Man, now I feel really bad for exploiting all those 20 year old Stanford and Berkeley kids by handing them millions of dollars to see if they can get their ideas to work.
From now on, y'all are on your own -- good luck!
On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#32As somebody who has gone through a startup that was pre-VC and post-VC, I assure you we didn't take investment to get written about or be cool. We took investment because to grow your company beyond the first few people you need to pay people money. Sometimes certain ideas or opportunities you might want to invest in cost money. And that is what the VCs provide you, money. Sure, we could bootstrap and generate the money ourselves, but a) it requires short-term trade offs and b) its much slower. And slower is a problem because time is a really limited resource. Opportunity cost for all your employees, time for competitors to spring up and try to beat you, etc.
VCs are a tool. They allow people like me to have upside while at the same time make a salary. They allow me to instill confidence in potential candidates that our business is safe and if they take the job here, the company will still exist in 5 years. Look, Techcrunch is not an accurate picture of the valley, I'm not going to dispute that with you. But VCs are not evil people or a scam. They are a tool that for the right startup, at the right timing, can be hugely beneficial. It is pretty stupid that the best way to get written about is to raise funding, but then again getting written about is so inconsequential to success you can just ignore it. However having resources to grow and accelerate can be very consequential to success, and you need to make sure not to confuse the two.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#33I'm not going to join the douche-pile of people attacking the OP because of his age. I admire his courage.
OP is literally sophomoric. He's beginning to realize that "tech" (meaning VC-istan) isn't a meritocracy, and this is a really hard realization. This is that stage where you hate something but don't know why you hate it, and every time you speak out against something, people tear you down because you haven't figured out exactly what is wrong with it (much less how to fix it). You might complain about "politics" without having new insight into what makes various environments political.
I hate VC-istan and I have good reasons for it. I don't hate VCs-- not individually, and not conceptually. I don't hate every VC-funded company, of course; there are good ones, I'd probably raise VC (as horrible as it is) if I were in that space. I just hate the ecosystem and its anti-technical, 17th-century reputation economy that is ripe for extortion. (The reason multiple liquidation preferences, participating preferred, and entrepreneur payment of VC legal fees exist is professional extortion via social proof; the VC knows he can pick up a phone and rape your shit for breakfast.) I hate that it encourages people to build horrible companies that destroy young peoples' careers. It's ridiculous how a bad implementation of something very old (patronage) can be dressed up as innovative and new.
OP isn't there yet on his knowledge of the why, so his knowledge seems superficial. He'll get there, and he probably understands more than he can articulate right now.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#34As somebody who has gone through a startup that was pre-VC and post-VC, I assure you we didn't take investment to get written about or be cool. We took investment because to grow your company beyond the first few people you need to pay people money. Sometimes certain ideas or opportunities you might want to invest in cost money. And that is what the VCs provide you, money. Sure, we could bootstrap and generate the mo…
I don't think his argument is that VC's are evil. I think he's just realizing that VC's run the show in Silicon Valley, in the same way those who hold the capital run the show in every industry. VC's decide what the industry looks like, because VC-funded startups have a major competitive advantage over bootstraped ones. This is true in nearly every industry, by the way. F500 CEO's spend enormous amounts of time obsessing over Wall Street analyst reports. There is a reason it takes a CEO like Jobs and a company like Apple to ignore them.
This isn't good or bad, it is just the nature of the world.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#35As somebody who has gone through a startup that was pre-VC and post-VC, I assure you we didn't take investment to get written about or be cool. We took investment because to grow your company beyond the first few people you need to pay people money. Sometimes certain ideas or opportunities you might want to invest in cost money. And that is what the VCs provide you, money. Sure, we could bootstrap and generate the mo…
It is pretty stupid that the best way to get written about is to raise funding, but then again getting written about is so inconsequential to success you can just ignore it.
