Not being a dick is good business, says Brooklyn VC

Brooklyn’s top VC has a word of advice: don’t be a dick.

In a post on his site published this week, Charlie O’Donnell describes what he calls “the rainy day fund of reputation.”

“At the end of the day, however, a VC’s money is just as green as the next one—which is where your reputation comes in,” O’Donnell, the founder of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures writes. “Every time you slip an obnoxious term into a cap table, or take six positive meetings before ultimately passing for a reason that should have come out in meaning one, you’re debiting your rep. That’s going to come back.  Maybe someone might actually ding you, but you’re not going to have a founder go out of their way to recommend you either.”

Yeah, there's no way you're going back to that firm in the seed stage. Fund it now or you'll likely never see that deal again. https://t.co/xd61Qka5Am

— Charlie O'Donnell (@ceonyc) June 7, 2017

O’Donnell has been doing more media of late, starting a podcast about company culture and employees called The Startup Recruiting Podcast. So-called human capital, it would seem, is on his mind.

One of the enduring and hopeful ideas of life is that you reap what you sow. Any number of high-powered executives or politicians show otherwise, but it’s comforting to see that there are still believers to hear evidence in favor of the idea.