The VC's Customer

I saw Dan Primack assert that the venture capitalist’s customer is their limited partners in this tweet about the Citizen app, the recap, and their VCs:

Regular reminder that, ultimately, VC funds works for their limited partners, not for their portfolio companies. https://t.co/0uGuk8KUZo

— Dan Primack (@danprimack) February 25, 2023

I DM’d Dan to let him know that is not the right way to think about the venture capital business.

Back in 2005, in the early days of this blog, I wrote this post on the topic.

The entrepreneur is the customer and the LP is the shareholder. That’s the only way to think about the venture capital business that makes sense to me.

https://avc.com/2005/11/the_vcs_custome/

I encourage everyone to read that post. It is one of the most important things I’ve written about the VC/founder relationship and I would not change a single word in it almost twenty years later.