4 ms·

Out-of-curiosity 1) European Union funds, is this horizon or something else? 2) European VCs. Is it the lack of funds, risk aversion or what?

by kakoni 10y ago

pjc50 10y ago
A former boss of mine had Strong Opinions on this subject, risk aversion. His opinion was that the UK, and Europe generally, is still somewhere where you have to know the right people to get ahead. Success or failure is too much dependent on social position, not hard work or the quality of your ideas. Indeed, having good ideas as an "outsider" is likely to count against you due to being a disruptive threat to the social order. Part of this affects the banking culture; it doesn't matter so much whether you lose or gain money as whether you did so following the conventional wisdom. If you lose money doing something unconventional, it's social and career death. If you lose it in something conventional like real estate speculation, that's fine, and you can keep drinking with the Right People who've also lost money in real estate. (This is, of course, all opinion)
logicallee 10y ago
they don't know what they're doing. For example, why would anyone filter out things that are too good to be true? that's what due dilligence is for. If I'm a VC and someone sends me, "hey, I pitched you xyz two years ago, you didn't invest. but I remember you know materials science and had worked as a trader. I'm introducing my friend, he's a chemist at MIT and he has just come up with a way to make a material that sells for $87,000/kg in any quantity for $1/kg + his proprietary sauce. he also doesn't want to destroy the market for it. I know it's a stretch but if you still have that materials science interest I think you would find after DD that he really does have the goods. I'm attaching his pitch deck which doesn't contain a lot of information. I've known him since grade school, when he was 9 he did the blades for the first wireless quad copter that streamed HD video, I don't remember the details but the alloys had a bunch of constraints and he ended up using a special plastic normally used in medical applications. Anyway he then concentrated heavily into materials science, would need some measure of coaching but is very coachable, and we talked about his project at an alumni dinner a few days ago. he casually dropped that he's doing 100k in trading sales without revealing to his buyers that he's making the stuff in his kitchen rather than trading it. I don't believe he ran a business and is a sole founder. let me know if you would like an introduction." so what do you do? you get that introduction, you read the pitch deck, and if it's too good to be true you fucking do due dilligence. what does a european vc do, "oh no, this seems like free money to me. That's not what we're really about here." filter it out.

Out-of-curiosity 1) European Union funds, is this horizon or something else? 2) European VCs. Is it the lack of funds, risk aversion or what?

by kakoni 10y ago

Out-of-curiosity 1) European Union funds, is this horizon or something else? 2) European VCs. Is it the lack of funds, risk aversion or what?

pjc50 10y ago

A former boss of mine had Strong Opinions on this subject, risk aversion. His opinion was that the UK, and Europe generally, is still somewhere where you have to know the right people to get ahead. Success or failure is too much dependent on social position, not hard work or the quality of your ideas. Indeed, having good ideas as an "outsider" is likely to count against you due to being a disruptive threat to the social order. Part of this affects the banking culture; it doesn't matter so much whether you lose or gain money as whether you did so following the conventional wisdom. If you lose money doing something unconventional, it's social and career death. If you lose it in something conventional like real estate speculation, that's fine, and you can keep drinking with the Right People who've also lost money in real estate. (This is, of course, all opinion)

logicallee 10y ago

they don't know what they're doing. For example, why would anyone filter out things that are too good to be true? that's what due dilligence is for. If I'm a VC and someone sends me, "hey, I pitched you xyz two years ago, you didn't invest. but I remember you know materials science and had worked as a trader. I'm introducing my friend, he's a chemist at MIT and he has just come up with a way to make a material that sells for $87,000/kg in any quantity for $1/kg + his proprietary sauce. he also doesn't want to destroy the market for it. I know it's a stretch but if you still have that materials science interest I think you would find after DD that he really does have the goods. I'm attaching his pitch deck which doesn't contain a lot of information. I've known him since grade school, when he was 9 he did the blades for the first wireless quad copter that streamed HD video, I don't remember the details but the alloys had a bunch of constraints and he ended up using a special plastic normally used in medical applications. Anyway he then concentrated heavily into materials science, would need some measure of coaching but is very coachable, and we talked about his project at an alumni dinner a few days ago. he casually dropped that he's doing 100k in trading sales without revealing to his buyers that he's making the stuff in his kitchen rather than trading it. I don't believe he ran a business and is a sole founder. let me know if you would like an introduction." so what do you do? you get that introduction, you read the pitch deck, and if it's too good to be true you fucking do due dilligence. what does a european vc do, "oh no, this seems like free money to me. That's not what we're really about here." filter it out.