About This Episode

In this candid episode, Patric and Shub explore the challenging side of founder-VC relationships by sharing their most difficult experiences with concerning founder behaviors. They examine patterns of deceptive, manipulative, and hostile conduct they've encountered in the AEC startup ecosystem and discuss whether extreme personality traits are necessary for building outlier companies.

In This Episode

• Identifying concerning behavior patterns and their manifestation in startup founders
• Experiences with founders who fabricated term sheets and manipulated VC relationships to create false bidding wars
• Examples of hostile founder reactions when facing rejection or difficult conversations
• The most challenging case studies including founders with surprisingly few professional references across long careers
• Whether extreme traits are required for building successful AEC and construction technology companies

Timestamps

(00:33) - Introduction and Seinfeld reference setup

(03:11) - Defining the psychology aspect of VC work and founder evaluation

(06:18) - First category: Deceptive and manipulative behavior examples

(09:08) - Shub's story of a founder who falsely claimed term sheet offers

(17:47) - Patric's example of founders fabricating existing term sheets

(24:38) - Additional example of founders misrepresenting VC conversations

(31:11) - Second category: Hostility and aggressive reactions

(34:19) - Stories of founders making threats after receiving pass decisions

(41:32) - Third category: Most extreme challenging cases

(51:48) - The founder with zero professional references across four companies

(01:00:35) - Final discussion: Do you need extreme personalities to build outlier companies?

(01:07:30) - Conclusion and wrap-up

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Foundamental: ⁠⁠https://www.foundamental.com/⁠⁠

Patric Hellermann: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/aecvc/⁠⁠

Shub Bhattacharya: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shubhankar-bhattacharya-a1063a3/⁠⁠

Youtube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@foundamentalvc⁠⁠⁠

The Daily Blueprint: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/the-daily-blueprint⁠⁠⁠

#FounderBehavior #VentureCapital #StartupPsychology