It's a good point, and those may be his definitions, but I don't see the rules mentioned in the essay in particular. There are all sorts of investment that don

It's a good point, and those may be his definitions, but I don't see the rules mentioned in the essay in particular. There are all sorts of investment that don't fit the Silicon Valley VC short-term mold, so appropriate for "any investor" might be over-stating things, even for startups. Investing in cash-cow businesses is not a bad strategy--I wish I could have invested in the private company I mentioned above in the 70's. Jeff Bezos thought 37 signals was interesting enough to invest in. Warren Buffett seems to like cash cow businesses as well.