Disagree. VC-istan is built on disposable companies, celebrity effects, and social climbing. Getting "Techcrunched" does a lot for your career as an individual (you've arrived, and no matter what happens you're a Real Person in VC-istan, and you're two-and-a-half handshakes away from joining Those Who Have Completed An Exit even if your idea sucks) even though you're right that it's completely irrelevant to the success of the company itself.
VC-istan fails to solve the actual problem, which is that almost none of the work the 21st-century needs can be forced into existence via subordination or traditional do-as-I-say management, leaving 90+ percent of corporations uninspiring and obsolete. VC-istan theoretically liberates a few people from subordinacy by generating new MegaCorps, but no one seems interested in solving the underlying problem for the many.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm going to try to be nice and give you some advice: don't write like that. Constructing these overwrought sentences with the dashes and the semicolons and the vocabulary and whatnot just makes you look like an insecure sophomore trying to cover up inexperience with excessive verbiage. Which is probably accurate, but oh well. The purpose of writing isn't to make you look smart, it's to communicate your thoughts clea…
Thanks. I switch between being overly concise and overly verbose. Today is an overly verbose day. I'm working on finding a cool median.
'Over' is already an adverb. If you want to modify a word with 'over', combine the two words or use a hyphen, as in 'over-concise'. Although 'overly' is now common usage, it is still looked down upon by the literati.
There is nothing wrong with using dashes, but if you do, use the correct dash. The em dash is U+2014. If you cannot type an em dash, the custom is to use two en dashes.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm going to try to be nice and give you some advice: don't write like that. Constructing these overwrought sentences with the dashes and the semicolons and the vocabulary and whatnot just makes you look like an insecure sophomore trying to cover up inexperience with excessive verbiage. Which is probably accurate, but oh well. The purpose of writing isn't to make you look smart, it's to communicate your thoughts clea…
Thanks. I switch between being overly concise and overly verbose. Today is an overly verbose day. I'm working on finding a cool median.
If you care, try switching many of these sentences from passive to active voice. It helps to tighten up your writing. Sometimes it helps for dramatic effect, but excessive use of passive voice slows down your writing. Also, watch your redundancies and overuse of certain words.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#38As somebody who has gone through a startup that was pre-VC and post-VC, I assure you we didn't take investment to get written about or be cool. We took investment because to grow your company beyond the first few people you need to pay people money. Sometimes certain ideas or opportunities you might want to invest in cost money. And that is what the VCs provide you, money. Sure, we could bootstrap and generate the mo…
I don't think his argument is that VC's are evil. I think he's just realizing that VC's run the show in Silicon Valley, in the same way those who hold the capital run the show in every industry. VC's decide what the industry looks like, because VC-funded startups have a major competitive advantage over bootstraped ones. This is true in nearly every industry, by the way. F500 CEO's spend enormous amounts of time obses…
I actually think Jobs's main accomplishment was to prevent Apple from developing an Effort Thermocline (the line at which jobs get easier, rather than harder, with increasing rank). What I've heard about him is that he was actually a very nice guy to low-level employees, but brutal with executives (the opposite of the normal company where shit rolls downhill).
VC-istan has managed to put the Effort Thermocline between companies, which is rather ingenious. Crossing the Thermocline also involves a total change of job description (from "entrepreneur", by which I mean glorified Product Manager who serves as middle-management within the VC-istan ecosystem, to investor/executive).
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#39Man, now I feel really bad for exploiting all those 20 year old Stanford and Berkeley kids by handing them millions of dollars to see if they can get their ideas to work. From now on, y'all are on your own -- good luck!
Amazing. I'm actually humbled for you to have responded.
Re: On the Fetishism of Capital and Prestige
#40Some of the comments here a bit disconcerting. This is just a critique of the mentality that many aspiring entrepreneurs unknowingly engage in. It's not really an indictment of venture cap.
Also, discussing what nobody wants to hear and pointing out our deeply rooted assumptions is definitely a good thing. Sad that some people seem to get so defensive about such things.