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"Venture Capitalists, who are these freaks?" Answer: These are the freaks who took a nascent computer industry once dominated by a few mega-companies and, begi
by grellas 16y ago
"Venture Capitalists, who are these freaks?"
Answer: These are the freaks who took a nascent computer industry once dominated by a few mega-companies and, beginning some 40 years ago, made possible something that we today know as a "startup" by which young and otherwise untested whippersnappers might avail themselves of their capital in order to build vast new enterprises that have managed to transform all of world commerce and who, with their capital, built such a tremendous infrastructure in what we know today as the internet that young and untested whippersnappers can presume to launch new ventures under the illusion that no capital of any kind is required or, if it is, it can be so minimal as to come solely from a few friends or family members. These freaks are really nobodies in the grander scheme now that we have moved into an era where risk capital is no longer required to launch and build startups and where every young and untested whippersnapper will be more than willing to put up that $100K or $200K of his own money to take that whirl with some new and untested concept to see if it will fly. And if that young and untested whippersnapper should lose his money in taking that whirl, it is really no loss because only soulless people care when they lose money while those who are above mere money are too busy having fun.
I'm sorry - I would hardly classify myself as a sycophant for venture capitalists or other investors (my specialty is representing founders and their early-stage companies) but this piece is really beyond the pale. Freaks? Soulless? This really is pure garbage, whatever good points are otherwise hidden within the broad ideas that founders can and do benefit from managing their talents and resources wisely so as to lessen or avoid dilutive hits from taking in investment money unwisely. Whatever might be good here is, for me, lost among what I see as a mean-spiritedness in the presentation.
- ilcesco 16y agoVCs are good to share risks and gain economic stability while building something on your own. I wouldn't drop out my day job to sink into a project and risk all my money, I must be backed in order to start. What you need is experienced, advising, business savvy VCs. They're a necessity, not Freaks. The article is bogus.
- ableal 16y ago> I see as a mean-spiritedness Let me offer an outside perspective. I see VCs in a role similar to horse breeders - they pick a few foals, groom them, and are quite dispassionate about pushing ahead the winners and disposing of the others. Can't quite blame the young bucks for some kicking and biting when a strange-smelling outsider approaches them with a rope and saddle. (shouldn't have watched all those westerns ...)
- hga 16y agoGreat screed; two quibbles: Venture capital in 1957 was necessary for the founding of one of those "mega-companies" that was in fact quite small, scrappy and supported a lot of downstream innovations with their affordable and sane computers through at least the '70s (DEC). I come from a background that includes working at and around a number of startups that could never have followed the current "micro investment" model and I'm quite unhappy about the ending of conventional VC as we know it. "We aren't inventing the future anymore", i.e. no new microprocessor macroarchitectures, no new weird fun thinks like FPGAs, just endless variations on today's lowest level and most expensive to establish technical foundations, improved by sustaining innovation but very little disruptive.