Landscape, a tech ecosystem review platform dubbing itself the ‘Glassdoor for VCs’, is launching from its home base in the UK today. The goal is to provide more transparency to founders as they seek funding, and create more accountability (and pressure) on investors to behave better.
In its beta, the platform has already received 700 reviews and has 83 verified partners across Europe, both VCs and accelerators. In recent weeks further interest has come from VCs in the US, Landscape says. Once review numbers increase and enough data is collected, the company plans to release reports.
The idea for the platform came from founder Joe Perkin’s own experiences raising capital for his educational technology company Coursematch in 2019. "We had one interaction in particular with a London-based fund that ended up being a real time waster, and I remember thinking 'I wish I had a mechanism to warn future founders,'" he says.
Though not the first VC review platform — TheFunded was founded back in 2007 — Landscape does mimic Glassdoor in its modern design and ease of use.
In addition to leaving reviews, founders score both VCs and accelerators on 12 different factors.
For VCs these include: approachability, 'beyond money', board activity, close time, diversity, due diligence, fees, punctuality, professionalism, response time, supportiveness and terms. For Accelerators the factors include: application process, approachability, cohort quality, diversity, mentors, programme, post-programme support, fundraising possibility and response time.
The platform is free for founders to use but offers VCs a paid subscription that unlocks premium services. These include replying to reviews, customising an automatic response to feedback (which seems risky) and an insights dashboard that illuminates any losing marks. “Investors will have more insight into how founders perceive them and have the insights they need to improve,” says Check Warner, partner at Ada Ventures and co-founder of Diversity VC.
(It’s worth noting that even with premium paid access, the founders remain anonymous.)
Landscape’s advisory group includes Alex Depledge, founder and CEO of Resi; Eamonn Carey, MD of Techstars London and partner at The Fund; Emma Sinclair, co-founder of Enterprise Alumni; Hussein Kanji, partner at Hoxton Ventures; and Jon Bradford, partner at Dynamo Ventures.
Lead photo: Landscape founder Joe Perkins
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