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For all the future founders on HN, the lesson here is to never do business with Bill Gurley. He's one of the reasons AngelList exists. I hope his lesser known r

For all the future founders on HN, the lesson here is to never do business with Bill Gurley. He's one of the reasons AngelList exists. I hope his lesser known reputation finally catches up with him and forces him out of Benchmark and out of the VC industry entirely. The Ravikant v. Tolia (and Bill Gurley) Lawsuit: http://blog.ericgoldman.org/personal/archives/2005/02/ravikant_v_toli.html http://blog.ericgoldman.org/personal/archives/2005/02/ravika...

JajaMan 9y ago
I've never heard of the guy, whats hew known for? Also what's wrong with angellist?
- goodriddance 9y ago
  Everything you need to know is linked to on that page I linked to. Nothing is wrong with AngelList. AngelList is great. It was Bill Gurley's slimey VC actions to conspire with Nirav Tolia against the other Epinions founders and early employees that led Naval Ravikant to found AngelList as an alternative to the VC system.
  - jcrben 9y ago
    That article doesn't say much. Which link in it has the meat?
    - goodriddance 9y ago
      The first link which is the actual claim filed in a US court of law.
andybg 9y ago
THIS. A million times this. Go ask pmarca too.
- goodriddance 9y ago
  pmarca and gurley hate each other. pmarca is definitely the investor I would take money from. In fact, its funny you mention him. He's been hugely useful to Lyft (and his other investments) since he's "purchased" so much "goodwill" among The Who's Who of journalists covering Silicon Valley. As John Doerr once quipped, "No conflict, no interest", and pmarca has learned this lesson well. Every investment he's made in journalism companies is a conflict of interest that earns him interest. Investing in Silicon Valley's loudspeakers has given him a steady stream of positive submarine pieces in favor of him and A16Z and unfavorable pieces against those companies that compete with his investments. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
  - zubspace 9y ago
    Thanks for the link. This is the best description of what role "PR" plays in our society.
  - wand3r 9y ago
    Gurley told Horowitz to cut pmarca out and fire him.
skeptik5 9y ago
Yes, my first reaction was Bill did this solely to maximize his PR because he knew the press would make him look like a hero.
snarf 9y ago
Exactly this. For those who weren't around in the first dot com bubble, he has a certain reputation which he has managed to bury. Benchmark used to be a much bigger firm back then, and due to poor fund performance, they had to scale back and "reboot" the firm. Along the way, he managed to bury his lesser know reputation. This was critical to getting deal flow in the current investing environment which is much more founder friendly given the increased availability of capital and competition for deals. Tolia also managed to rehab his reputation after lying about completing his Stanford degree and working for McKinsey (and teaming up with Gurley to screw over his other Epinions cofounders). He's now running NextDoor with significant investment from Gurley.

JajaMan 9y ago

I've never heard of the guy, whats hew known for? Also what's wrong with angellist?

goodriddance 9y ago
Everything you need to know is linked to on that page I linked to. Nothing is wrong with AngelList. AngelList is great. It was Bill Gurley's slimey VC actions to conspire with Nirav Tolia against the other Epinions founders and early employees that led Naval Ravikant to found AngelList as an alternative to the VC system.
- jcrben 9y ago
  That article doesn't say much. Which link in it has the meat?
  - goodriddance 9y ago
    The first link which is the actual claim filed in a US court of law.

andybg 9y ago

THIS. A million times this. Go ask pmarca too.

goodriddance 9y ago
pmarca and gurley hate each other. pmarca is definitely the investor I would take money from. In fact, its funny you mention him. He's been hugely useful to Lyft (and his other investments) since he's "purchased" so much "goodwill" among The Who's Who of journalists covering Silicon Valley. As John Doerr once quipped, "No conflict, no interest", and pmarca has learned this lesson well. Every investment he's made in journalism companies is a conflict of interest that earns him interest. Investing in Silicon Valley's loudspeakers has given him a steady stream of positive submarine pieces in favor of him and A16Z and unfavorable pieces against those companies that compete with his investments. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- zubspace 9y ago
  Thanks for the link. This is the best description of what role "PR" plays in our society.
- wand3r 9y ago
  Gurley told Horowitz to cut pmarca out and fire him.

skeptik5 9y ago

Yes, my first reaction was Bill did this solely to maximize his PR because he knew the press would make him look like a hero.

snarf 9y ago

Exactly this. For those who weren't around in the first dot com bubble, he has a certain reputation which he has managed to bury. Benchmark used to be a much bigger firm back then, and due to poor fund performance, they had to scale back and "reboot" the firm. Along the way, he managed to bury his lesser know reputation. This was critical to getting deal flow in the current investing environment which is much more founder friendly given the increased availability of capital and competition for deals. Tolia also managed to rehab his reputation after lying about completing his Stanford degree and working for McKinsey (and teaming up with Gurley to screw over his other Epinions cofounders). He's now running NextDoor with significant investment from Gurley.