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Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

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141–150 of 218 posts

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#141
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would only work if he controlled the mailing-list server, assuming this is an actual mailing list, and not a "CC all" ad-hoc solution.

"... That would only work if he controlled the mailing-list server, assuming this is an actual mailing list, and not a "CC all" ad-hoc solution. ..." Just email each individually.

Unless the message is from angel-list@foo, I wouldn't automatically assume it was sent to a bunch of people, and not just me.

If it's sent directly to one person, he would think twice before leaking it.

Anyway, this whole *gate crap is inane.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#142
post #99

It is very difficult to be what Ron Conway is. Respect. He is not preaching but living an example & telling others that it can be done. The problem is that this mail was meant only for super angels to possibly introspect and be influenced. Not to be beaten around in public forums embarrassing the investors. Sometimes confessions in private work better as a fix. It is hard in public. If Arrington had any sense he woul…

I don't agree that Arrington should have kept quiet. When you shine a light in a dark room you are able to see what people do when they think nobody is looking. In Arrington's case, he gave the world a front-row seat in a meeting where the participants thought they were in private -- this is a very good thing in my opinion. With few exceptions, transparency is a win for society and business because it keeps people ho…

I agree with this assessment. Sure it's linkbaity and Arrington has an ulterior motive of stirring up drama for page views, but at the end of the day it passes the smell test. Not necessarily that collusion occurred, but just that things may have been heading in that direction... it's probably a pretty gray area when you think about all the way that angel investments are structured and the diverse opinions among angles.

All the drama will probably blow over in a few days, and in the end both the super angels and entrepreneurs will be better off for this ethics-check having occurred.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he grasps the meaning of 'defensiveness' better than most others. More and more people have started misusing 'defensive' to mean 'a response to an (implicit) accusation in which the accusation is denied'. That's not what being defensive is. Being defensive is defending the act of which they are being accused. Not denying it. Apart from that semantic mixup, I've never understood why 'being defensive' is a bad…

> Being defensive is defending the act of which they are being accused. Not denying it. NO, being defensive means seeing a lion and either standing still and hope it will go away, running for your life or attacking it ... either way, you're defending yourself in the presence of danger. Of course it is not an admission of guilt.

  Of course it is not an admission of guilt.
It is very clearly used as such. 'Being defensive' is meant to be bad thing; it's never used in a neutral or positive way. That's why the analogy from nature fails: 'defending yourself from a lion', in whatever way, is a morally neutral act. 'Being defensive' is not intended to be morally neutral.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. He's used up his "nuclear bomb" title for the year. What happens when something truly scandalous happens? I suppose he could go up to hydrogen bomb..

Above that are Tsar Bomba , small asteroid, large asteroid, and antimatter bomb. If events get much more shocking, then we go up to disastrously-located black holes and self-replicating berserker swarms. After that, I guess all that's left is the ultimate menace of a superintelligent and profoundly alien AI that cares only about maximizing the number of paperclips in the universe. What I'm saying here is that Michael…

"Angel collusion results in black hole collapse"

now that would be awesome!

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#145
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest here. If you had as much money as Mcclure, would you waste as much time trying to please people by bending over backwards with perfect grammar, lack of slang, and an apologetic tone? Everyone starts writing to please other people through resumes, cover letters, thank-you cards, and apologies. But once you have enough money like Mcclure, you can say "Fuck you" when you want to and not worry about losin…

I guess it's because I'm the child of two English teachers, but writing in the style that McClure used takes effort for me. Writing in passable complete sentences is the norm.

For me, the worst part of his writing is his use of foul language. I do not want to have my mind littered with such filth. I have nearly two decades of business experience, and I have never come across anyone who comes remotely close to approximating the grossly unprofessional manner in which Dave communicates. How could professional colleagues and entrepreneurs put up with that? His style is a reflection of substance -- substance which is unprofessional, irresponsible, and uncivil. From the perspective of fellow investors, Dave's writing comes across as very sophomoric and utterly unprofessional. From the perspective of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs merit more than any money, contacts, and accumulated wisdom that an investor can offer -- they also deserve a responsible and professional role model. Dave's writing is reflective of one whom I would hardly find to be a good role model. It is just simply improper and disrespectful of others for anyone to communicate in the manner that Dave has, and it is highly irresponsible for an adult to project himself or herself in such a manner especially when serving in an advisory or mentoring capacity.

