It helps to be from Cisco when looking for start-up funding

VCs admit a bias towards ex-Cisco officials when considering business plans

Here's a tip when pitching a business plan to venture capitalists for funding: play up your Cisco pedigree. VCs acknowledge that coming from Cisco makes a difference when they evaluate whether or not to fund what they feel is a viable business plan.

The breadth of exposure - development, operations, sales and marketing, and distribution across a range of technologies - at Cisco is unmatched, some say. Cisco is also good at fostering a start-up like atmosphere that keeps key people from an acquired company around for a few years.

That way, they get immersed in the operations of a $40 billion behemoth before the start-up bug starts itching again.

So if faced with two identical business plans and all other factors being equal, would the Cisco graduate get the funding over a non-Cisco presenter? 

"Yes," says Jason Matlof, a partner at Battery Ventures. "Everything else being equal, yes. It's not a coincidence that two of the four companies in my portfolio are founded by Cisco people."

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