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VCs aren’t your friends

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Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#371

Post by benrutter »

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #89
benrutter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I was going to say this- idiosyncratic geniuses like Tesla are behind some of the most important technogical advancement of the human species, but isn't what VCs are optimising for. For sure, there's a wider question about how society can reward more than just the ability to return profit. That would help with a lot of today's issues, like climate change, but it's a much bigger issue than just one of where VCs p…

VCs put lot of money on solving climate change. I feel climate change is one of the most overinvested field, where companies like Helion are valued $3B not only without any working prototype, but also with an idea which many experts say is not feasible at all, and even in the case they could make the prototype work, it is highly unlikely it could compete with solar in terms of cost per unit energy. But yeah we should…

I'm definitely not making any claims sbout VCs not investing enough in climate change. I guess the point I was trying to make was that progress on some issues for society needs more than chasing revenue.

I probably shouldn't have used climate change since it's often a controversial issue, but to keep down that path- Public transport would really help climate change but VC likely to invest in that heavily because return wise it isn't comparable to things like selling electric cars.

Again, I'm not saying that as a criticism of VC specifically, but more making the point that the way our society rewards talent or ideas isn't an exact match with what benefits society the most.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#372

Post by saberience »

racional wrote: post #359
saberience wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? That makes no sense. VC is a job like any other, it takes time and work/effort etc to produce output, it's also a job where you can improve with skill and experience. Just like writing code takes effort and skill, why would you spend 10 years writing code full-time for "free"? Just like no one would edit books full-time for free, or write code full-time for free, or teach kids full-time for free, VC's wouldn't…

VC is a job like any other Generally speaking these people can retire any time they want. Not necessarily with the all the padding and status markers they'd prefer to have. But the bottom line is -- by the time they hit partner level, they definitely have enough in the bank so that they no longer have to show up at the office --- and they certainly don't need to be be anybody's employee in order to physically sustain…

Ok, I'm guessing you've never worked for a VC company.

Sure, IF you're a partner and IF you've been a partner for the duration of a fund (10 years) then you're probably "rich", supposing the fund was successful.

However, most employees at VC companies are not partners, they are filled with associates, vps, support staff, receptionists, personal assistants, event planners, accountants, para-legals, lawyers, etc. None of whom are rich.

In fact the average employee at Google or Netflix probably earns more than the non-partner people at a VC firm. You earn less in VC than you would do going to Netflix and being a Senior Software Engineer. The only exception is if you're very, very lucky and get a partner position at a successful fund (and last for the duration of an investing cycle - 10 years.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#373

Post by racional »

saberience wrote: post #372
racional wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VC is a job like any other Generally speaking these people can retire any time they want. Not necessarily with the all the padding and status markers they'd prefer to have. But the bottom line is -- by the time they hit partner level, they definitely have enough in the bank so that they no longer have to show up at the office --- and they certainly don't need to be be anybody's employee in order to physically sustain…

Ok, I'm guessing you've never worked for a VC company. Sure, IF you're a partner and IF you've been a partner for the duration of a fund (10 years) then you're probably "rich", supposing the fund was successful. However, most employees at VC companies are not partners, they are filled with associates, vps, support staff, receptionists, personal assistants, event planners, accountants, para-legals, lawyers, etc. None…

You're railing against things I simply didn't say.

Of course these vast majority of people at these companies are regular staff. But I was clearly referring to the folks at partner level, not the employees. It's right there, in plain English. And I certainly didn't say anything about being "rich" in SV terms.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#374

Post by llmblockchain »

As much as I dislike VCs, I didn't find the Twitter post to be that bad. I can see his point about the company being an almost, and on top of that getting warning "signs". It wasn't the fact that the date was a few months old, it was the fact they didn't care enough to update it before sending the deck. It was the fact they did the bare minimum (or less than minimum).

I never really put it in words before, but I pick up a lot of these signs. From the way someone writes, to the way they text message, to the content they consume, to how they handle social dynamics like grabbing coffee together or a lunch. It all paints a picture of a person and/or team. These things matter.

If they can't take their time to update the deck, they probably skimp out elsewhere.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#375

Post by llmblockchain »

renegade-otter wrote: post #194
caseyy wrote: post #20

Most business founders don’t need VC money and are worse off for taking VC money. I find the mindset “my pitch deck was 2 months old so I didn’t get funding” very out of touch of business realities. It is far more likely that that type of business doesn’t need VC funding. Your SaaS can probably be built with your daytime developer salary. No VC ever says “wow, what a great investment opportunity, one of the best, but…

As someone who took more than a year off to build his SaaS - the days of stitching together a prototype at night are pretty much over. You need to be an incredible hustler and have a really good insight into a desperate business need. Customers today expect polish and few bugs right out of the gate. I spent months on polish alone. If you don't, your product is going to be savaged like this: "Former Yahoo CEO Marissa…

> ... the days of stitching together a prototype at night are pretty much over. You need to be an incredible hustler and have a really good insight into a desperate business need.

I'll take that as a compliment.. as someone that took nights to build a SaaS product solo into a multi-million dollar business (and still do it solo).

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#376

Post by majani »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #298
dpflan wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind expanding upon this, detailing the exploitation: "It was only after Steve Jobs exploited their preferential attachment & tendency of VC to succumb to herding effects that he was given investment."

There's a famous old photo of the first Microsofties[0], and is often captioned by "Would You Invest?" [0] https://i.insider.com/53ad82026bb3f7237a3347bf?width=800&for...

They were ex-Ivy league and friends from college. They fit into the current investor meta perfectly

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#377

Post by fmajid »

Two-time founder here. I think this naivety reflects more unrealistic founder expectations raised by the bubbly fundraising environment of the ZIRP (zero interest rate phenomenon) than any fundamental change in VC.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#378

Post by zrn900 »

_yb2s wrote: post #309
zrn900 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expose the names and/or the company name of those s**stains?

I've spread the story around the biotech startup community in person, but can't share it here without de-anonymizing my HN account, which I would rather not do.

You can use throwaway accounts.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#379

Post by ska »

vidarh wrote: post #363
ska wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is effectively like old school startups when you think of it … relatively low salaries and a bunch of options that may or may not turn to gold in 10 years .

Sure, and that's fair enough as long as staff gets a big enough stake . And to be clear, we did. Every single person outside the exec team/general partners on that team had an unusually high stake in the total carry. Our main investor buying us out and turning it into a boring corporate not being the end game we had in mind aside, it was one of the most enjoyable startup experiences I've had (we were a bit of a hybri…

We’re on the same page it sounds like.

Re: VCs aren’t your friends

#380

Post by humansareok1 »

alephnerd wrote: post #267
humansareok1 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of Stanford Juniors with 1 summer internship at a VC posting 'deep' Startup insights or advice is shocking. Like what do these kids with literally no experience running or starting anything know about companies? It's mind boggling.

VC Internships are intense, and not every Stanford student can land one. While some advice might be a bit meh, a lot of it is information that has value. And, no offense, but there is a massive difference in calibre between a Stanford/Cal/MIT/T10 CS program (they tend to have 2-4% acceptance rates to either the college or the CS department) and other programs. This doesn't mean that there aren't high calibre candidat…

I'm sorry but your quality as a student does not qualify you to advise companies on how they should be growing given that they have no experience seeing how a company grows...

Would you be ok with a undergrad with no more experience than a single internship coming in and dictating how your Engineering Org should be run? Or generally writing blog posts about how to be a great engineer when they have probably never seen a great engineer let alone become one themselves?

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