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Do these VC investors not install adult supervision of the companies they invest in?

piinbinary 10y ago
That's an interesting point. Was Uber able to hide these issues from the VCs, or were the VCs aware of this? If they were aware, did they care? None of the possibilities reflect well on the investors.
ksherlock 10y ago
The popular opinion in the other front-page uber story seems to be that investors should shut up and "be a team player" and that questioning the company is a "breech [sic] of trust"
sidlls 10y ago
Agreed. The behavior Uber has been called-out for is childish, cruel, and strongly indicative of a need for mature supervision. That this supervision didn't exist reflects poorly on the VCs: they are either so hands-off they don't know what's going on in the company they've invested millions of dollars in or so callous as to not care.
kafkaesq 10y ago
Let's just say that VCs (both involved in Uber and otherwise) can choose to take this as a "teachable moment" if they want to, moving forward.
johan_larson 10y ago
They used to, back around the turn of the century. Yahoo and Google, to take just two examples, got older and more experienced CEOs to supplement the youthful founders as the companies grew. My impression is that doing it that way is a bit old-school now. Investors would rather bet on the founders doing it Gates-style by pure intellect and vigor.
- bigiain 10y ago
  As it turns out - testosterone and alcohol are not adequate substitutes for pure intellect and vigor... Who could have guessed?
Zigurd 10y ago
I wouldn't expect VC investors to be brilliant at crisis management. Most things they invest in have inconsequential failure modes. Babysitting founders is against their nature, too. More women partners and board members would help.
- sidlls 10y ago
  That phrasing is a bit unfortunate ("Babysitting...women partners and board members would help"). Do you mean that having more women partners and board members will bring a different perspective on leadership, or that women are better suited to babysitting the man-child types that infest the industry?
  - Zigurd 10y ago
    One hopes there would be fewer tech-bro founders needing minding, and that founders would model their management's sex diversity after their funders. Lack of more than tokenism in women and minorities is self-perpetuating, and unless you fix it at the origin, the statistics, never mind the motivation, of fixing it later are always pretty grim.

That's an interesting point. Was Uber able to hide these issues from the VCs, or were the VCs aware of this? If they were aware, did they care? None of the possibilities reflect well on the investors.

ksherlock 10y ago

The popular opinion in the other front-page uber story seems to be that investors should shut up and "be a team player" and that questioning the company is a "breech [sic] of trust"

sidlls 10y ago

Agreed. The behavior Uber has been called-out for is childish, cruel, and strongly indicative of a need for mature supervision. That this supervision didn't exist reflects poorly on the VCs: they are either so hands-off they don't know what's going on in the company they've invested millions of dollars in or so callous as to not care.

kafkaesq 10y ago

Let's just say that VCs (both involved in Uber and otherwise) can choose to take this as a "teachable moment" if they want to, moving forward.

johan_larson 10y ago

They used to, back around the turn of the century. Yahoo and Google, to take just two examples, got older and more experienced CEOs to supplement the youthful founders as the companies grew. My impression is that doing it that way is a bit old-school now. Investors would rather bet on the founders doing it Gates-style by pure intellect and vigor.

bigiain 10y ago
As it turns out - testosterone and alcohol are not adequate substitutes for pure intellect and vigor... Who could have guessed?

Zigurd 10y ago

I wouldn't expect VC investors to be brilliant at crisis management. Most things they invest in have inconsequential failure modes. Babysitting founders is against their nature, too. More women partners and board members would help.

sidlls 10y ago
That phrasing is a bit unfortunate ("Babysitting...women partners and board members would help"). Do you mean that having more women partners and board members will bring a different perspective on leadership, or that women are better suited to babysitting the man-child types that infest the industry?
- Zigurd 10y ago
  One hopes there would be fewer tech-bro founders needing minding, and that founders would model their management's sex diversity after their funders. Lack of more than tokenism in women and minorities is self-perpetuating, and unless you fix it at the origin, the statistics, never mind the motivation, of fixing it later are always pretty grim.