Our article, How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?, describes the results of a survey of almost nine hundred venture capitalists (VCs). We asked VCs about eight different topics: deal sourcing; investment selection; valuation; deal structure; post-investment value-add; exits; internal organization of firms; and relationships with limited partners.
We first consider how VCs source their potential investments—a process also known as generating deal flow. The average firm in our sample screens 200 companies and makes only four investments in a given year. Most of the deal flow comes from the VCs’ networks in some form or another. Over 30% of deals are generated through professional networks. Another 20% are referred by other investors while 8% are referred by existing portfolio companies. Almost 30% are proactively self-generated. Only 10% come inbound from company management. These results emphasize the importance of active deal generation.