Independent rating of DCM Ventures VC fund
Overall rating:
16 reviews
About DCM Ventures VC fund
Website:
Founded:
1996
Number of funds:
13
Number of investments:
598
Number of exits:
127
Headquarters:
Organization type:
Private Equity Firm, Venture Capital
How DCM Ventures VC fund invests
Rounds:
Average ticket size:
23.7M USD
Smallest investment:
1.14M USD
Biggest investment:
57.1M USD
Would lead round:
Yes
Would coinvest:
Yes
Countries where invested:
Sectors of interest:
Information Technology, Financial Services, Finance, FinTech, Artificial Intelligence, Software, Robotics, Education, Video Editing, Trading Platform, Software Engineering, SaaS, STEM Education, Recruiting, Photography, Photo Editing, Medical, Manufacturing, Machine Learning, Life Science, Information Services, Health Care, Graphic Design, EdTech, Data Visualization, Cryptocurrency, Consumer, Computer Vision, Clinical Trials, Blockchain, Biotechnology
Founders' reviews of DCM Ventures VC fund
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Older than a year by non-portfolio founder
Wrong People = Wast of Time
I pitched DCM a few months ago. Pretty much a waste of time. While they have investments in my space and appear to have an understanding of my company's market, the pitch was received by an associate who has no experience whatsoever in consumer software. The guy kept comparing us to an enterprise software company that has totally different technology and ultimately decided we couldn't compete with them. At some points during the pitch I wanted to laugh at how strange the whole thing was.
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Dcm Poor Judgement
We are doing our best to reduce operating expenses to bare bones and implement substantial salary reductions. What is alarming and absolutely horrifying is that we find out these guys spent over half a million dollars on 3 parties in San Francisco, Japan and China. I'm am extremely disappointed with their actions. These are precious dollars that Universities could have deployed for educational purposes versus wasteful management fee use.
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Be Careful
I am not saying stay away, just be careful.
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Dcm: *Do Careful Reference Checks*
We were recommended to DCM because they can help in Asia as we look to expand internationally. I was also given strong caution warnings by many well known executives. The initial meetings were good, however, we then had some challenging encounters that threw up red flags. We therefore dug under the covers and reference checked the partners. Its a mix bag-mostly negative. Its a waste of time to call their existing company CEOs, as they will only say good things (no objectivity as investor/board member dictate their salary and job security). Need to talk to executives, founders and prior CEOs that are not directly involved and you will discover the truth. We took the same approach with 2 other VC firms where we received term sheets and the offline reference checks were very positive. Glad we dodged a bullet.
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Rob Leaves Dcm...Yikes
Joined Scale VP as MD
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Osuke Honda Was a Pleasure to Deal With
I have been dealing with Osuke Honda who recently joined the firm. He "got it" right away and liked our product. Although DCM passed in this case due to timings and fit, he was professional and a pleasure to deal with.
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Nearly Gave Up After First Meeting with Doll
In Feb 07 met with Carl Amdahl and was treated so rudely that I thought it was me and my company. True, we did not have the "paper" experience as managers, but we were winning (and did win other funding partners who have helped grow our business nearly 3-fold in 6 months).
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Tom Blaisdell Has Done a Great Job on Our Board
I've worked with Tom Blaisdell for several years as an entrepreneur in a company he invested in, and I think extremely highly of him. Tom is strategic, engaged, positive, and does what he says he's going to do. He has consistently given good advice as the company has grown and been faced with the usual array of personnel and strategy decisions. We're thriving, and I give him much credit for doing more than his part along the way. When I start my next venture Tom will certainly be one of the few people I'll talk to first about funding and a board seat - he does a great job. When I'm evaluating VCs as potential investors all I care about is whether they deliver on the board, and Tom has consistently come through for us. Others on the Doll team - Dixon, David Chao, and Peter Moran - have been very good as well. Again, the big question is whether they add value once they've invested, and these guys definitely have.
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Not Big Dix's Anymore
I knew Dixon from his early days at IBM and watched him rise in the VC world to several successes and now to his current downward sprial. Dixon is a smart man, but not detail or hands on. Good on the Boards. He's too trusting to his fault. He's made many mistakes over the last few years. Now he's even made a worst mistake and turned the keys of his creation to David Chao. This logic I don't understand. David is a dangerous person not to be trusted. He lacks many things not worth repeating. What he doesn't tell you, will hurt your company. I don't know all the other partners in the firm, but I'm hearing a few may be leaving because of internal turmoil with Dixon retiring and others will not put up with the dysfunctional environment. There are many better VC firms to go and get money. This is no longer Dixon's company.
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Rob Rocks
Rob Thies is a great guy to work with. He is a good investor, has big company connections from Sun and was a successful founder of Neon. He taps his network well and actually has a network that respects him.
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Be Very Careful the Partner is Key
The firm is a mix-bag. Be sure to pick the right partner. I've had Rob Theis on my board for years and he's been terrific. Very smart, good coach, strong operationally (knows how to build companies), thinks ahead, always pushes the management team to the next level, an amazing rolodex to get you in touch with the right customers and partners. Very well connected in the Valley and great contacts in Europe and India/Asia. He's available 7x24. He travels alot, but always stays in touch with you when you need him. He's very fair, without a big ego and a straight shooter you can trust.
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Tom Blaisdell Dropped the Ball
Tom Blaisdell saw our venture early, saw the promise, and invited us to pitch. He and Dixon gave us 20 minutes, ended up staying an hour. In followup after Dixon exited, Tom talked about us getting our amount down under $3 million, since that didn't require a full partner review. We jiggered our implementation strategy and came up with a scenario that would take less than his $3. He had us meet with Michael Blaustein, who asked a few off target questions and didn't get our business model. A few weeks later, Michael told us that they would pass.
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Insiders View on the "Doll House"
Note their website -- it's a photoshopped collage of partners and associates so that when a person that leaves, he/she can be wiped off the site. The partners have to have a 100% vote from the partners to move forward with a deal (just so you'll know). David Chao is running the show over there, and he's more interested in all things Asian (focusing on Chinese investments especially) -- he does have a funny side, see his web page! They have some cool artworks at the firm, but I'd advise going to SFMOMA instead: our contact gave us no useful advice, but came on really strong ("Yes, I think we could do this...) than cut off contact. I knew something was up when the emails stopped -- then bounced! And then he was removed from the collage... Oh well...
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Professionals Without a Lot of Attitude
These guys (especially Rob Theis) were able to move fast, and provided a lot of support during some trying times. I would take funding from these guys ahead of a lot of others. Also, they've had a pretty good track record int he past few years, and look to be making their bones this go-around
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Wish They Would've Told Me!
Dixon can make a quick decision, but his mind can be changed quickly by his team. He trusts David Chao so you better get him on your side.
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Caveat Entrepreneur
Wouldn't take $$ from them if they *gave* it to me.