dot la summer series

What should be the relationship between every startup and their investor?

Last week, dot.LA hosted a Summer Series event that featured a discussion with Justice Tention, chief operating officer at Clash App, and Travis Mason, an operating partner at Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six.

The event was hosted by STAY OPEN, a Venice-based firm transforming unused commercial space into affordable, socially engaging POD hotels and co-living properties, and it was attended by an exclusive list of investors, startup founders and technologists.

Mason says that the relationship between an investor and a startup starts with the rudimentary questions of what drives passion.

"Why do you want to spend the next 10 years of your life building X thing?" said Mason. "The answer to that question can tell you a lot about someone can tell you a lot about their leadership, and tell you a lot about why they're doing what they're doing. So diligence for us is really taking a test on on the founder their skills and the team skills."

Tention adds that the creator space has changed dramatically, moving from a place where everybody is attached to a platform to where now large audiences follow creators to other platforms.

"We think it's really important to build a team that understands the lived experience of the users," Tention said about what every investor looks for in a startup.

Stay tuned for this and other events from dot.LA.