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Isn't delusional overconfidence practically a prerequisite to get through the VC filter? Chris Sacca for instance once praised Systrom for talking in radical fu
by sp527 9y ago
Isn't delusional overconfidence practically a prerequisite to get through the VC filter? Chris Sacca for instance once praised Systrom for talking in radical future-spect when raising seed funding (paraphrasing, 'once we reach 50 million users, we'll add this...').
If the VC community is applying selective pressure to identify that type of person, then it's no surprise that these kinds of surveys will reflect that. VCs know most of these companies will fail, but their portfolio mechanics still make it the right game to play. On the flip side, entrepreneurs know they have to deploy an airtight reality distortion field. Bidirectional obfuscation is practically an emergent property of the industry.
- Silhouette 9y agoOn the flip side, entrepreneurs know they have to deploy an airtight reality distortion field. When dealing with the outside world, sure, the appearance of having faith in your business is important. But believing your own hype to the point of wildly overestimating your prospects doesn't seem like a healthy characteristic in anyone running a business. At some point it's probably going to lead to bad decision-making.
- jaggederest 9y agoPeople seem unlikely to consider a VC survey to be the place to confess their deepest fears honestly. As in a job interview, if someone asked "What is your biggest flaw as an employee?" They are unlikely to get a useful reply: "Sometimes I work so hard that I make other people feel bad" perhaps