Schoolboy Errors
Interview came and went. Presentation was OK. But then I totally crashed and burned on the questions afterwards methinks. In a rare moment of detailed analysis I shall go into more info.
The company I was looking at was one that the VC fund had invested in last year. The information they had given me was from that time. In my presentation I said that it was a good investment at that point in time and that they should do it (of course - given that they did do the investment it would have taken a lot of balls and even more evidence (which wasn't there) to say something else). I then went on to look at what happened in the company and marketplace in the past 12 months. Overall, I said that they had done well, but not as well as they could have done. My words were 8/10. More worryingly, things in the market were moving in a way which I did not think beneficial to them. However, I stuck my neck out and said that they were still a good investment today, though my VC should not take 100% of the current funding round and look for some other investors in order to protect against the downside.
So far so good. But then the killer question. "Say someone's approached us with regards to buying the company today. What would you say is a good price?". And off I went. Making a favourite Belgian breakfast dish, rather than answering. Eventually I says, well, you've been in for 1 year, so anything above a 50% return is good. Which is wrong. Really quite wrong. Because if that was the case, the company would not be a good investment today. So there. Now you know. Oh and they sprung one of these numerical tests on me that involves lots of really simple but detailed calculations under time pressure where my error rate goes up to 99% and I end up punching random numbers into the calculator. So I don't expect to hear back from them in a positive way. Pity really as I really liked the people.
Anyways. It's looking like an unemployed summer in France, which frankly is rather nice. A bientot.
In other news, I am reading Katherine Campbell's excellent book on Venture Capital - "smarter ventures - a survivor's guide to venture capital through the new cycle". I can highly recommend it. To underscore that I was interviewed by a celebrity CEO yesterday, the book is peppered with quotes from them. Quite a weird feeling to be reading quotes from someone in a book on the train to your interview by them.
CQW: Are your parents coming to graduation.
The company I was looking at was one that the VC fund had invested in last year. The information they had given me was from that time. In my presentation I said that it was a good investment at that point in time and that they should do it (of course - given that they did do the investment it would have taken a lot of balls and even more evidence (which wasn't there) to say something else). I then went on to look at what happened in the company and marketplace in the past 12 months. Overall, I said that they had done well, but not as well as they could have done. My words were 8/10. More worryingly, things in the market were moving in a way which I did not think beneficial to them. However, I stuck my neck out and said that they were still a good investment today, though my VC should not take 100% of the current funding round and look for some other investors in order to protect against the downside.
So far so good. But then the killer question. "Say someone's approached us with regards to buying the company today. What would you say is a good price?". And off I went. Making a favourite Belgian breakfast dish, rather than answering. Eventually I says, well, you've been in for 1 year, so anything above a 50% return is good. Which is wrong. Really quite wrong. Because if that was the case, the company would not be a good investment today. So there. Now you know. Oh and they sprung one of these numerical tests on me that involves lots of really simple but detailed calculations under time pressure where my error rate goes up to 99% and I end up punching random numbers into the calculator. So I don't expect to hear back from them in a positive way. Pity really as I really liked the people.
Anyways. It's looking like an unemployed summer in France, which frankly is rather nice. A bientot.
In other news, I am reading Katherine Campbell's excellent book on Venture Capital - "smarter ventures - a survivor's guide to venture capital through the new cycle". I can highly recommend it. To underscore that I was interviewed by a celebrity CEO yesterday, the book is peppered with quotes from them. Quite a weird feeling to be reading quotes from someone in a book on the train to your interview by them.
CQW: Are your parents coming to graduation.
posted by The Apprentice at 7:04 PM
4 Comments:
I loved the expression "BoozAllened him", but I'm not sure what it means! Can you spell it out for slow people such as me...
It's a basic consulting tool. When answering a question would leave you in a position where someone could nail your bottom, you reply with an ultra sophisticated answer, peppered with facts which could be interpreted either way. Do this long enough and the person gets tired by all the facts and loses interest, forgetting the question they asked in the first place.
by the way i may be in Singapore but i know who u are (cross checking is fun)
sad that we never met though...
by the way
http://zanat0s.typepad.com will celelbrate soon enough its 15.000 visitor :p
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