Amicus (YC S12) Cofounder's Thoughts on New Republic Article

link to original article HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8283583

So much for meritocracy and merit, it's simply a new nobility being built from the ground up.

Most startup founders are less "new nobility" and more "2007 housing crisis straw buyers" -- they're necessary grease for the cogwheels of questionable investment. Nothing new here; it's the same thing we lived through in the late 1990s, just with fewer Super Bowl ads.

It is interesting to see further anecdotal confirmation of what we already knew: a lot of soi disant "smart money" still basically consists of low-information investors who are easily suckered in by stories that superficially conform to a few outlier successes. The fact is that everyone who invested, from angels to institutions, thought that a hoodie and a purported Ivy League acceptance letter trumped industry experience and a pro forma based on market analysis. (To be fair to West Coast investors, it does appear that most of Amicus' money came from NYC, which -- to be frank -- in general doesn't have a record of desirable tech investments over the past few decades. They're bandwagon chasers over there.)

The fact is that the vast majority of what's getting funded are, even if successful, very short-term plays. I think we've reached peak absurdity with "Yo" and pizza-ordering-button apps; the bro-conomy can only support so much investment and, once it collapses, it's not clear to me where the money will flow. Until then, tech investors seem intent on partying like it's 1999.

Honest would not be an appropriate word to use to characterize Seth's portrayal of events.

Likewise, overdramatized would not be an appropriate word to describe a piece that accurately describes a pattern of willful and deceitful behavior. Mr. Bannon's "writing about his own mistakes" is an extension of this pattern of deception. Indeed, rather than over dramatize, the New Republic article limits in scope and fails to mention many other instances in which Mr. Bannon lied and misled; abused employees to the point of quitting; and put his own ego and interests ahead of those of his company, investors and customers.