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Where Have All the Bold VCs Gone?
- pius 19y agoGood article, but why that title?
- redorb 19y agoBecause of all the mentions between the (2) parties http://www.google.com/search?q=techcrunch+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a http://www.google.com/search?q=techcrunch+site%3Anews.ycombi... specifically this post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=145316 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=145316 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=146604 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=146604
- redorb 19y agoAlso modified the title appropriately
- hooande 19y agoIt seems like news.yc really influences the conversation on tech blogs. I see a lot of blog posts on techmeme that seem to be in response to "Ask YC" submissions. Has any one else been noticing this?
- dcurtis 19y agoYeah. So has Michael Arrington, which is why he calls news.yc "small but influential."
- wumi 19y agoall the press must be a boon for both YC and its founders/start-ups
- edw519 19y agoscathing?
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- freax 19y agoGone? That presupposes they used to be there, but left. No, it's always been like this, modulo the foolhardy dot-com bubble. The thing is, there are two types of potentially successful start-ups. The first kind is start-ups that have the talent and capability but who, if they don't get a helping hand, will quietly fizzle out. My impression is a lot of YC groups are like this; getting into YC determines whether they go for it or just stay in school, for example. If Reddit didn't get in, would they be millionaires now? The risk here isn't YC missing the boat, but the boat never departing in the first place. The second type is the start-up where they are going and you had better get on board or get out of the way. Steve Jobs personifies this approach. Jobs would beguile, needle, browbeat, or otherwise force the issue or pressure anyone he needed to get things done. Ironically some VC successes aren't based on their BOLD choices so much as being strong-armed into getting over their risk aversion by someone like Jobs.
- aneesh 19y agoI used to think VCs were in the "encouraging & profiting from innovation" business. They're not. They're really in the "let's find the least risky deals and put money in them" business. I used to think good VCs were those who identified the huge successes before everyone else did. Instead, good VCs are just the ones who get access to deals before the ordinary VCs.
- sanj 19y agoThis is becoming a house of mirrors.