4 ms·

This is one of the reasons why I like HN, because nothing in my lower-to-middle-class upbringing prepared me for the notion of stock as anything other than shar

by patio11 13y ago

This is one of the reasons why I like HN, because nothing in my lower-to-middle-class upbringing prepared me for the notion of stock as anything other than shares of IBM which you held at the brokerage until you needed to retire. Pretty much everything I learned about the mechanics of tech investing I learned as a direct consequence of this site, in many cases to material effect. One would hope that investors, on dealing with unsophisticated entrepreneurs, would tell them "Hey, it seems like you don't know the ropes of this yet, let me explain it to you" but the overwhelming number of anecdotes where I hear that have that sentence followed by advice so bad it shocks the conscience.

wooster 13y ago
FWIW, TechStars was great about this. David Cohen and Andy Sack gave fantastic advice to our round (Seattle '12). I've been doing this for awhile, have read the relevant books and heard a lot second-hand from people who've raised a lot of money, but having mentors give great guidance around this from personal and networked experience was leaps and bounds better.
michaelochurch 13y ago
One would hope that investors, on dealing with unsophisticated entrepreneurs, would tell them "Hey, it seems like you don't know the ropes of this yet, let me explain it to you" but the overwhelming number of anecdotes where I hear that have that sentence followed by advice so bad it shocks the conscience. Most people know that when they deal with savvier and more experienced people in the upper class, they're at serious risk (okay, high probability) of getting an unfair deal, but their model of "unfair" is 60/40 or 70/30, which most people can accept in the course of getting their vision off the ground. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game In practice, it's often more like 95/5 or even 99/1. The people who know the game and have the power take almost all of it, and leave just enough to keep people motivated to produce.

by patio11 13y ago

wooster 13y ago

FWIW, TechStars was great about this. David Cohen and Andy Sack gave fantastic advice to our round (Seattle '12). I've been doing this for awhile, have read the relevant books and heard a lot second-hand from people who've raised a lot of money, but having mentors give great guidance around this from personal and networked experience was leaps and bounds better.

michaelochurch 13y ago

One would hope that investors, on dealing with unsophisticated entrepreneurs, would tell them "Hey, it seems like you don't know the ropes of this yet, let me explain it to you" but the overwhelming number of anecdotes where I hear that have that sentence followed by advice so bad it shocks the conscience. Most people know that when they deal with savvier and more experienced people in the upper class, they're at serious risk (okay, high probability) of getting an unfair deal, but their model of "unfair" is 60/40 or 70/30, which most people can accept in the course of getting their vision off the ground. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game In practice, it's often more like 95/5 or even 99/1. The people who know the game and have the power take almost all of it, and leave just enough to keep people motivated to produce.