{"id":21071,"date":"2018-02-28T05:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=21071"},"modified":"2018-03-13T05:06:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T11:06:45","slug":"what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Things Village Capital Looks for in Startups"},"content":{"rendered":"

E<\/span>arly-stage entrepreneurs worldwide face a major resource shortage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too expensive for traditional investors to do due diligence on seed stage deals, especially in emerging markets. The problem is especially bad for early-stage entrepreneurs solving major problems in society \u2014 of more than 300 self-identified impact investors worldwide, just four make investments of less than $250,000 per deal. Entrepreneurs often cannot approach the few investors who do seed funding without first having raised a \u201cfriends and family\u201d round \u2014 limiting entrepreneurship to the tiny percentage of the population with access to a high net worth network.<\/p>\n

Of more than 300 self-identified impact investors worldwide, just four make investments of less than $250,000 per deal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At Village Capital, we run programs to source, train, and invest in entrepreneurs around the world tackling issues in agriculture, education, energy, financial technology, and health. We make our investments through a unique, peer-selected model that makes early-stage deals more cost-effective for investors. In each program, the participating cohort of around twelve entrepreneurs is tasked with turning a critical eye to their peers, evaluating each through the lens of a traditional investor. All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on the following six criteria:<\/p>\n

1. Entrepreneur and team<\/h3>\n

Is this team capable of getting the job done? What are the key activities this company needs to do\u2014and how do we know that this team can do it? If the team is building a technology, the core team better be able to do it. If the team is selling a product, we need to know that the team can sell. We evaluate a team\u2019s ability to do the job\u2014not their resume.<\/p>\n

2. Product<\/h3>\n

What is the product? In a basic sense, is this a product that people understand how to use the right way? Is it something that is easy and enjoyable to use? And is there something that is significantly different enough about the product to encourage people to change behavior\u2014a really difficult sell to most people?<\/p>\n

3. Customers and competition<\/h3>\n

We look for a \u201csolution to a problem,\u201d not a \u201csolution looking for a problem.\u201d Who is the customer? What is the problem they experience every day? How does this product solve the problem? And most importantly, what evidence do we have that customers believe this is a solution?<\/p>\n

4. Financials<\/h3>\n

We look much more closely at the \u201cunit economics\u201d of this product\u2014what each customer is costing, and the revenue they bring in vs. long term financials. How much does it cost us to acquire one customer? How much is each customer likely to contribute in the long term?<\/p>\n

5. Outcomes (impact and scale)<\/h3>\n

Is this product completely changing a system (or tinkering around the margins)? How big can this company grow? What difference does it make\u2014is this a problem worth solving\u2014and how is the company measuring that?<\/p>\n

6. Investor liquidity<\/h3>\n

How will the investor get a positive cash return on investment? Profitable companies do not necessarily mean profitable investments. What is the company\u2019s liquidity strategy?<\/p>\n

In each of our programs, two entrepreneurs are selected by their peers based on those criteria to receive an investment from Village Capital. Over the last eight years, we\u2019ve made 45 investments based on that model \u2014 more than any other impact investor worldwide \u2014 and we look forward to making more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":38183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[476,1552,1912,2017],"tags":[210,1607],"class_list":["post-21071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-fundraising","category-impact-investing","category-what-funders-look-for","tag-investment","tag-village-capital"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSix Things Village Capital Looks For in Startups<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Six Things Village Capital Looks For in Startups\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unreasonable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/villagecapital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-28T12:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-13T11:06:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"899\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ross Baird\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/rossbaird\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ross Baird\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ross Baird\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d40f4bc0fbcde3d8be9e425222a17e\"},\"headline\":\"Six Things Village Capital Looks for in Startups\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-28T12:00:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-13T11:06:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\"},\"wordCount\":574,\"commentCount\":7,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Investment\",\"Village Capital\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\",\"Fundraising\",\"Impact Investing\",\"What Funders Look For\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\",\"name\":\"Six Things Village Capital Looks For in Startups\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-28T12:00:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-13T11:06:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d40f4bc0fbcde3d8be9e425222a17e\"},\"description\":\"All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":899},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Six Things Village Capital Looks for in Startups\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/\",\"name\":\"Unreasonable\",\"description\":\"We believe in the power of business to drive lasting, scalable change.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d40f4bc0fbcde3d8be9e425222a17e\",\"name\":\"Ross Baird\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88288e4b51b219d84b07b25d08fc4d6cef6507e10ef2934b608ddfe263482f54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88288e4b51b219d84b07b25d08fc4d6cef6507e10ef2934b608ddfe263482f54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ross Baird\"},\"description\":\"Ross is the Executive Director of Village Capital and has worked with over 350 entrepreneurs in Village Capital cohorts using a pioneering peer investment model. Before launching Village Capital, he was at First Light Ventures and as an entrepreneur with four start-up ventures.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.vilcap.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/villagecapital\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pub\/ross-baird\/4\/855\/b56\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/rossbaird\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Six Things Village Capital Looks For in Startups","description":"All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Six Things Village Capital Looks For in Startups","og_description":"All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.","og_url":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/","og_site_name":"Unreasonable","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/villagecapital","article_published_time":"2018-02-28T12:00:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-13T11:06:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":899,"url":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ross Baird","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/rossbaird","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ross Baird","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/"},"author":{"name":"Ross Baird","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d40f4bc0fbcde3d8be9e425222a17e"},"headline":"Six Things Village Capital Looks for in Startups","datePublished":"2018-02-28T12:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-13T11:06:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/"},"wordCount":574,"commentCount":7,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg","keywords":["Investment","Village Capital"],"articleSection":["Article","Fundraising","Impact Investing","What Funders Look For"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/","url":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/","name":"Six Things Village Capital Looks For in Startups","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg","datePublished":"2018-02-28T12:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-13T11:06:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d40f4bc0fbcde3d8be9e425222a17e"},"description":"All of our Village Capital investments are made through this peer-selection process, in which entrepreneurs rate each other based on six criteria.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg","width":1800,"height":899},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/what-village-capital-looks-for-in-startups\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Six Things Village Capital Looks for in Startups"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#website","url":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/","name":"Unreasonable","description":"We believe in the power of business to drive lasting, scalable change.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d40f4bc0fbcde3d8be9e425222a17e","name":"Ross Baird","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88288e4b51b219d84b07b25d08fc4d6cef6507e10ef2934b608ddfe263482f54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88288e4b51b219d84b07b25d08fc4d6cef6507e10ef2934b608ddfe263482f54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ross Baird"},"description":"Ross is the Executive Director of Village Capital and has worked with over 350 entrepreneurs in Village Capital cohorts using a pioneering peer investment model. Before launching Village Capital, he was at First Light Ventures and as an entrepreneur with four start-up ventures.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.vilcap.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/villagecapital","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pub\/ross-baird\/4\/855\/b56","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/rossbaird"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/all-bong-98724-unsplash.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21071"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38438,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21071\/revisions\/38438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}