– Vivek wanted to establish another partnership. He recalled a presentation by David Checketts, the CEO of MSG, in which Checketts showed interest in online ticketing initiatives. Subsequently, a professor from HBS facilitated a connection between the Smartix team and Checketts. – Before approaching the top five venture capitalists, Smartix aimed to improve their presentation, so they initially reached out to trial VCs. To start, Kirill leveraged his acquaintance at Divisidero Farley and discussed the concept with them, securing an opportunity for the team to meet with Divisidero Farley.
The meeting allowed Smartix to comprehend the concerns and viewpoint of the VC about the idea. Consequently, Smartix had an opportunity to modify certain aspects of the presentation before their meeting with the next trial VC, Melrose, who is considered one of the top-tier VCs but not in the top five. However, Melrose suggested implementing gradual trials beginning with a smaller arena. -Vivek believed that having MSG on board would increase their credibility when approaching larger VCs.
Smartix wanted their business to be sustainable and to prevent others from monopolizing the market in the West Coast. Viveck believed that partnering with MSG and securing a strong VC would help Smartix attract other VCs. As a result, Smartix decided to approach MSG for their second attempt. After receiving an LOI from MSG, Smartix was prepared to approach the top five VCs.
Vivek asked Bill Sahlman, a professor at HBS, for assistance. Professor Sahlman provided him with contact information for top VCs and ensured that the team actually met with them. To reduce costs, Smartix scheduled back-to-back meetings with Accel and Benchmark. Exploiting the competition between these two VCs, Smartix managed to secure funding from Accel quickly. Accel presented the team with a term sheet that included an evaluation of Smartix’s relationship with MSG. However, when Smartix shared this term sheet with MSG, they were confused as to why Accel was involved at this stage. MSG desired full control over Smartix until the system met their standards to minimize project risk, resulting in a conflict of interest between MSG and Accel.
