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> the recipient was not their first choice (ouch, you can hear the ego taking a glancing hit) It baffles me that a person successful enough to get put in charg

> the recipient was not their first choice (ouch, you can hear the ego taking a glancing hit) It baffles me that a person successful enough to get put in charge of an investment fund can have such incredibly thin skin. How would you even function in the real world if you were so easily offended?

mef 2y ago
consider that this is sending a negative signal to the VC that other VCs have already passed, rather than that it hurts their feelings
- zarathustreal 2y ago
  Why not both? VCs are human, hurt feelings are probably a negative signal
- knifie_spoonie 2y ago
  > other VCs have already passed Is this really a sensible factor to consider? Canva's was founder was rejected 100 times before someone took a chance. Is there any hard evidence that founders who secure funding earlier are more likely to provide a VC with a successful exit?
  - rrr_oh_man 2y ago
    "Nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM" --> GP's point was: You need to look good while losing all your LP's money.
    - knifie_spoonie 2y ago
      Fair point. If that's the signal who the people financing the VC believe in, then I guess it makes sense them to follow along.
  - kasey_junk 2y ago
    The charitable interpretation, especially for early stage investors, is that your investment will not be the last one necessary to realize a successful outcome. If a company is having a hard time finding investors now, in the future when it needs more money it may fail for lack of takers, spiking current investments.
  - mbesto 2y ago
    > Is there any hard evidence that founders who secure funding earlier are more likely to provide a VC with a successful exit? There really isn't much hard evidence about any correlative patterns about early stage VCs. Which is why their model is essentially spray and pray. The successful ones (Sequoias, a1z, etc.) are just signaling rods whereby high growth startups gravitate towards well known VCs, which in turns means signaling to M&A markets.
  - verticalflight 2y ago
    This is the smart comment. If, as a VC, you know the outliers are hard to find, would you really get distracted by someone being on the market for 1-2 months?
  - SkyBelow 2y ago
    >Is this really a sensible factor to consider? Sensible or cognitive bias that is in play regardless if it is sensible? I've seen a little research on jobs that discriminate against people not currently employed, with longer periods of unemployment leading to greater discrimination. I haven't seen anything about if this is actually justified or not. I've also heard of this in other areas, like with date, but I haven't been able to find any research and the topic borders some controversial areas that research has struggle handling. My guess is that it does happen as a bias, related to peer pressure and following a crowd, but like with other biases, even if it makes sense in some cases historically it will lead to illogical behavior in our current society.
- noashavit 2y ago
  Add to that how “small” and tight knit the VC community is and that’s a major signal.
RACEWAR 2y ago
They can’t function, Michael.
petesergeant 2y ago
> successful enough to get put in charge of an investment fund Is that how it works?
csomar 2y ago
> It baffles me that a person successful enough to get put in charge of an investment fund Not necessarily ROI successful, though certainly successful in making connections to get the job. It seems, however, from their website that some of their capital made it into big companies. It's not clear whether they disclose the previous funds performances.
balls187 2y ago
Not to defend the VC in this case, but thin skin assumes that the VC did not take the meeting because they were offended by not being picked first. VCs and Investors are more often than not lemmings with strong FOMO bias, and perceiving no other VC is interested is enough of a signal to not waste time. From my own experience having met with VC's and investors is that most are inundated with pitches, and the old addage of 'Take every meeting you can' has been replaced with 'Say No by default.' There is no exact science, and so there are proxy signals they use in their heuristic. It reminds me of the scene in money ball where the scouts are complaining about a baseball player who does not date an attractive women, so therefore they should not sign him because he doesn't have confidence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naO8n6HsqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naO8n6HsqE
mrguyorama 2y ago
>How would you even function in the real world if you were so easily offended? They DON'T function in the real world. Rich people, especially the uber new rich in SV do not interact with the real world, but rather with a purchased world from companies selling "lifestyle". They have people bring them groceries that they never see the bill for, because everything is handled by their accountant. They are thin skinned, so they surround themselves with yesmen to continually tell them they are awesome. They write trite, useless blog posts about "working harder" and their army of loyal sycophants eat it up.

