They can't get out of the way of their own egos (imo).
A quick check of 10-year IRRs will tell you that this problem is not localized to Boston.
What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
11–20 of 30 posts
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#12They can't get out of the way of their own egos (imo).
A quick check of 10-year IRRs will tell you that this problem is not localized to Boston.
I don't mean their performance - I mean that relatively speaking I have found Boston VCs to be bigger assholes than CA or NY VCs.
For example, one Boston VC said our company was too soon and if there was any way to help let him know. So I did some research, found a co-investment he did with an angel I wanted to talk to, asked for intro, no response. The only other firm to do that ("can we help?" then no response) was a Seattle firm.
All CA firms have helped. Foundry Group (Boulder) has been the most helpful and set me up some meetings with some high profile CEOs even though they knew they wouldn't be investing.
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#13As a longtime Massachusetts / Boston resident, the culture of the city may have something to do with it. Boston is, at its heart, a Puritan settlement. This has been used as a sleight against Boston, but I don't mean it that way. But it is a word that captures the essence of what I mean. A superficial example shows itself to visitors immediately. Most people who visit Boston come away thinking the people are cold and…
Your last part is exceedingly true. Boston and Cambridge feel more than 364.4 Smoots apart quite often culturally.
I love that Smoots are in Wolfram Alpha. :)
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+smoots+from+th...
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#14As a longtime Massachusetts / Boston resident, the culture of the city may have something to do with it. Boston is, at its heart, a Puritan settlement. This has been used as a sleight against Boston, but I don't mean it that way. But it is a word that captures the essence of what I mean. A superficial example shows itself to visitors immediately. Most people who visit Boston come away thinking the people are cold and…
I grew up in the North East and spent a good amount of time living in Boston. One thing I always noticed about Bostonians was that upon meeting anyone new one of the very first questions they ask is "where are you from" (and I also felt there was asterisk there: *in Massachusetts/NE). This may seem like a small thing but it speaks a lot to the main focus being "which direction did you come from" rather than "which direction are you going?" placing a lot more value on pedigree than entrepreneurship. I later moved out West and have never been asked this until knowing people much longer, and usually as a point of small talk.
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
A quick check of 10-year IRRs will tell you that this problem is not localized to Boston.
I don't mean their performance - I mean that relatively speaking I have found Boston VCs to be bigger assholes than CA or NY VCs. For example, one Boston VC said our company was too soon and if there was any way to help let him know. So I did some research, found a co-investment he did with an angel I wanted to talk to, asked for intro, no response. The only other firm to do that ("can we help?" then no response) was…
In truth, I got what you originally meant and was expanding on it.
The fact that VCs can have such a low hit rate and such a low return rate, yet still have a job, is astounding to me.
I think the underlying problem is that there is an incestuous relationship between retirement funds and investors. Nothing else explains why the funds keep giving away 2+20%.
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't mean their performance - I mean that relatively speaking I have found Boston VCs to be bigger assholes than CA or NY VCs. For example, one Boston VC said our company was too soon and if there was any way to help let him know. So I did some research, found a co-investment he did with an angel I wanted to talk to, asked for intro, no response. The only other firm to do that ("can we help?" then no response) was…
In truth, I got what you originally meant and was expanding on it. The fact that VCs can have such a low hit rate and such a low return rate, yet still have a job, is astounding to me. I think the underlying problem is that there is an incestuous relationship between retirement funds and investors. Nothing else explains why the funds keep giving away 2+20%.
Gotcha. I think if you take the avg fund size divided by # of partners the avg partners gets $30-40mm of a fund. So management fees alone are in the millions for showing up to work. Seems a bit high with no track record. Maybe a better model for LPs would be 1.5-2% for yrs 0-5 (when most investments are usually made) and then 0-0.5%. What do I know...
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#17As a longtime Massachusetts / Boston resident, the culture of the city may have something to do with it. Boston is, at its heart, a Puritan settlement. This has been used as a sleight against Boston, but I don't mean it that way. But it is a word that captures the essence of what I mean. A superficial example shows itself to visitors immediately. Most people who visit Boston come away thinking the people are cold and…
I grew up in the North East and spent a good amount of time living in Boston. One thing I always noticed about Bostonians was that upon meeting anyone new one of the very first questions they ask is "where are you from" (and I also felt there was asterisk there: *in Massachusetts/NE). This may seem like a small thing but it speaks a lot to the main focus being "which direction did you come from" rather than "which di…
and the second question is always "what do you do?" and, up until very recently, answering with "I work at a web startup" was met with extremely puzzled and questioning looks.
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#18why should each city have the same skillset and specializations? that sounds pretty boring. is SF leading the way in bio and health-care innovations? what about open-source data-y stuff like Cornell's DuraSpace, MIT's SIMILE, Encyclopedia of Life, Brown's Racket (our own little INRIA this side the atlantic?!).. i moved back to boston from TL after 3 years because all i could find for work in SF was the least-common-d…
It's a misconception that all YC startups are focused entirely on consumer web apps (and considering the YC company I'm a part of is mostly B2B shouldn't reinforce this notion). There are a bunch of amazing startups working on the hard technology problems you yourself prefer to work on. Storage, databases, application hosting, and more can all be found at YC. New York hasn't shied away from hard technology problems e…
YC has a surprisingly large number of b2b startups which require real knowledge of a problem domain, using either the web or just computers/Internet as tools to solve the problem.
A smaller number of real infrastructure companies, but there are some.
As far as I know, not many non-computer/electronics tech (life sciences, cleantech, etc.).
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#19As a longtime Massachusetts / Boston resident, the culture of the city may have something to do with it. Boston is, at its heart, a Puritan settlement. This has been used as a sleight against Boston, but I don't mean it that way. But it is a word that captures the essence of what I mean. A superficial example shows itself to visitors immediately. Most people who visit Boston come away thinking the people are cold and…
I'm someone who didn't grow up in the Northeast. I worked and lived in Boston for a short time in 2005. I found Boston people to be awesome. Just very friendly and sincere.
I did find them to be a little more no-nonsense or cynical than average. That might explain some of this.
Re: What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
#20I'd love it if pg chimed in and explained why, after citing Cambridge as the best city in the world, they pulled up tent stakes. Did the author capture it fully?
I'm curious how much of it was "SFBA >>> Cambridge" vs. "we'd like to focus on a single place". There's a lot of benefit to being focused on a single location (not the least of which in personal life).