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> I can't even explain how foreign it is to think that people raise and exhaust millions of dollars without finding product market fit. I agree. It feels stran

> I can't even explain how foreign it is to think that people raise and exhaust millions of dollars without finding product market fit. I agree. It feels strange. Whatever people say, it was pretty uncommon for most of the time in human history that some people with a vague idea were given some million dollars to build something. Most people had to argue a lot to get this kind of money. I think it's because money is cheap. Book money can be easily printed by banks and our currency is worth nothing and investors know that. If the price correction happens, the system could blow off and leave many people in poverty because all their wealth was based on debt. Investors are smart enough that they know that all those dollar bills are worth nothing and that the only currency for startups is attention and massive usage (talking about B2C here).

CPLX 8y ago
> it was pretty uncommon for most of the time in human history that some people with a vague idea were given some million dollars to build something I feel like that might not be true. Seems like anecdotally there's been a long history of people being funded for speculative adventures, going back centuries. The one that "discovered" the Americas being an archetypal example, but surely there were many more examples of patronage and underwriting of ideas, it's a core part of society.
- eloff 8y ago
  That it happened is without doubt, that it happened as often or as easily as in Silicon Valley? Never even close in the history of the human race.
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    One has to wonder how expensive those expeditions were, comparatively speaking, to the average Angel or Series A.
- mockingbirdy 8y ago
  > Most people had to argue a lot to get this kind of money. That guy who found America? He lobbied for nearly a decade to get the money. See [1] and [2]. People weren't that rich back then because wealth wasn't that exorbitant in the past. We only got this wealth due to the industrial revolution and the digital revolution. Today even a slightly above-average guy in Europe is richer than most kings in the past. [1]: https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-christopher-columbus https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-abou... [2]: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1010/Christopher-Columbus-Five-things-you-thought-you-knew-about-the-explorer/MYTH-Queen-Isabella-of-Spain-sold-the-crown-jewels-to-pay-for-Columbus-s-voyage https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1010/Christopher-Columbus...
eloff 8y ago
I don't think it has anything to do with lack of faith in the US Dollar, which seems to be doing just fine. It very likely has a lot to do with interest rates being very low, and the stock market being very high. Returns on capital in typical investments are very low, and that pushes capital to other investments, including VC. Couple that with a very hot technology sector that's producing incredible amounts of value, and it's very clear why capital is chasing tech startups of all sizes.
s73v3r_ 8y ago
But if that correction happens, why would those startups still be worth anything, either?

CPLX 8y ago

> it was pretty uncommon for most of the time in human history that some people with a vague idea were given some million dollars to build something I feel like that might not be true. Seems like anecdotally there's been a long history of people being funded for speculative adventures, going back centuries. The one that "discovered" the Americas being an archetypal example, but surely there were many more examples of patronage and underwriting of ideas, it's a core part of society.

eloff 8y ago
That it happened is without doubt, that it happened as often or as easily as in Silicon Valley? Never even close in the history of the human race.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  One has to wonder how expensive those expeditions were, comparatively speaking, to the average Angel or Series A.
mockingbirdy 8y ago
> Most people had to argue a lot to get this kind of money. That guy who found America? He lobbied for nearly a decade to get the money. See [1] and [2]. People weren't that rich back then because wealth wasn't that exorbitant in the past. We only got this wealth due to the industrial revolution and the digital revolution. Today even a slightly above-average guy in Europe is richer than most kings in the past. [1]: https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-christopher-columbus https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-abou... [2]: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1010/Christopher-Columbus-Five-things-you-thought-you-knew-about-the-explorer/MYTH-Queen-Isabella-of-Spain-sold-the-crown-jewels-to-pay-for-Columbus-s-voyage https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1010/Christopher-Columbus...

eloff 8y ago

I don't think it has anything to do with lack of faith in the US Dollar, which seems to be doing just fine. It very likely has a lot to do with interest rates being very low, and the stock market being very high. Returns on capital in typical investments are very low, and that pushes capital to other investments, including VC. Couple that with a very hot technology sector that's producing incredible amounts of value, and it's very clear why capital is chasing tech startups of all sizes.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

But if that correction happens, why would those startups still be worth anything, either?