I have noticed that founders generally want feedback after being denied further investment consideration. However, most of the time, I find that despite what seems like an honest desire to use this as a learning experience – they try to use the feedback as a platform for exercising a rebuttal and how I got it wrong.

I generally give pretty direct feedback; it is a jump ball if it is taken gracefully. I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t predict the future; however, I see hundreds of opportunities a year, so there is a little bit of pattern recognition going on. Everyone thinks they are a fringe case. My experience, however, is that is only true in the founder’s mind.