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It is cultural, at least in part... Specifically: the enthusiastic, go-getting, I'm gonna win, we've got the numbers, it can't fail attitude that you encourage

by pcrh 14y ago

It is cultural, at least in part... Specifically: the enthusiastic, go-getting, I'm gonna win, we've got the numbers, it can't fail attitude that you encourage ("Get going. Dive in. Make stuff happen.") is not encouraged in the UK, and in the UK is described as "bullshitting" (this may be different from the US understanding of "bullshitting"). The reason being that these projections/ambitions for success are not based on hard facts, but on the ambitions of the presenter. Where SV, and yourself it seems, differ is they accept at the outset that failure is a possibility, but that avoiding failure is not only a matter of soft or hard facts, market conditions, etc, but also of the character of those involved. Thus, an enthusiastic and ambitious UK team may focus too much on why they "won't fail too much" (i.e. their ambitions are not too unrealistic), whereas a US team would focus on how they are going to whip ass.

paulsutter 14y ago
That's not the cultural issue he raised. He suggested that Scottish seed investors wouldn't ask about projections or market size because the Scottish just don't talk about such things. Yeah right: http://www.archangelsonline.com/content.asp?Page=399&Menu=395 http://www.archangelsonline.com/content.asp?Page=399&Men... Regarding your comment on SV culture: exaggeration is a losing strategy when dealing with SV investors. They want realistic sobriety, and dislike naive cocky projections. Regarding your interpretation of my comments: there is not one shred of "enthusiastic, I'm gonna win, we've got the numbers, it can't fail" attitude in my comments. Much to the contrary: I was saying he's completely unprepared to do a startup, but the best way to remedy that problem is to dive in head first, start failing, and learn from the school of hard knocks. There are plenty of people in SV who are deathly afraid/ashamed of failure too. They just don't tend to start companies. There are plenty of superb UK born entrepreneurs, both here and in the UK. Where do you think the industrial revolution began? The only bullshit I'm detecting here is the inclination of certain people to hide their shortcomings behind convenient excuses.
- akh 14y ago
  The culture issue that pcrh mentioned is what I was referring to. It's not that Scottish seed investors don't ask about projections, it's that if you're a Scottish startup and what to apply for YC, you have to be thinking about much bigger numbers and get into that mindset of "go-getting, I'm gonna win, we've got the numbers" that pcrh mentioned. Eitherway, thanks for the discussions and comments. I've emailed you a quick question :)
- pcrh 14y ago
  I was referring to the style of presentation, rather than to whether the underlying business model is viable or not. However, I would add that if they did not consider their market properly, or run any numbers before their interview, then that probably contributed to their lack of success this time, "bullshitting" or not.

by pcrh 14y ago

paulsutter 14y ago

That's not the cultural issue he raised. He suggested that Scottish seed investors wouldn't ask about projections or market size because the Scottish just don't talk about such things. Yeah right: http://www.archangelsonline.com/content.asp?Page=399&Menu=395 http://www.archangelsonline.com/content.asp?Page=399&Men... Regarding your comment on SV culture: exaggeration is a losing strategy when dealing with SV investors. They want realistic sobriety, and dislike naive cocky projections. Regarding your interpretation of my comments: there is not one shred of "enthusiastic, I'm gonna win, we've got the numbers, it can't fail" attitude in my comments. Much to the contrary: I was saying he's completely unprepared to do a startup, but the best way to remedy that problem is to dive in head first, start failing, and learn from the school of hard knocks. There are plenty of people in SV who are deathly afraid/ashamed of failure too. They just don't tend to start companies. There are plenty of superb UK born entrepreneurs, both here and in the UK. Where do you think the industrial revolution began? The only bullshit I'm detecting here is the inclination of certain people to hide their shortcomings behind convenient excuses.

akh 14y ago
The culture issue that pcrh mentioned is what I was referring to. It's not that Scottish seed investors don't ask about projections, it's that if you're a Scottish startup and what to apply for YC, you have to be thinking about much bigger numbers and get into that mindset of "go-getting, I'm gonna win, we've got the numbers" that pcrh mentioned. Eitherway, thanks for the discussions and comments. I've emailed you a quick question :)
pcrh 14y ago
I was referring to the style of presentation, rather than to whether the underlying business model is viable or not. However, I would add that if they did not consider their market properly, or run any numbers before their interview, then that probably contributed to their lack of success this time, "bullshitting" or not.