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I'd say Jobs would have blown them away. He was a businessman and an obsessive who knew when to focus on the design versus the product versus the money. If inve

I'd say Jobs would have blown them away. He was a businessman and an obsessive who knew when to focus on the design versus the product versus the money. If investors in his era wanted a perfect pitch deck, his pitch deck would have been perfect. Tesla might have been more likely to focus on having the tech working at the expense of everything else.

keiferski 2y ago
Jobs definitely didn't present himself that way, at the beginning at least: To build the company, Jobs adroitly tapped the network of support services that has made Silicon Valley such a fertile place for fledgling businesses. Says he: “We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we were very careful observers and learned quickly.” Jobs pestered Regis McKenna, the area’s premier public relations specialist, to take on Apple as a client. After refusing twice, McKenna finally agreed. For advice on how to raise money, Jobs consulted both McKenna and Nolan Bushnell, his former boss at Atari. They suggested that he call Don Valentine, an investor who frequently puts money into new firms. When Valentine came around to inspect the new computer, he found Jobs wearing cutoff jeans and sandals while sporting shoulder-length hair and a Ho Chi Minh beard. Valentine later asked McKenna: “Why did you send me this renegade from the human race?” https://time.com/3462424/the-seeds-of-success/ https://time.com/3462424/the-seeds-of-success/
- agumonkey 2y ago
  I'd be curious what woz saw between garage days and apple incorporation in terms of Jobs' views about marketing/behavior/appearances.
spullara 2y ago
Nah. I know a VC that passed on Apple because Steve was 20 min late to their meeting.
- swores 2y ago
  That's not necessarily evidence of how he treated all VCs rather than one VC one time. (Though I'm inclined to guess it's more accurate than the idea you replied to.)
- fakedang 2y ago
  Honestly, I would have too, if I were in that VC's place. Hindsight is everything obviously but at that moment, if a founder were to arrive to an important meeting 20 minutes late without good reason, either the meeting was of little importance to the founder, or the lack of punctuality speaks volumes of his dedication to his company and his potential partners. Dave McClure once told me that he passed on Travis Kalanick for similar reasons.
  - duggan 2y ago
    If lack of punctuality being used as a signal causes these VCs to drop Steve Jobs or Travis Kalanick I think it's safe to say it doesn't speak volumes. Otherwise you're optimizing for criteria other than "selecting whether to invest in Apple or Uber."
    - s1artibartfast 2y ago
      >Otherwise you're optimizing for criteria other than "selecting whether to invest in Apple or Uber. They arent single-mindedly optimizing to invest in the next apple or uber at all cost! They are balancing it against the need to screen out no-name bums that look and sound the same.
      - duggan 2y ago
        All I'm saying is that a "screen out the bums" heuristic is also a "screen out some of the wealthiest companies to ever exist" heuristic then it's probably not rooted in anything other than vibes.
        s1artibartfast 2y ago
        It is a huge amount of vibes. There is no scientific way to know the future and predict rare events. The whole VC business model isnt about having good predictions. It is about being a few percent more accurate than random chance. If you can win a coin flip 51% of the time instead of 50, you have a viable business model. Perfection isnt the goal.
- renegade-otter 2y ago
  Jobs also had to be convinced to not smell like a hobo before a meeting because he did not believe in showers (his fruit diet was pure!). If he did make it to an important investor meeting, he'd sit there massaging his naked dirty feet. Like it or not - the business world requires some level of shallow ritual you have to buy into.
shermozle 2y ago
> I'd say Jobs would have blown them away. If nothing else, the stench would have blown them away. He didn't bathe for _years_.
- jb1991 2y ago
  What a ridiculous exaggeration.
Quimoniz 2y ago
If I recall Jobs' biography correctly, that came waaay later. First he had to get thrown out of his own company, with the Apple 3 debacle.
fuzzfactor 2y ago
>Jobs would have blown them away. Looks like he did exceed everyone's expectations. OTOH people who prefer the conventional are not likely to recognize the most promising outliers for what they are, it can go right over their head as if there was no difference from those having below-average potential.

keiferski 2y ago

Jobs definitely didn't present himself that way, at the beginning at least: To build the company, Jobs adroitly tapped the network of support services that has made Silicon Valley such a fertile place for fledgling businesses. Says he: “We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we were very careful observers and learned quickly.” Jobs pestered Regis McKenna, the area’s premier public relations specialist, to take on Apple as a client. After refusing twice, McKenna finally agreed. For advice on how to raise money, Jobs consulted both McKenna and Nolan Bushnell, his former boss at Atari. They suggested that he call Don Valentine, an investor who frequently puts money into new firms. When Valentine came around to inspect the new computer, he found Jobs wearing cutoff jeans and sandals while sporting shoulder-length hair and a Ho Chi Minh beard. Valentine later asked McKenna: “Why did you send me this renegade from the human race?” https://time.com/3462424/the-seeds-of-success/ https://time.com/3462424/the-seeds-of-success/

agumonkey 2y ago
I'd be curious what woz saw between garage days and apple incorporation in terms of Jobs' views about marketing/behavior/appearances.

spullara 2y ago

Nah. I know a VC that passed on Apple because Steve was 20 min late to their meeting.

swores 2y ago
That's not necessarily evidence of how he treated all VCs rather than one VC one time. (Though I'm inclined to guess it's more accurate than the idea you replied to.)
fakedang 2y ago
Honestly, I would have too, if I were in that VC's place. Hindsight is everything obviously but at that moment, if a founder were to arrive to an important meeting 20 minutes late without good reason, either the meeting was of little importance to the founder, or the lack of punctuality speaks volumes of his dedication to his company and his potential partners. Dave McClure once told me that he passed on Travis Kalanick for similar reasons.
- duggan 2y ago
  If lack of punctuality being used as a signal causes these VCs to drop Steve Jobs or Travis Kalanick I think it's safe to say it doesn't speak volumes. Otherwise you're optimizing for criteria other than "selecting whether to invest in Apple or Uber."
  - s1artibartfast 2y ago
    >Otherwise you're optimizing for criteria other than "selecting whether to invest in Apple or Uber. They arent single-mindedly optimizing to invest in the next apple or uber at all cost! They are balancing it against the need to screen out no-name bums that look and sound the same.
    - duggan 2y ago
      All I'm saying is that a "screen out the bums" heuristic is also a "screen out some of the wealthiest companies to ever exist" heuristic then it's probably not rooted in anything other than vibes.
      - s1artibartfast 2y ago
        It is a huge amount of vibes. There is no scientific way to know the future and predict rare events. The whole VC business model isnt about having good predictions. It is about being a few percent more accurate than random chance. If you can win a coin flip 51% of the time instead of 50, you have a viable business model. Perfection isnt the goal.
renegade-otter 2y ago
Jobs also had to be convinced to not smell like a hobo before a meeting because he did not believe in showers (his fruit diet was pure!). If he did make it to an important investor meeting, he'd sit there massaging his naked dirty feet. Like it or not - the business world requires some level of shallow ritual you have to buy into.

shermozle 2y ago

> I'd say Jobs would have blown them away. If nothing else, the stench would have blown them away. He didn't bathe for _years_.

jb1991 2y ago
What a ridiculous exaggeration.

Quimoniz 2y ago

If I recall Jobs' biography correctly, that came waaay later. First he had to get thrown out of his own company, with the Apple 3 debacle.

fuzzfactor 2y ago

>Jobs would have blown them away. Looks like he did exceed everyone's expectations. OTOH people who prefer the conventional are not likely to recognize the most promising outliers for what they are, it can go right over their head as if there was no difference from those having below-average potential.