I got the chance to sit across from Dick Costolo from FeedBurner at the Web 2.0 preview dinner the other night, and asked him how life as a funded company was treating him. FeedBurner’s round is relatively recent, so I didn’t expect him to start spewing anti-VC lava flows just yet, but I liked what he had to say about Brad Feld from Mobius:
“Every day I get about ten emails from Brad, cc’ing me on a note he’s writing to someone else, and the note reads, ‘Dear relevant person, you should really go look at FeedBurner, because it’s amazing and it will work incredibly well for you.'”
That’s what you like to hear — it was, in fact, my experience with Tim when he was on my board. Bob Pasker once told me that investors were the only people in a company who would give you money and then work for you, instead of the other way around, and ideally that’s true. If you hear a recommendation like Dick’s for a potential investor, pay attention. It’s what you want.