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Worst VC Firms' Websites
- coverband 14y agoThis title doesn't convey the meaning you intended. ("Bad web sites", not "bad VCs"...)
- stefanobernardi 14y agoYou're right. Any better suggestions?
- davidcann 14y agoThe Bad Websites of Good VCs
- gazrogers 14y agoVC website Hall of Shame
- sullof 14y agoWhy do great VCs have websites that sucks?
- biot 14y agoThe title is currently "Worst VC Firms' Websites". Just move the adjective over: "VC Firms' Worst Websites" or to get rid of the semi-ambiguous possessive: "Worst Websites of VC Firms".
- Aloisius 14y agoI cringe whenever I see team photos of them where they've been put in aggressive postures or awkward poses. My favorite though is First Round's where they make everyone the same height: http://firstround.com/team/ http://firstround.com/team/
- MrMatters 14y agoIt's pretty cool how hovering over the name highlights which person it is.
- bfe 14y agoThe Lightspeed Venture graphic is the best, looks like they were aiming for the Peter Jackson tricks of perspective to make the front row guys look like hobbits. Maybe looking to corner the hot Shire startup scene?
- stefanobernardi 14y agoAt least they're aware of it and are going to do something about it: https://twitter.com/#!/lightspeedvp/status/202813548534054913 https://twitter.com/#!/lightspeedvp/status/20281354853405491...
- TomGullen 14y agoIf VC's were so worried a about how things looked over how they functioned they probably wouldnt survive as long as they have
- showerst 14y agoI'm not so sure there's much of a correlation between successful investing and having a nice site ... http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ That said, I suppose it's fair to expect that companies funding web technology have passable sites.
- fleitz 14y agoLooks like it was designed by Craig Newmark.
- gilbax 14y agoI would add http://www.shv.com/ http://www.shv.com/ The 90's feeling is very strong with this one.
- xivusr 14y agoThe telltale macromedia functions in the inline page javascript, not that you need to look at the source to tell it was made by dreamweaver.
- conorh 14y agoI did the new version of Kleiner Perkin's site (http://www.kpcb.com http://www.kpcb.com) and the first thing I did was to review the other VC sites out there. It is amazing how many VC websites look like they were coded up by an intern in a weekend.
- Aloisius 14y agoNice job!
- stefanobernardi 14y agoThat's in my Best VC Sites list. Congrats, great job!
- conorh 14y agoThanks! It was an interesting project to work on, glad you like the result. KPCB has a very good person that was previously at Hulu to help them with marketing (Christina Lee) and she was the driving force behind them getting it done the right way - rather than having an intern do it.
- pg 14y agoI bet a lot of other VC funds copy this.
- conorh 14y agoHah. Thanks pg. They should of course feel free to reach out to me if they need a hand ;).
- 555imon 14y agoAt least these pages are working... T-Ventures website (VC company of Deutsche Telekom) was offline almost the whole last week.
- sethbannon 14y ago"This content requires the Flash Plugin" is something I NEVER want to see on my VC's website.
- joering2 14y agouse search on Polaris Ventures website for: ' Error Type: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (0x80040E14) Unclosed quotation mark before the character string ' and IsPortfolio=1 order by CompanyName'. /Search.asp, line 72 -- feels like 2003 again :)
- mustpax 14y agoTime to start a company named "Mobile');DROP TABLE investments; --"
- k33n 14y agoIf you'd turn down funding from legendary VC firms because they have a shitty website... well good luck with that.
- zitterbewegung 14y agoYou know who else has a horrible website? Berkshire Hathaway http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ . Lets think about this for a minute. Do VC firms want people to go to their website and email them about a cool investment? How do people actually interact with VC firms is that its usually a one on one with the company that they are trying to invest in. Therefore, they don't really need a expensive website to be successful.
- vijayr 14y agooff topic, why is GEICO ad on the front page of BH?
- hkmurakami 14y agoWell GEICO is owned by BH, but you're right, that doesn't quite explain why BH would choose to put an ad there. Maybe it's because GEICO is the only company/service that BH owns where every single extra pair of eyeballs that see a company's ad benefits the company. (Seeing ads on the BH page for railroad companies or electricity companies or even clothing companies probably doesn't nearly as much good for the firms as it does for a car insurance company)
- kalininalex 14y agoGEICO is by far the most favorite company of Warren Buffett (with probably Ajit Jain's National Idemnity close second). I think this is more of an expression of sentiment rather than real advertising.
- ryanlchan 14y agoThere's a great point here - the VCs are just like any good start up, and are investing only in things that help make them more successful. The difference here is that the VCs are likely satisfied focusing on qualifying inbound leads, whereas most of the businesses we see on HN are actively trying to attract traffic with outbound messaging. A nice looking webpage is the VC equivalent of a 'vanity metric' - sure it looks good, but does it help them source great investments? Perhaps it raises the number of views on their website, but are any of them the high-quality entrepreneurs they'd like to invest in? Frankly, I'd think that the problem that the top VC firms is not knowing enough people, it is finding enough time to properly evaluate them all. If you're picking a VC based on their website and not their intrinsic business worth or ability to help you succeed, you probably aren't the kind of business they're looking for.
- TommyDANGerous 14y agoThis article is funny that it points out the fact that the websites for the venture capital firms are lacking and quite horrible. You would think they would want a better looking site but then again, they are the ones who are being sought out so why care?
- paulhauggis 14y agoIt's the same reason Google and many huge sites don't care about web standards...they don't really need to.
- webwright 14y agoIt's certainly reasonable to say that VCs shouldn't be great at building web sites. But I want my investors to give a damn. One of my favorited tweets (by Alexis Ohanian): "Give a damn. Give so many damns. As a startup/small shop, it's the only competitive advantage you have against incumbents." I think their website can be a reflection of how much they give a damn. Maybe they are an incumbent and they don't have to. But if I have the choice to raise money from someone who still gives a damn, I will.
- hkmurakami 14y agoWouldn't you want your investors to give a damn about their portfolio companies, rather than give a damn about their own facade of a website?
- mnicole 14y agoI will never understand this mentality. A website is a storefront, it creates trust. Do you want your portfolio company working out of a basement, a shack?
- sopooneo 14y agoI agree with you. But from another angle, these companies are already world famous. In a way, a poor design on their web sites may become an indicator of trustworthiness in their small niche. Like sometimes very high quality products come in drab packaging, because (a) they don't have to show off, and (b) it distinguishes them from the reasonably good and they don't have to worry about being mistaken for the really bad.
- stefanobernardi 14y agoThis is actually a very interesting point. But it's not industry wide in this case, meaning that some of the top firms have pretty awesome sites, so that's what got me curious.
- mnicole 14y ago
- axx 14y agoI'm a huge fan of this VC thing called revenue.
- neurostimulant 14y agoI don't know about VC, but people says you can judge how successful a contractor is by its website; successful one usually has crappy/nonexistent website.
- dlitwak 14y agoTotally agree. However, I grew up with a family in the film business, and my parents always said you could tell who was in charge because they were usually wearing jeans. The pages/errand boys were the ones in suits. I also wish their website would be a bit nicer, but they have probably realized it doesn't matter, they are on top and anyone whose worth one's salt already knows it.
- brackin 14y agoCrunchFund has no website at all. Google ventures has an awesome new site. Isn't a big deal to the established firms as people will flock if they have one or not. In fact the big firms almost wholly rely on recommendations and introductions from current investments so don't want people to easily be able to cold contact them through their site.