Precursor VenturesA classic pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm

Are VCs overpromising on their hiring impact?

1 Feb 2026 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:18

Short YouTube clip (Precursor Ventures) featuring a brief dialogue between two speakers debating whether venture capitalists overpromise their ability to materially help startups hire—especially during the AI talent war. Speaker B argues most VCs cannot reliably deliver hires because candidates are rarely swayed by investor identity, while noting investors can still assist (publicize job listings, encourage applicants), though those actions aren’t directly attributable to making hires.

Even if we weren't in this talent war for AI talent, is it still a fair statement to say that VCs still are overpromising as it pertains to making large impact from hiring and talent?
I think most VCs who say that can't deliver on it. They just can't. I think it's mostly because most candidates aren't influenced by your choice of investor.
Yeah.
Investors can do a lot of things that are helpful, though. They can publicize your job listing, they can get it out to more people. They can encourage people to apply, they can share. There's a lot of things they could do, but not all those things will be directly attributable to making a hire.
Yeah.
And so it's one of these things where it's asymmetric. Like if they tell you they can do it and you believe it and you make a decision based on it, it was a good investment by that firm to tell you that message. Because you can't be like, oh, because you didn't deliver me my cto, I want my shares back. There's no takebacks. So some of this, I think, is, as Oren mentioned, marketing.