12 ms·

Sure. Tbh, I didn't really want this comment to be an opportunity to pitch my company or make it too specific about our solution as there are many different ty

Sure. Tbh, I didn't really want this comment to be an opportunity to pitch my company or make it too specific about our solution as there are many different types of solutions, categories and problems that could use innovation capital that are second in line. flair.co is us. We have taken money from investors, those that aren't afraid of energy problems, that aren't afraid of energy efficiency, and that invest in meaningful problems (and some others too, but much better portfolio mixes than most). Things are (minus covid 19) changing. We are already a key transitional electrification solution, we are solving peak problems on the grid, and we are poised through a few partnerships to redefine home energy consumption in North American homes. I'm adding that for context as our website doesn't publicly lay that out. All that said, I'm so thankful for the investors that we do have. They listened to our larger vision from the get go, focus on meaningful problems, and put their money where their mouth is. Now that we are realizing this vision, they will realize returns and leadership ROI as this particular blog post fades into the past.

antsar 6y ago
TLDR (actually, the site title): Smart Vents & Wireless Thermostats
anamexis 6y ago
Is this post a parody?
- danimal88 6y ago
  No
sah2ed 6y ago
Your post still reads like marketing-speak — it is not immediately clear how you differ from other home builders. Anyway, I’m not really sure the point of your criticism of VCs. That you eventually found investors is good, but your grouse is that you don’t have prominent venture capitalists among your investors? Venture Capital, by definition, has a different appetite for risk than private equity for instance, so it is understandable why your idea may not have been interesting to them. Why? Because it is inherent in their name: venture, noun; ‘a risky or daring journey or undertaking’. Building an energy efficient home is an innovative undertaking, but I’m sure many will agree it hardly qualifies as risky the way social-oriented startups like GitHub, Slack, Pinterest were risky before they matured into going concerns. Social businesses live and die by the power of network effects, so those startups had no choice but to seek out venture funding to fuel their hockey-stick growth and in exchange they promised their VCs high returns. Home building OTOH may not benefit from seeking out venture funding compared to traditional funding since the risks of construction are pretty well understood. Also, there are no network effects to ride on to massive growth, as is abundantly clear from the WeWork story. That’s a summary of the purpose of VC. In practice, the fact that VCs herd towards funding the next big cat video sharing app that would surpass TikTok is a different story. More of a failure of imagination of the VC class as a group.
- danimal88 6y ago
  We are not home builders and our site seems like it makes it pretty clear what our consumer offering is. I'm not advocating for home builders to take VC money although there are plenty of construction tech companies with unique ideas that have taken VC.
cortesoft 6y ago
I have flair vents... they are pretty cool.

antsar 6y ago

TLDR (actually, the site title): Smart Vents & Wireless Thermostats

anamexis 6y ago

Is this post a parody?

danimal88 6y ago
No

sah2ed 6y ago

Your post still reads like marketing-speak — it is not immediately clear how you differ from other home builders. Anyway, I’m not really sure the point of your criticism of VCs. That you eventually found investors is good, but your grouse is that you don’t have prominent venture capitalists among your investors? Venture Capital, by definition, has a different appetite for risk than private equity for instance, so it is understandable why your idea may not have been interesting to them. Why? Because it is inherent in their name: venture, noun; ‘a risky or daring journey or undertaking’. Building an energy efficient home is an innovative undertaking, but I’m sure many will agree it hardly qualifies as risky the way social-oriented startups like GitHub, Slack, Pinterest were risky before they matured into going concerns. Social businesses live and die by the power of network effects, so those startups had no choice but to seek out venture funding to fuel their hockey-stick growth and in exchange they promised their VCs high returns. Home building OTOH may not benefit from seeking out venture funding compared to traditional funding since the risks of construction are pretty well understood. Also, there are no network effects to ride on to massive growth, as is abundantly clear from the WeWork story. That’s a summary of the purpose of VC. In practice, the fact that VCs herd towards funding the next big cat video sharing app that would surpass TikTok is a different story. More of a failure of imagination of the VC class as a group.

danimal88 6y ago
We are not home builders and our site seems like it makes it pretty clear what our consumer offering is. I'm not advocating for home builders to take VC money although there are plenty of construction tech companies with unique ideas that have taken VC.

cortesoft 6y ago

I have flair vents... they are pretty cool.