Thanks, Ron, for calling a spade a spade. I watched an interview with Ron about a year ago, and I found him to be very forthright, insightful, sincere, and professional - and clearly one who wants to try to help entrepreneurs out as much as he can. He seems to be a good role model for entrepreneurs. Thanks too to Mike Arrington for breaking the story and to Mike and his team for their follow up reports.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#146
post #110

My paraphrased short version: Ron Conway to the super-angels: I'm in this game because I love seeing entrepreneurs build cool stuff. You guys aren't. Stop worrying about term sheets and valuations and worry about adding value beyond cash. I've wanted to say this for a long time, but have bit my lip in your presence. I no longer want to be involved with any of you. And Dave McClure, quit being a classless embarrassmen…

That is a good summary. However, I'm surprised that so many other comments talk about Conway rocking, being a great individual etc. When I read his email, my thought was that the email was a great image-building propaganda tool and that he wrote it with the knowledge that the email would be made public. His email talks how great he is, how he loves entrepreneurs and how other investors are in it for self-serving fact…

If Conway or any other 'Superangel' or whatever doesn't go public with some sort of response like this, everyone will just assume they were there, which will be bad for their image in itself.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#147
post #110

My paraphrased short version: Ron Conway to the super-angels: I'm in this game because I love seeing entrepreneurs build cool stuff. You guys aren't. Stop worrying about term sheets and valuations and worry about adding value beyond cash. I've wanted to say this for a long time, but have bit my lip in your presence. I no longer want to be involved with any of you. And Dave McClure, quit being a classless embarrassmen…

That is a good summary. However, I'm surprised that so many other comments talk about Conway rocking, being a great individual etc. When I read his email, my thought was that the email was a great image-building propaganda tool and that he wrote it with the knowledge that the email would be made public. His email talks how great he is, how he loves entrepreneurs and how other investors are in it for self-serving fact…

Ron would not do that. First, he's not the sort of person who would write an email hoping it would be leaked. If he has something to say, he just says it. But also, if he'd written this to be leaked, it wouldn't sound like this; he wouldn't have said some of the things he did, and he would have showed it to his posse, who would have fixed the misspelling of "entrepreneur."

I suspect he is mortified this got out. It must have been leaked by one of the super-angels themselves. Which is a little surprising, considering the things it says about them. There must be at least one super-angel so eager for attention that he believes there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#148

There's one thing I noticed about Arrington at Disrupt- sure, he's a dick, but he's only a dick to people who a) can take it and b) deserve it. I can't think of a single instance where he has called someone out, and it turned out later he was wrong. For example, some of the panel at Disrupt were being rude (talking amongst themselves during a startup presentation), and he stopped everything and called them out on it.…

I'm not sure if a) Twitter could take it b) Twitter deserved it http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/14/in-our-inbox-hundreds-of-co...

Someone else would have published it if they hadn't.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being defensive is defending the act of which they are being accused. Not denying it. NO, being defensive means seeing a lion and either standing still and hope it will go away, running for your life or attacking it ... either way, you're defending yourself in the presence of danger. Of course it is not an admission of guilt.

Of course it is not an admission of guilt. It is very clearly used as such. 'Being defensive' is meant to be bad thing; it's never used in a neutral or positive way. That's why the analogy from nature fails: 'defending yourself from a lion', in whatever way, is a morally neutral act. 'Being defensive' is not intended to be morally neutral.

Being defensive is seen as a bad thing because you're only defensive when you perceive a serious enough threat. Occasionally, lies can be serious threats, but when it comes to scandals like this, the most serious threat is, in fact, when the scandal does in fact have a solid basis in reality.

So, the defensive reactions by both Dave and Ron indicates that there is probably substantial and threatening truth behind Michael Arrington's post.

Re: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels

#150
post #9

This guy is an upstanding individual and really cares about startups. I'm glad people like him exist. Maybe some day I'll be lucky enough to have him invest in one of my projects. I really like how he called McClure out. I know McClure is a smart guy and allegedly a great investor, but he is quite classless and the f* this f* that attitude is embarrassing to what are supposed to be a group of intelligent, successful,…

Lots of shitting on Dave McClure from people who've never met him. If you had a friend who was a great guy but happened to have a ridiculous online writing voice, and terrible taste in fonts, you wouldn't hate on him for it. The few times I've dealt with him, he was incredibly generous and helpful beyond belief. Don't turn real people into hateful caricatures based on your dislike of the way they express themselves online.
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