Jeff Clavier Breaks Down His Three Asses Rule For Investing

You’ll find this rule on the back of Clavier’s business card, on his website, in a painting in his office, and in the book Do More Faster by Brad Feld and David Cohen. It was an extension of a maxim by First Round Capital’s Rob Hayes, who looks for a kick-ass team in a big-ass market. But what does this catchy rule mean? For SoftTechVC, the “smart-ass team” accounts for over half the importance. While they’re open to funding multiple or solo founders, they want to see teams who exhibit the three D’s:

Developer: Strong technical talent.Design: An eye for user experience.Distribution: Understanding the tricks and rules of getting users.

But in the end, finding a smart-ass team is really a question of judgment: He adds, “We really respect people who have this belief that if there is a wall, they can walk through it.” Watch the full interview with Jeff Clavier of SoftTechVC and Frank Gruber of Tech.Co below.