What do great VCs actually do for founders?

Most conversations about investors focus on how to find them, pitch your idea to them, and close them. Not enough is said about what makes the best investors great once they’re on your cap table.

I’ve personally seen over 60 VCs in action across the companies I’ve operated and advised. Some just bring money to the table. Some make a CEO’s life harder and negatively impact the company. And the best ones will make you a better CEO and change the trajectory and value of the company in a truly meaningful way.

This is my list of what the great investors actually do.

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If you’re a founder or CEO evaluating investors, know that there are unicorn investors out there that do these things. If you’re an investor, this should give you a sense of what it means to really move the needle for your companies.

Founders already know when things are going poorly. They don’t need an investor hounding them about that. What they need is someone who stands by them and gives them room to work through it, and someone who steps up to help when asked.

When things are going well, the best investors lean in harder and challenge you to be even better. I was working with a company growing 100% year over year at scale, and the investors could see there were a lot of inefficiencies and opportunities to grow even faster. Based on what they knew about the business, they thought they could be growing 200% year over year. They wanted more, and they gave specific feedback on the areas of the business that were inefficient or broken and shared how their other companies fixed those things.

When an investor has seen truly great companies up close and sees that potential in you, the push they give you means something.

Most investors will tell you some version of “we want you to be as big as possible.” Or “we believe this can be a multi-billion dollar company.” That’s not useful.

The most successful founders are overachievers. One of the things quietly driving them is the fear of letting down the person who believed in them. This definitely drove me, and I know from talking to hundreds of other founders that they’re thinking about this as well. But most founders have no idea what “success” actually means to their investor.

I had an investor who told me directly, “For our fund, a meaningful return on our investment would be $75 million of net gains.” That’s a real number, and not just a revenue or valuation target. That’s real clarity on what they need to see to consider their investment a success. It let me operate with an actual target instead of just ambient pressure.

Great investors walk you through the dynamics of their fund and what a meaningful return looks like for your specific deal. That kind of transparency is less common than it should be. I suspect that’s because investors don’t want you to settle once you hit that target – they want you to keep swinging for the fences. But founders want to know when they’ve done right by their investors.

The toxic version of this is when an investor tells you one thing to your face, then says something completely different to other investors or board members. I’ve seen it firsthand, and I’ve been on the receiving end of feedback that came through a back channel from a different investor.

Founders are already under enormous stress. The last thing they need is to read between the lines of what their investor is really thinking or be concerned that their board members are speaking behind their back. Great investors just say it directly. They’re not always right, and the founder won’t always agree, but it’s clear.

Don’t overlook this one. I’ve had investors where planning a board meeting was nearly impossible. They were perpetually on vacation, pulled in too many directions by other boards, and just never available.

I’ve also had investors who flew red-eye across time zones just for the meeting and flew back right after. The best ones make it explicit. They say, “Call me at any time, I’ll pick up.” One of my investors was on the West Coast and attended our bi-weekly call at 6am on Fridays for four years straight. They rarely missed one of those meetings.

With the best investors, there’s no friction, no prescribed communication channels, no chasing them down or jumping through hoops when you need them.

Founders and investors are both busy, but you need an investor that will be there for you when you need them.

Founders aren’t always sure how to ask for help or even know that they can (and should) ask for help in the first place. The best investors see the updates in their board decks or on calls and proactively say, “Yeah, I can help with that.”

The worst version of this is when you ask for help, they say yes, and then you have to chase them to actually get anything done. That’s almost worse than not offering at all.

The best investors don’t make you chase them for anything. They’re scanning your monthly updates, spotting problems, and raising their hand before you even know you need them. And as a founder, it’s your job to make it easy for them to help. Write personalized intro emails, send them LinkedIn profiles for folks you want to connect with, and package everything up so they can help you quickly and thoroughly.

When my first son was born, one of my investors sent me a personalized rocking horse. I will never forget that. It sounds small, but it’s not. It meant they were actually paying attention to my life outside the company.

I’ve seen investors proactively recommend a salary raise for a founder who just had a kid. The founder was afraid to ask. Investors almost never recommend raises, but the great ones understand that a founder who isn’t stressed about their personal life can take bigger swings at work.

