Independent rating of Charles River Associates VC fund
Overall rating:
24 reviews
About Charles River Associates VC fund
Founded:
1965
How Charles River Associates VC fund invests
Average ticket size:
7.15M USD
Biggest investment:
18.6M USD
Would lead round:
Yes
Would coinvest:
Yes
Countries where invested:
Sectors of interest:
Founders' reviews of Charles River Associates VC fund
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Older than a year by non-portfolio founder
Crv Has Definitely Evolved...
CRV used to be the class of the Boston VC community, and the firm's mid-90's-vintage funds ranked among the very highest performers anywhere. But their early-2000s funds stalled and they even returned capital from one fund without investing it.
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Susan Wu
Looks like funded reviews and comments are working, CRV in that direction, recently they hired an EIR.
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Jon Aurbach is Great.
Jon was a pleasure to deal with at CRV. Was able to move extremely fast and was completely understanding of any issues that stood in the way of financing. We're just getting started but are very excited to be working with CRV.
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Smart People
Very honest and knowledgeable talk with Izhar.
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Quickstart
Wanted to apply for quickstart, sent info and got a response but they said hard to pick a winner in my business space. Nice folks but I don't think the quickstart program is really alive and kicking.
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Good Experience
Pitched them. Were fast to response and follow up. We were too early for them.
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Good Guys
These guys had funded a friend's company and we were starting to pitch to them. It wasn't a good fit for us, but my friends gave them high marks. The partner (why am I so bad at names??) went the extra mile to help their company - even coming in to our offices and making sure everything went well when we were exploring integrating our technologies. My friend also compared them very favorably to his angle investors. For what it's worth.
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Great Experience
Did a pitch for these guys and had a great experience. They clearly had done prep-work before the meeting and had intelligent questions and comments. The meeting was productive for both sides of the table.
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Very Pleasant and Quick
Pitched to Bill Tai and he passed, was very pleasant and quick. He was good enough to admit that he did not understand the business model, he was straight forward and direct which was refreshing.
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Charles River Ventures: Quick Start Program
Considering the current economic situation and the predictions of the market’s future described by Sequoia and others, I have the following questions.
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George Zachary: Class Act
I have hardly met another VC who is as professional, interested and engaged as George. I was impressed from the moment I met him to the week later he gave us a term sheet, to the 9 months later as he has become involved in our company. I would definiteyl show him your plan, as I believe he will give a quick response and move fast to secure a deal.
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Would Have Loved to Work with Them
Met George Zachary and was hugely impressed. These guys have lots of their own capital at stake and take the companies they like seriously. If not for an eleventh hour conflict of interest, we'd likely be working with them now
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Charles River/Quick Start/Susan Wu
Seeing the mixed bag of reviews and ratings of CRV, CRV-QS, and Susan in particular makes me think "yeah, that's right". Mixed Bag.
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Quickfart
The Quick Start program is kind of a joke. We were asked to come in and pitch our idea and told we would receive a response by day's end. We were given 30 minutes to pitch, which really isn't enough time to explain a dynamic market. I'm a proponent of "short and sweet", but every other VC alloted us 1:30 hours to explain our approach.
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Crv is Tough but Fair
Let me start off by saying that I am the CEO of a semiconductor startup so I have zero experience with Quickstart. I am a portfolio company of CRV so you can say my opinion is biased. This is my third start up. The first one went belly up the second went public and we are pre-revenue on this one. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly since I have worked in silicon valley since 1978. Needless to say I have been up and down Sand Hill Road more than I care to admit so I can honestly say that I have seen it all when it comes to venture capital. The name of the game in venture capital is to touch as many companies as possible to find the next "Google." Consequently many times people don't call back you just have to accept it as the normal course of business. I found CRV to be tough but fair in their analysis of my business plan. Quickstart is a new program so I'm sure CRV is still working out the kinks. It sounds as though there needs to be a more formal process of reviewing plans with a target date for follow up. The Quickstart program is a good idea that could benefit both CRV and entrepeneurs with a little more structure to reduce the fustration.
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Sarah Reed is Unprofessional General Counsel
Avoid dealing with Sarah Reed. She oversteps her bounderies as general counsel, as though she is a decision making partner. As an attorney we'd expect her to be fair and unbiased, but in our experience she's anything but. Arrogant ego.
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Definitely Quick, Maybe Rushed
Dealt with Susan Wu who gave a quick no for QuickStart. I appreciated the quick no, and she gave a brief explanation: she wanted our business model to copy a couple of large firms in our space. This was a topic other investors asked us about, but it seemed like Susan didn't have time to dialog.
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Strong Fund Based on Lots of Experience W/East Coast Office
CRV has a great deal of experience and a remarkably successful track record. While it's understandable that many entrepreneurs who are turned down by them have posted on here, readers shouldn't take it as an indication of CRV's overall quality. CRV has been a pioneer in the VC space in trying to address endemic/systemic problems like too much money chasing too few quality deals and the obvious need to share learnings across/among portfolio companies. Along with Matrix, General Catalyst and a couple others, they're still leading the top tier of the East Coast funds.
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Common Courtesy
I will never understand why any business person, who sought you out, refuses to return a follow up call or email -- amazing. My experience with CRV
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Quickstart Only for Social Networking"!
Chris told me that Quickstart is ONLY for Social Network Businesses !" WHAT"
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CEO
Bad Experiences with CRV
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Simply "Shrinking" the Traditional VC Model Does Not Work
When it comes to Seed Level Funding, The Problem is:
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Quickstart; Renamed Quicksand
The details of the program seem to be fairly straight forward: fund at the seed level, get a ConvDebt w/pref in exchange for shot at series "A". [sic] We'll fund some projects early, not expend a ton of overhead scrutinzing the incubation and launch then get more heavily involved at the first 'open' round.
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More Explanation Would Be Appreciated
They said 'no' and that was it. No explanation whatsoever.