I get a fair number of inbounds asking for picking my brain / seeking inputs / 30 mins of my time etc. I suppose it goes with the seed stage territory:)  Over the past few years, I have come to the realisation that it is best for the founder to hear my views or feedback in the context of a fundraising discussion. I say this with the highest respect for founders.

Just as it is best to get customer feedback by seeing how they do vs what they say (hence the importance of an MVP and using that to suss out customer feedback), I feel it is best to get VC feedback through a funding pitch ('do') than by asking to pick their brain ('say') :)

An additional factor is time, or rather the lack of it. If I said yes to even a third of such requests, then that is all I would do! All of us in the early stage venture fund business are really starved for time. I get 7-8 pitches a day now. Then there are my dozen plus portfolio cos that i need to support. Then there are internal meetings on platform initiatives that I support. Then there is the writing that I need to do. Given all of this, taking out 15-30 mins for a meeting which is not linked to funding makes it challenging.

Also, if I had an extra 30-45 mins in a day, why would I not want to allocate it to my portfolio cos? After all, my long-term career success depends on them succeeding. And they have also 'paid' for Blume and my time by diluting equity to us. Given this, I feel the opportunity cost of spending time on meetings which don't have a portfolio or future portfolio impact (by future portfolio impact, I mean funding discussions which lead to an investment and a company becoming a portfolio co) is high.

Happy to get a pitch deck / funding doc for me to evaluate and respond to. Or if you really wish for me to answer any questions, happy to respond to 1-2 specific queries you have that I can answer in 5-7 mins.  Do share the same in that case.

I apologise if the above comes across as rude. That is / was not my intention. I was just trying to be direct; and I find that being direct saves time for everyone in the long run.