Can anyone on HN who has been one, or known one really well tell us what a typical day in the life of an EIR is and what is exciting about the job?
As I understand it, it is a temporary position before you become the growth-stage CEO of a company that the VC has previously funded? Or to become the CEO of a CEO-less company that the VC is funding? Is that about right? What else do EIRs do?
"What does an EIR do?" - http://framethink.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/what-does-an-eir-...
Slightly comparable risk to Chris Dixon's why you don't want to raise seed money from a VC firm: http://cdixon.org/2009/08/14/the-problem-with-taking-seed-mo...
You just left a company like Google in a prime role or sold your last startup. You don't know what you want to start yet, but you jive with the firm. They want first dibs on what you do next and/or you already have a great relationship with the firm. It might be joining another startup that comes in through the door or doing your own thing.
Bret Taylor did this with Benchmark before starting FriendFeed. Not sure if he frequents here,but he could give some insight. Jason Calacanis did it with Sequoia as an "Entrepreneur In Action" as well.
"I've yet to wait for a VC to come and talk to me and have an idea, at the table and say, 'Look. I've looked at your business. I've looked at what you guys've done. Have you thought about these?' Right? I don't hear that at all. I don't understand. That's not how I would approach having someone be excited about wanting to be a partner in business."
"If you are an individual with an outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and mind, who is looking to create the next best thing in consumer internet, would like to assist in the evaluation of potential investments and provide functional expertise to existing portfiolio companies, we would love to hear from you. You need to have a successful track record as entrepreneur or CEO / CTO in a start-up environment, ideally in the Consumer Internet area."
