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He's made investment decisions in successful companies and knows dozens of founders who have "made it". Despite not doing it himself, his experience is almost a
by Rastonbury 6y ago
He's made investment decisions in successful companies and knows dozens of founders who have "made it". Despite not doing it himself, his experience is almost as good as it gets as an expert. If anything, having a decent track record across several companies means he's more aware of the patterns required for success than a unicorn founder who's only started one company due to suvivorship bias and path dependence.
As an investor, he's also incentivized to dish out solid advice to his portfolio companies and also to companies that are potential investments.
- codingdave 6y agoTo be clear, he is incentivized to dish out advice that is good for the investors. That is not always the same thing as good for the founders. A solid, sustainable, bootstrapped, slow-growth company is great for founders. But you won't find advice on how to do that. On the contrary, you'll often find it dismissed as "not a startup".
- Rastonbury 6y agoYou don't raise money if you don't want to be a VC funded hypergrowth company. If you don't aim that high no one funds you anyway. It's a difference in definitions, for their definitions see Paul Graham's startup = growth But yeah once you take the money and you need that exit, you're going to have a hard time. It's up to the founder to decide from the beginning