Start-Up CEOs Gripe About VCs' Lack of Operating Experience

Start-up CEOs often spend nearly all of their waking hours building their companies. Their investors, on the other hand, typically appear once a month for board meetings. So it’s not surprising that some entrepreneurs may feel a little resentful toward their venture backers.

That’s somewhat evident from the new survey, “A Seat at the Table,” which canvassed more than 500 VCs and CEOs at venture-backed companies and asked them several questions about their thoughts on boards. While the results of that survey (see our coverage here)–conducted by the National Venture Capital Association and our venture-capital research arm, VentureSource–show that most CEOs are happy with their venture-capital board members, an open-ended question at the end invited respondents to shed any additional insight…and of the 50-plus comments (mostly anonymous) that came through, a large share touched on this same theme: VCs without operational experience–you know, the investment banker types–add little value on the board.

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