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Ben Horowitz: Things Some VCs Do That I Don’t Like

82 points by adora 17y ago

ajj 17y ago
Many of the points are good. I believe one point is true about advice in general: "They confuse pattern matching with knowledge", which I think is often very true for advice from professors, parents, friends, etc. A pattern failed a few times might provide insight, but it must be presented in that perspective, rather than using it to draw general and strong conclusions. Someone/something might have failed in spite of the pattern rather than because of it.
- dpapathanasiou 17y ago
  The opposite is true, too. Success is not necessarily the result of following a pattern.
- grinich 17y ago
  Paul Buchheit had a good quote at the 08 startup school. If someone says: "That's impossible." You should understand it as: "According to my very limited experience and narrow understanding of reality, that's very unlikely." Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E Slides: http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/paul-buchheit-at-startup-school-08 http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/paul-buchheit-at-star...
  - derefr 17y ago
    (Unless they're a physicist; then it's jargon.)
ghshephard 17y ago
I can attest that everything Ben says is 100% consistent with the way he ran his company. Even today, ten years later, _my_ employees know better than to invite me to a meeting that doesn't have the set of Objective/Agenda/Outcomes in the calendar entry.
jakarta 17y ago
I think the point about avoiding crowd-think is great. It seems like that is one of the biggest pitfalls with VC investing, getting irrational about one area and then bidding up investments in that space. It'd be interesting to see how other VCs avoid this.
davidmurphy 17y ago
Hey, if you're getting tired of having coffee with VCs, send 'em my way, Ben! I'd gladly have coffee with VCs! :)
barry-cotter 16y ago
If you are a VC and want to be tough, be real tough. For a VC, real tough is: The courage to do what’s right even if it makes you look really weak to the partners in your firm That "the partners" should be "the other partners", right? IIRC, pg stated/implied in numerous places that no actual communication has taken place until you speak to a partner. Also, from Introducing Andreesen Horowitz we will not have associates or other General Partner-track junior positions. Bravo for honesty. They don't have the track even in theory, while in almost all VC firms the track exists only in theory. [whine] This comment in the spirit of one deleted from Ben Horowitz's blog, as is his right[/whine]

82 points by adora 17y ago

ajj 17y ago

Many of the points are good. I believe one point is true about advice in general: "They confuse pattern matching with knowledge", which I think is often very true for advice from professors, parents, friends, etc. A pattern failed a few times might provide insight, but it must be presented in that perspective, rather than using it to draw general and strong conclusions. Someone/something might have failed in spite of the pattern rather than because of it.

dpapathanasiou 17y ago
The opposite is true, too. Success is not necessarily the result of following a pattern.
grinich 17y ago
Paul Buchheit had a good quote at the 08 startup school. If someone says: "That's impossible." You should understand it as: "According to my very limited experience and narrow understanding of reality, that's very unlikely." Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E Slides: http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/paul-buchheit-at-startup-school-08 http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/paul-buchheit-at-star...
- derefr 17y ago
  (Unless they're a physicist; then it's jargon.)

ghshephard 17y ago

I can attest that everything Ben says is 100% consistent with the way he ran his company. Even today, ten years later, _my_ employees know better than to invite me to a meeting that doesn't have the set of Objective/Agenda/Outcomes in the calendar entry.

jakarta 17y ago

I think the point about avoiding crowd-think is great. It seems like that is one of the biggest pitfalls with VC investing, getting irrational about one area and then bidding up investments in that space. It'd be interesting to see how other VCs avoid this.

davidmurphy 17y ago

Hey, if you're getting tired of having coffee with VCs, send 'em my way, Ben! I'd gladly have coffee with VCs! :)

barry-cotter 16y ago

If you are a VC and want to be tough, be real tough. For a VC, real tough is: The courage to do what’s right even if it makes you look really weak to the partners in your firm That "the partners" should be "the other partners", right? IIRC, pg stated/implied in numerous places that no actual communication has taken place until you speak to a partner. Also, from Introducing Andreesen Horowitz we will not have associates or other General Partner-track junior positions. Bravo for honesty. They don't have the track even in theory, while in almost all VC firms the track exists only in theory. [whine] This comment in the spirit of one deleted from Ben Horowitz's blog, as is his right[/whine]