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Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

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Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#51

Post by AmericanChopper »

klyrs wrote: post #20
flyingfences wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I suspect that weapons producers don't have a shortage of investment opportunities. Their customers include militaries and police departments. And if it's "just politics," the finance industry skews right and the NRA is one of the most powerful lobbies in the US. If ivestors are distancing themselves from the gun industry, I'd assume that it's good ol' fiscal conservatism: mass shootings are on the rise and they don'…

Industries dominated by a small number of very large players are typically what you'd call 'ripe for disruption'. Banking has never had a shortage of funding either, but banking and financial startups have only recently started to influence the industry. I didn't hear about anybody turning down Stripe because "finance sector is overfunded".

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#52

Post by AllanHoustonSt »

sdinsn wrote: post #36
shantly wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that there’s actual wagering being done over outcomes, and platforms built to facilitate same.

There's wagering over outcomes of normal sports too.

And I would imagine the sports gambling industry would be covered by this C VC as well if there’s money in it.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#53

Post by mtnGoat »

duskwuff wrote: post #45
mtnGoat wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet sex/porn and esports are both addicting. How does that math add up? Games maybe not so much by nature, but the publishers are trying everything they can to increase your time in game.

"Esports" typically refers to professional competitive gaming, not to video games in general -- the focus is on viewership, not participation. There are some related side industries which might fit that description (like esports betting sites), but the industry itself isn't particularly "addictive", at least no more than traditional sports. The classification of sex and pornography as "addictive" has been controversi…

ok, i can get on board with the esports part.

Porn, you can call it anecdotal, but over a decade in that industry taught me, its certainly addictive for some, and is are some very manipulative marketing going on by the smarter companies. But i do see the opposing argument, people get addicted to all kinds of strange things and nothing about porn per se is addicting. it's that ending they are addicted to, not the content.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#56

Post by Lerain »

hunterloftis wrote: post #41
Lerain wrote: post #29

After closing the huge sign-up popup, dismissing the Medium-App-suggestion and closing the cookie-banner I lost all interest in reading the article, which is a shame. I sometimes hate the internet. At least the HN comments were insightful, unlike my rambling. Sorry about that.

Related to an HN article from earlier this week: you might consider trying the Brave browser. With it, I didn't experience any of that.

I was trying to read it on an iPhone using Safari. The mobile "experience" is way, way worse compared to that on a big screen. At least two thirds of my screen estate were blocked by popups and that's how the vast majority of (mobile) users are going to experience it as well.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#57

Post by shantly »

sdinsn wrote: post #36
shantly wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that there’s actual wagering being done over outcomes, and platforms built to facilitate same.

There's wagering over outcomes of normal sports too.

I do not know, but have a suspicion, the esports gambling is a bit more intertwined with the esports itself. I'd be surprised if we don't have some scandals come out of that, if anyone ever decides to take a close look.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#58

Post by beat »

jack_h wrote: post #48
joe_the_user wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most of the firearms industry serves police and military and I don't think that part has trouble getting finance of whatever sort it might need. Retail gun sales are a somewhat exceptional little piece of the overall arms industry. Many nations that control access to arms for their citizens still maintain and support an arms industry, including small firearms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry

This is true for major manufacturers that have been around for decades or even centuries. Small start-ups have a much harder time finding funding.

Small startups doing expensive manufacturing in the face of existing industrial-grade competition will always have a hard time finding funding, because the risk/reward ratio sucks.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#59

Post by riversflow »

dwoozle wrote: post #19
magashna wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to watching TV?

I think they’re roughly the same... if you spend four hours a day playing video games or watching TV most people will judge you negatively for it

I think they are night and day. The amount of engagement that video games demand on the brain makes them completely different. I enjoy documentaries, but otherwise find television insanely boring and that it tends to make people dull, unlike video games.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#60

Post by gatherhunterer »

There are well-established benefits of CBD use in some patients covering a wide variety of symptoms, but pushing skin care pseudoscience is wrong. Isolated evidence like that of anti-inflammatory effects is not the same as an extensive clinical trial. This is why we need an actual healthcare system: to allow people to see doctors rather than falling victim to the junk CBD products that this person is excited to fund.
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