3 ms·

I think it's because you need a figure-head that truly has zero doubt that what they are doing is the best and most correct thing. Because it has to sell, and i

I think it's because you need a figure-head that truly has zero doubt that what they are doing is the best and most correct thing. Because it has to sell, and it can't sound like a car-salesman pitch. It might not be in the best interest of the company, it just needs to be a hype train long enough for the VC to get theirs. The Greater Fool meets real life. The VC doesn't care one way or another if the founder benefits in the end, as long as it doesn't affect their ability to make their next play.

__loam 3y ago
Using smart children who have degrees from reputable institutions like Stanford is a value signal that VC uses to get more people involved with their plays. It's borrowing legitimacy and adding to the Jobsian mythology of the company, while also getting someone who has no idea what they're doing into a position where they will listen to a board who will tell them what to do.
- ElevenLathe 3y ago
  I think it's just that privileged 20-year olds are the best material with which elites can build the next generation to replace themselves and thus the system in which they are embedded. Young Ivy Leaguers are also the basic building material of traditional business' executive corps, the CIA, the FBI, the military officer Corp, McKensie, and so on. In past centuries, these kids would be sent to manage imperial affairs in the Raj or something. There are good reasons for this: their parents were last season's elites and want to pass it on, their classmates will likely be good contacts in other elite institutions, and they've already been trained to please establishment figures enthusiastically (or they wouldn't be Stanford wiz kids). Not to sound like a crank, but information technology is now (and, really, has been since it's inception) an important theater in the class war, and elites are recruiting for it the same way they always have.

__loam 3y ago

Using smart children who have degrees from reputable institutions like Stanford is a value signal that VC uses to get more people involved with their plays. It's borrowing legitimacy and adding to the Jobsian mythology of the company, while also getting someone who has no idea what they're doing into a position where they will listen to a board who will tell them what to do.

ElevenLathe 3y ago
I think it's just that privileged 20-year olds are the best material with which elites can build the next generation to replace themselves and thus the system in which they are embedded. Young Ivy Leaguers are also the basic building material of traditional business' executive corps, the CIA, the FBI, the military officer Corp, McKensie, and so on. In past centuries, these kids would be sent to manage imperial affairs in the Raj or something. There are good reasons for this: their parents were last season's elites and want to pass it on, their classmates will likely be good contacts in other elite institutions, and they've already been trained to please establishment figures enthusiastically (or they wouldn't be Stanford wiz kids). Not to sound like a crank, but information technology is now (and, really, has been since it's inception) an important theater in the class war, and elites are recruiting for it the same way they always have.