Do investors invest based on data, gut or both?

There was an interesting tweet thread started by Semil of HayStack about why he passes on some investments; personal, gut, intuitive feeling. I’m a big fan of him, his investments and his advice, so I wanted to expand on my thoughts around this.

There are countless reasons why an investor may or may not invest in your company but should always look for all the reasons to invest. I know that raising capital is a tiresome and sometimes painful process, something we want you to finish ASAP as well.

Paul Graham (Co-founder of YC) tweeted this too — the problem is double-sided. Sometimes it’s us, sometimes it’s you, sometimes it’s both.

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1062284483246899200

Numerous professionals have written about this topic and there are a few studies as well that you can read through from someone a lot smarter than me.

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/is-gut-feel-a-good-reason-to-invest-in-a-startup

Why Early-stage Investors Tend to Trust Their Gut - Knowledge@Wharton_"Gut feel" plays a surprisingly important role in decision making by early-stage angel investors, according to new…_knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

http://sites.uci.edu/jlpearce/files/2015/11/HuangPearceASQAngels2015.pdf

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