3 ms·

Why are the VCs to blame and not the founders and executives of AirBnB?

hapless 6y ago
They’re all blameworthy, but the VCs are the ones with the power to stop this sort of nonsense. Stop investing in nakedly criminal schemes.
- ummonk 6y ago
  I would actually argue the blame goes to governments for not enforcing their laws. There will always be scummy founders who create criminal enterprises and scummy VCs who invest in them - but governments need to make sure they aren't financially rewarded for it.
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    I agree with this to an extent, but expecting everyone to be committing crimes until caught would put an insane strain on the justice system and would basically collapse society. A lot of our society is still built on trust and works only because the majority of people aren't malicious. This used to work fine until VC and the whole "startup" mentality made breaking laws a routine and respectable thing.
pmoriarty 6y ago
Or the employees... No one is forcing these people to work for and enable this toxic company.
Nextgrid 6y ago
In a lot of cases VC is the exact reason why the company has negative externalities. Without VC, something like Airbnb could actually operate on a smaller scale and longer timeframe, making sure to do things properly with regards to laws, consumer protections and better trust & safety. VC encourages the "move fast and break things" and "growth at all costs" mentality and so the current Airbnb is the result.
- steelframe 6y ago
  Having worked in megacorporations my entire career, I have seen more than just VC push for "moving fast and breaking things" with little regard to trust and safety. If you are an engineering manager who is telling your product management and sales folks that you're going to miss the end-of-year contract bonanza because you're going to take the time necessary to get metrics and monitoring, tests, and validation in place to meet an acceptable quality bar, gods help you. You'll be dinged hard for "missing critical deadlines" and promptly replaced with someone who will abuse the team's work/life balance and screw over customers. But then the new manager will be blamed for burned-out engineers leaving the team and customers raging because of the abuse the company heaps on them. It's a ruthless cyclical no-win situation that speaks to the need for organized labor in tech.

They’re all blameworthy, but the VCs are the ones with the power to stop this sort of nonsense. Stop investing in nakedly criminal schemes.

ummonk 6y ago
I would actually argue the blame goes to governments for not enforcing their laws. There will always be scummy founders who create criminal enterprises and scummy VCs who invest in them - but governments need to make sure they aren't financially rewarded for it.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  I agree with this to an extent, but expecting everyone to be committing crimes until caught would put an insane strain on the justice system and would basically collapse society. A lot of our society is still built on trust and works only because the majority of people aren't malicious. This used to work fine until VC and the whole "startup" mentality made breaking laws a routine and respectable thing.

pmoriarty 6y ago

Or the employees... No one is forcing these people to work for and enable this toxic company.

Nextgrid 6y ago

In a lot of cases VC is the exact reason why the company has negative externalities. Without VC, something like Airbnb could actually operate on a smaller scale and longer timeframe, making sure to do things properly with regards to laws, consumer protections and better trust & safety. VC encourages the "move fast and break things" and "growth at all costs" mentality and so the current Airbnb is the result.

steelframe 6y ago
Having worked in megacorporations my entire career, I have seen more than just VC push for "moving fast and breaking things" with little regard to trust and safety. If you are an engineering manager who is telling your product management and sales folks that you're going to miss the end-of-year contract bonanza because you're going to take the time necessary to get metrics and monitoring, tests, and validation in place to meet an acceptable quality bar, gods help you. You'll be dinged hard for "missing critical deadlines" and promptly replaced with someone who will abuse the team's work/life balance and screw over customers. But then the new manager will be blamed for burned-out engineers leaving the team and customers raging because of the abuse the company heaps on them. It's a ruthless cyclical no-win situation that speaks to the need for organized labor in tech.