Should venture investors deliver tough, critical feedback to founders despite the risk of permanently damaging the relationship?

Jason Lemkin · Nov 30, 2022 · hedged

Being the investor who delivers the hard feedback usually damages the founder relationship permanently, and he is no longer sure it's worth doing

In the majority of cases where he had to be the ass-kicker the relationship never recovered — more often than he expected, though not with the best founders

35:22 Harsh investor feedback usually permanently damages the founder relationship so may not be worth it

Harry Stebbings · Nov 30, 2022

A founder who can't take tough feedback is simply a bad leader, especially in B2B

Enterprise customers and good engineers will deliver harsh feedback regardless, so an inability to absorb it makes effective leadership impossible

36:49 A founders inability to take tough feedback signals poor leadership especially in b2b

Jason Lemkin · Nov 30, 2022 · hedged

Slow-dripping tough feedback may actually be right — it's better if the person reaches the conclusion themselves — but VCs' punctuated board cadence means three months later is often too late

Managers get better outcomes when reports reach conclusions on their own, but VCs only meet every two months and don't have the daily contact that lets realisations emerge naturally

37:20 Slow drip feedback letting founders self conclude may be right but vc board cadence is too infrequent to do it well

Cyan Banister · Oct 19, 2020

Investors have an obligation to tell underperforming founders how they're really thinking, even when it's painful to deliver

When you withhold that information, founders lose the opportunity to learn about themselves; most founders have no prior experience managing large teams and didn't gain those skills by osmosis, and the 'crushing it' culture makes them afraid to ask for help

22:57 Investors have an obligation to tell founders the truth even when painful

Tony Fadell · Mar 15, 2021

Investors pussyfoot around CEOs in board meetings to protect their own reputation and relationships, and that is the wrong priority — the mission, the money at work and the team must come before the relationship

From over 200 investments and many board meetings, he sees investors afraid of a bad rep if they say something negative; this isn't a country club, it's about getting something done, so you have to tell the truth

12:46 Investors avoid tough feedback to protect their own reputation not the founders interest