I had a very brief internship in college with a second tier VC that was affiliated with a well known sand hill firm. I was only there for a few months so I saw

I had a very brief internship in college with a second tier VC that was affiliated with a well known sand hill firm. I was only there for a few months so I saw only a tiny peek at the industry, but it was enough to see through all the bullshit. With the exception of a handful of partners at a handful of firms (nothing but respect for a16z here), they are all complete dunces, and they don't have the slightest clue what they are doing. This article is right that they are going for the biggest possible outcomes, but it misses out on the largest and most exploitable quirk of the VC industry: that they're all chickenshit. They wont invest unless someone else does, thereby validating their decision to invest. The most effective cold pitch I've ever seen at our fund involved what was to me a completely obvious lie about outside interest. I met the guy after I left and he basically confirmed that he pulled the same stunt at all three of the firms that invested. He worked them in rotation, building actual interest off of what was initially fake interest. And it worked like a charm.