Who Are My Investors? • Hacker News Board

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#141

Post by rajekas » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 11:55 PM UTC

I am several standard deviations to the left of Fred Wilson, but I can't fathom why his decision is being greeted with so much negativity.

He might have taken dodgy money at some point (but he's willing to acknowledge it) and now he's big enough to screen his LPs but he still didn't have to write this piece. That he has chosen to do so is a sign of progress. Let's give credit where it's due.

As a vegan, I want the world to stop eating slaughtered flesh, but I will be the first person to applaud if McDonalds stopped purchasing factory farmed meat (if only!). There's always the next frontier in our quest for justice and all the more reason to applaud an act of courage.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#142

Post by Kinnard » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 11:55 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #12

At any business effort beyond hyper local markets, there is virtually no way to avoid tainted money or unethical markets. You're going to have to compromise somewhere. The question is, how and where do you draw the line? At some point as a founder/fundraiser, you will cross paths with finance or supply chains that support exploitation, coercion, violence or illegality. The most successful business people don't seem t…

No way to completely avoid? Perhaps. But there are many ways to reduce.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#143

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 11:55 PM UTC

dcposch wrote: post #38

Pretty much every single comment so far is cynical. "No one really wants to know how the sausage is made", lots of money is tainted anyway, it's just PR fluff, etc etc. The classic HN Middlebrow Dismissal in full effect. Counterpoint: cynicism is too easy. Actually giving a shit is harder, it's uncomfortable, it involves compromise. Yes, if you refuse investment from any country that has ever violated a human right,…

[deleted]

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#144

Post by JumpCrisscross » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:00 AM UTC

tway9876x22 wrote: post #131

swsieber wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do change. Calling it posturing is premature judgement.

Yes, people change. My concern about people suddenly changing their stance on Saudi Arabia is why now and why only Saudi Arabia . Two major points: Saudi Arabia is a brutal regime. That didn't start Khashoggi. If we had any doubt, the 50,000 civilian deaths in Yemen should have cemented the brutality of Saudi Arabia. I'm more concerned about people who suddenly decided to consider their moral position after a single…

Saudi Arabia killing its own citizens is bad. Saudi Arabia killing an American resident, and father of two American citizens, for writing opinions in an American newspaper is closer to an attack. The former is not clearly an American issue. The latter is.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#145

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:04 AM UTC

The seeds for this were planted long ago, here was an interesting exchange between PG and Fred Wilson:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3144224

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#146

Post by howlgram » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:10 AM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #110

I've come across this problem a few times when running a hedge fund. To what degree does one care where the money came from, aside from following AML rules? I get the feeling you only write articles like that if you have more people wanting to invest than you have capacity for. - A friend called, asking for a recommendation for a job he was applying for. And advice about whether it was worth taking. Turned out, it wa…

I just want to mention that Gaddafi brought a lot of development to Libya and his death did nothing for his people. It's easy to say "oh he was a dictator and dictators are bad" but it's not so simple.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#147

Post by perpetualcrayon » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:12 AM UTC

One of the problems here is: are the venture capitalists, who are willing to expose who their investors are, able to take on most of the businesses that will one day be successful?

There will always be entrepreneurs unwilling to give up on their dreams just because ethical investors aren't willing to invest in them.

Maybe this is another good argument for universal basic income. Those who want to spend their lives as entrepreneurs never have to take money from bad actors and will be able to grow their businesses organically based on the natural success and will be able to reap all the rewards on their own terms.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#148

Post by coretx » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:14 AM UTC

wtvanhest wrote: post #18

darawk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relax. It's clearly a euphemism for Saudi Arabia.

They should say that then. The gulf countries are not the same.

To say such a thing in public is considered bad for your health.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#149

Post by kenneth » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:18 AM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #122

ericjang wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investment opportunities (which VC firms get the money, what deal flow they have, what investment opportunities the VC has) are most certainly not fungible. So I think it's helpful to think of the deal flow in reverse - even though "someone else can take the Saudi money", that "someone else" most likely does not represent exactly the same investment opportunity to the LPs. FWIW - I do think your assessment of oil is…

The distinction you're making matters at the level of individuals. If you're a person choosing a startup to dedicate years of your life to, the choice you make has major consequences for you. At the level of a huge wealth fund, those details are noise that gets canceled out because the more promise a startup has the more capital dollars are chasing it, so the buy in price is proportional to the value. Arguing that in…

I'm a bit confused by the wording, but I think you're trying to say that to a sovereign wealth fund, investment opportunities are essentially fungible because they're allocating their money over a large portfolio. So if one of the big VCs or tech companies won't take their money, another will and in a diversified portfolio that's good enough.

Re: Who Are My Investors?

#150

Post by downandout » Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 12:26 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #44

dcposch wrote: post #38

Pretty much every single comment so far is cynical. "No one really wants to know how the sausage is made", lots of money is tainted anyway, it's just PR fluff, etc etc. The classic HN Middlebrow Dismissal in full effect. Counterpoint: cynicism is too easy. Actually giving a shit is harder, it's uncomfortable, it involves compromise. Yes, if you refuse investment from any country that has ever violated a human right,…

I think a better ask is to create self-sustaining processes that ratchet to improve the system over time. In a word: regulation. You can't be sure you're consuming ethical meat through consumer pressure alone. You need more eyes in the system, with enough force to be able to see through the veils that the profit motive will put up.

Not everyone in the world can afford "ethical meat" but they still need to eat nonetheless. This is one of the things I have never understood - people that are into concepts like "ethical meat" tend to be left leaning, and people on that side claim to be compassionate toward the poor. Yet it appears from your comment that if you had your way, you would use regulation to force the costs of eating up, which would dramatically affect the ability of poor people to eat.

You can’t simultaneously claim to have compassion for poor people and advocate for regulations that will make their lives more difficult and expensive than is absolutely necessary.