What do I say to a VC who wants to contact our current customers as a part of DD?

Answer from Edith Harbaugh:
I'd push it til the absolute last item (after partner meeting, when they're about to issue term sheet). Otherwise you get many tire kickers who'll burn out your best customer***. It's fine to be upfront with the VC (& in fact it might make you look better) "Everyone wants to talk to marqueecustomerZ - where are we in process, and unless it's the absolute last item, my priority is making sure they love our product"

***ProTip I learned later - if a VC is legitimately interested, they will be doing everything they can to backchannel to that customer to get "inside information". VCs would ping our customers looking for references, etc.

I learned this the hard way of thinking my customers were so awesome they'd convince the VC, and instead just fatigued our customers on wishy-washy VCs.

Im struggling a bit w/ pricing our SaaS product, especially for large customers who ideally want many things. What would be a good starting point & once they go into a PoC, how do you go in & ask them to convert to a full customer and start paying money?

When you enter a due diligence stage, where VC folks want to talk to some customers, what's the best way to do it not to overload your partners? We're thinking of drafting a letter of reference and having our customers sign it.