mef 2y ago

consider that this is sending a negative signal to the VC that other VCs have already passed, rather than that it hurts their feelings

zarathustreal 2y ago
Why not both? VCs are human, hurt feelings are probably a negative signal
knifie_spoonie 2y ago
> other VCs have already passed Is this really a sensible factor to consider? Canva's was founder was rejected 100 times before someone took a chance. Is there any hard evidence that founders who secure funding earlier are more likely to provide a VC with a successful exit?
- rrr_oh_man 2y ago
  "Nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM" --> GP's point was: You need to look good while losing all your LP's money.
  - knifie_spoonie 2y ago
    Fair point. If that's the signal who the people financing the VC believe in, then I guess it makes sense them to follow along.
- kasey_junk 2y ago
  The charitable interpretation, especially for early stage investors, is that your investment will not be the last one necessary to realize a successful outcome. If a company is having a hard time finding investors now, in the future when it needs more money it may fail for lack of takers, spiking current investments.
- mbesto 2y ago
  > Is there any hard evidence that founders who secure funding earlier are more likely to provide a VC with a successful exit? There really isn't much hard evidence about any correlative patterns about early stage VCs. Which is why their model is essentially spray and pray. The successful ones (Sequoias, a1z, etc.) are just signaling rods whereby high growth startups gravitate towards well known VCs, which in turns means signaling to M&A markets.
- verticalflight 2y ago
  This is the smart comment. If, as a VC, you know the outliers are hard to find, would you really get distracted by someone being on the market for 1-2 months?
- SkyBelow 2y ago
  >Is this really a sensible factor to consider? Sensible or cognitive bias that is in play regardless if it is sensible? I've seen a little research on jobs that discriminate against people not currently employed, with longer periods of unemployment leading to greater discrimination. I haven't seen anything about if this is actually justified or not. I've also heard of this in other areas, like with date, but I haven't been able to find any research and the topic borders some controversial areas that research has struggle handling. My guess is that it does happen as a bias, related to peer pressure and following a crowd, but like with other biases, even if it makes sense in some cases historically it will lead to illogical behavior in our current society.
noashavit 2y ago
Add to that how “small” and tight knit the VC community is and that’s a major signal.

RACEWAR 2y ago

They can’t function, Michael.

petesergeant 2y ago

> successful enough to get put in charge of an investment fund Is that how it works?

csomar 2y ago

> It baffles me that a person successful enough to get put in charge of an investment fund Not necessarily ROI successful, though certainly successful in making connections to get the job. It seems, however, from their website that some of their capital made it into big companies. It's not clear whether they disclose the previous funds performances.

balls187 2y ago

Not to defend the VC in this case, but thin skin assumes that the VC did not take the meeting because they were offended by not being picked first. VCs and Investors are more often than not lemmings with strong FOMO bias, and perceiving no other VC is interested is enough of a signal to not waste time. From my own experience having met with VC's and investors is that most are inundated with pitches, and the old addage of 'Take every meeting you can' has been replaced with 'Say No by default.' There is no exact science, and so there are proxy signals they use in their heuristic. It reminds me of the scene in money ball where the scouts are complaining about a baseball player who does not date an attractive women, so therefore they should not sign him because he doesn't have confidence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naO8n6HsqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naO8n6HsqE

mrguyorama 2y ago

>How would you even function in the real world if you were so easily offended? They DON'T function in the real world. Rich people, especially the uber new rich in SV do not interact with the real world, but rather with a purchased world from companies selling "lifestyle". They have people bring them groceries that they never see the bill for, because everything is handled by their accountant. They are thin skinned, so they surround themselves with yesmen to continually tell them they are awesome. They write trite, useless blog posts about "working harder" and their army of loyal sycophants eat it up.