they see, regardless of location. It is already quite difficult for a Bay Area company to get a Series A done, so imagine how that risk increases for something out-of-market. That said, and no one will say this publicly to you, but the bar is exceptionally higher for a Bay Area VC to make an out-of-market investment. Yes, they will miss good companies (as I wrote last night about Dollar Shave Club). Luckily for founders, non-Bay Area VCs will invest out of their own market, as we saw with Dollar Shave as well, or with east coast firms that invest in Europe, and so forth. For those founders who are outside the Bay Area and seeking a classic Bay Area Series A or B round, the formula to score one is to (a) demonstrate exceptional growth, where you will be offered multiple term sheets, or (b) invest in a long-term relationship that eases the fear of location in the eyes of your target VC.

Growth VC, Pre-IPO or Pre-Exit Rounds – At this point, more people want to give you money than you have room to take, and regardless of your location. So if you make it here, location doesn’t matter.

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This is a tough subject to write about. I know it’s unfair, especially as so much of the rebuilding from the Great Recession is seen through the opportunity of building a business. Everyone wants to be Zuckerberg or be on Shark Tank. Everyone wants to be CEO or an investor. And while it is possible, location drives a lot of it, and that particular location isn’t an easy one to physically crack into.

I myself have flirted with the idea of not living in the Bay Area given the increased traffic, congestion, and cost of living, but then I see the power of the local network effect and get nervous. So much of what I do is a local game. Hyper-local, in fact. I’m in awe of those who do it outside the physical network because it means they are even stronger. We moved back to the Bay Area in 2011, and I wonder how hard it would’ve been even if that was pushed back a year. As I’ve shared with you all here, I’ve had a very hard time finding a space in the ecosystem and generally believe my proximity to the epicenter helped me increase my “surface area of luck.”

I wanted to write this post because this issue has come up a bunch with founders I interact with outside the Bay Area, and I know reporters or larger VCs won’t write about it because most reporters don’t understand the nuance to the financial issues like Mims detailed out and the investors don’t want to cut off any potential flow of deals.

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There is a silver lining, however: With billions more people coming online worldwide over the next decade, with new geographies emerging with their own capital bases, with traditionally underrepresented minority groups begin growing into the dominant majority, and as larger Bay Area firms grow even larger fund sizes, the types of opportunities created over the next two decades may look different than what occurred over the last two decades. And, thankfully, there are plenty of LPs and VCs (even in the Bay Area) who see the opportunity and are positioned to take advantage of it — or have been taking advantage of it for quite some time (more on this in a future post). You’ll hear about those returns over the next few years.