Looking to get in front of VCs? You should have hung out at the lobby bar at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara last week. The annual NVCA meeting drew nearly 1,000 venture capitalists including the industry's luminaries such as John Doerr and Brook Byers of Kleiner Perkins, Dick Kramlich of NEA, Mike Moritz of Sequoia, Paul Ferri of Matrix and on and on. It was a members only conference so you had to be a card carrying venture capitalist to get into the sessions and socializing. I attended in my role as a venture partner with Velocity Venture Capital. Since I identify myself as an entrepreneur first I felt like a sheep in wolf's clothing. A fly on the wall. Behind enemy lines. This was a chance to see what the biggest most powerful venture capitalists are really like behind closed doors and talking to their peers. 

I hate to disappoint you but forget the vulture capital label. These guys are more humble than arrogant. They feel more lucky than smart. And they really identify with the trials and tribulations of the entrepreneur. John Doerr who described himself as a failed entrepreneur, called venture capital " a service business - serving entrepreneurs and we better serve them having been in their shoes." He advised the ballroom full of VCs to "Watch our language... and useless pontificating in front of entrepreneurs". When Mike Moritz was asked how he transitioned from a Time Magazine journalist to his legendary success as a VC with Sequioia he paused then answered, "as soon as you think you know what you're doing, you get a rude comeuppance and you fall on your backside...". These were from VC titans whose firms have invested together in 50 companies, including Google, Apple, Amazon, AOL, Apple, Citrix, Yahoo, Intel, Intuit, PayPal, Sun, Lotus, Cisco, Oracle, YouTube, etc. You get the idea. Their shared portfolio is the Who's Who of Silicon Valley. 

It's good to know you may get their respect as an entrepreneur but how do you get their dollars? Moritz gave away a secret if you want to improve your odds with Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins.  After 50 syndicated investments between the two firms, they still haven't invested in companies whose name begins with H, J, Q, U, X, Y or Z. When it comes to raising capital, you've got to do whatever it takes. We like our name but for the right terms I could be swayed: Hundability? Jundability? Zundability?...