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Equity · Friday, July 3, 2026

VCs Advise Founders to Vet Investors by Talking to Portfolio Companies

Yuri Sagalov suggests founders should vet potential investors by speaking with their portfolio companies and other founders they've worked with. This helps gauge how supportive investors are, especially during difficult times, and distinguishes helpful partners from micromanagers.

The tape

2 quotes
And I think the best thing you can do as a founder is actually talk to portfolio companies. Talk to other founders that they've worked with, ask for concrete examples of how they've been helpful if they've been helpful.
Yuri Sagalov
And other investors, you'll hear the feedback from founders where they'll say like I just couldn't bring myself to call this investor. And that's the type of person that I think you really kind of want to dodge.
Yuri Sagalov
Heard on Equity — “Best of Build Mode: Think like a VC, published Friday, July 3, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via Gemini audio transcription · $0.01