Foundry Group Moves to Twitter Platform for Deal Evaluation

While we are fans of investing in companies in the email ecosystem with our thematic investing approach, we have come to the realization that email is not the most efficient form of communication for evaluating potential investment opportunities.

We are blessed to have a large number of entrepreneurs who are interested in us as potential partners and the volume of email we receive can sometimes overwhelm us, so we began the investigation for a more streamlined approach.  We hired consultants from McKinsey & Company last summer and after 9 months of working with us to learn how we operate, it was obvious that Twitter was the right choice.

The benefits of Twitter versus other platforms were clear.  First, everyone is on Twitter, so there is no chance that an entrepreneur wouldn’t be able to reach us.  Second, this will greatly reduce the number of spreadsheets and financial projections that we would feel obligated to read.  We realize that financial projects are just that – projections and therefore are never accurate.  We’ve decided to stop pretending that they make sense.  Third, and perhaps most importantly, if an entrepreneur cannot explain their opportunity in 140 characters or less, how focused can they be?

Besides, with the amount of board meetings that we attend, verbosity is not a wanted characteristic.

Speaking of board meetings, we have begun the process of streamlining board meetings with McKinsey, as well.  We’re hoping to devise a similar approach using Skype to eliminate the need for face-to-face meetings and travel.

So, if you are an entrepreneur and want to work with us, Tweet us!  One thing to note: PLEASE do not send us twitter links or multiple tweets per company.  This is just as bad as email and really destroys the spirit of what we are trying to do here.

We look forward to hearing from you:

@bfeld                                                 @ryan_mcintyre

@jasonmendelson                          @sether