The best investors support the founder taking secondary when needed. Secondary is when a founder sells a portion of their equity during a funding round, taking some cash before an exit. Many investors don’t like it when founders take this path. The concern is that a founder who gets an early windfall and becomes wealthy loses their motivation to make the company successful.

The great investors see it differently. A founder who isn’t stressed about their mortgage, their wedding cost, or their family’s financial stability can actually make bigger moves at work.

De-risking your personal situation doesn’t make you less hungry. For most founders, it does the opposite.

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Most founders don’t realize how much work happens behind the scenes at a VC firm. When your investor loves your company, they still have to sell it internally for future fundraising, to unlock resources, and to get other partners to open doors in their portfolio on your behalf. And so do you.

Great investors brief you before you walk into the room cold. They give you the important details: Here’s who will be there, here’s who’s skeptical and why, and here’s what they care about.

The best example I’ve experienced was an investor who sent me their internal investment memo (the doc they use to pitch their own partners internally) before the meeting. That way, we were presenting from exactly the same page. That level of proactiveness and thoughtfulness set me up for success in the meeting.

I interviewed an investor on the podcast recently who said something that stuck with me: “I have imposter syndrome because I’ve never run a big company.” That self-awareness is exactly the right instinct, and the investor’s response was also spot-on.

He leaned into what he genuinely knew (he was an exceptional enterprise salesperson), and when it came to anything related to that, he really leaned in to help. But on other subjects, he would defer to others around the table or make intros to outside experts. The investors who get it wrong feel the need to prove they’re adding value. They start making suggestions that don’t fit your company, your stage, or your market.

The best investors also know when not to speak. At board meetings, they pick precise moments to contribute. When they do say something, everyone listens. They might say two comments the entire meeting, but both land. Meanwhile, others tend to like the sound of their own voice. They add noise in every part of the meeting, but contribute nothing.

Founders want to know where they stand. That’s how high-performers operate.

Some investors show up to board meetings and say your growth should be 300%, your net retention should be 150%, and your gross margin should be 90%. What they don’t tell you is that each of those numbers comes from a different company. You’re being benchmarked against the top companies in every category simultaneously. That’s unattainable, and it doesn’t make any sense.

Great investors give you context. Instead of generic numbers, they say, “For enterprise software companies at your stage, size, and GTM motion, here’s what we’re seeing across the portfolio.” They give you relevant comparisons, not cherry-picked high numbers.

I understand the investor logic here. If you have a thesis on a specific space, you want to back the winner. If you can’t pick, you want to back multiple players. I get it.

But from a founder’s point of view, it’s very hard to trust an investor who’s also backed a direct competitor. Even if they put a different partner on it, board decks get shared and discussed. And from what I’ve seen, once there’s a clear winner, the other company gets quietly deprioritized. They get less support, fewer introductions, and the investor becomes harder or maybe even impossible to reach.

It’s worth knowing a fund’s policy on this before you take their money.

Great investors are advocates to your employees, candidates, prospects, customers, and the entire market.

I’ve had an investor show up to my company all-hands and explain publicly why he invested and why he believed in us. I’ve seen investors dedicate long-form posts to portfolio companies, celebrate them on podcasts, and champion them at conferences. The best investors are proud to talk about the companies they’re working with.

That’s different from sharing a deal announcement. Anyone can do that. This is genuine, specific advocacy that makes employees proud, attracts talent, and signals to the market that this company is worth paying attention to.

The best investors show up prepared. I’ve seen some print out the deck and arrive with highlights and notes, like a teacher who marks up a homework submission. It’s immediately clear they read every word and are ready to have a real discussion.

The other version is an investor who shows up and starts asking questions that are answered later in the deck. They obviously haven’t read it, and everyone in the room knows it.

The investors who come prepared show you they respect the work that went into putting it together, they respect everyone’s time, and they’re willing to invest their own time to make the meeting count.

Investors like this are rare. Finding someone who does all of these things is hard. But they exist, and when you find one, lean in and nurture the relationship. The best investors help your company succeed and can significantly impact the enterprise value, all while making you a better CEO.

If you’re an investor reading this, we know there’s a lot going on at your fund. There’s fund politics, LPs, and a portfolio pulling you in every direction. There are real reasons why this is hard. But founders with investors like this work harder to deliver for them, because the experience of working with you motivates them to.