As a VC, What Are the Top Things You Look For?

This might be a little controversial.

I believe it's best not to invest just in a specific company or product, but in the founder.

Sometimes, the right person might have the wrong idea; and you might still fund it, just so that founder can get their feet wet and have more experience when they start working on their next idea, where you get first dibs because you funded them before.

Working backwards, exceptional outcomes tend to come from exceptional founders and often you see that exceptionalism in their professional or academic accomplishments. Sometimes this is evident from meeting the founders, and often their academic or professional is not sufficient but VCs simply have no interest in backing mediocre founders because the founding team is part of your moat. Since this has basically become a rule in the market VCs take on great financial risk by ignoring this. Lot’s of teams are simply not investable. It may be harsh, but the outcome distribution is so skewed toward failure and the magnitude of the home runs that this is the only sensible strategy for someone who wants to stay in business as a VC.

Disclaimer: no longer a VC, and even then I was a CVC so strategic fit was #1.

Early stage companies: I looked for resourcefulness in the founder and a broad but intelligent perspective on the market combined with humility/coachability.

B and up: traction and systemic approach to scaling.