3 ms·

This would reinvigorate some of us who are jaded by SV's astounding lack of ambition towards actually solving hard problems as well. I didn't become an enginee

• supersystem 13y ago
  With YC companies not solving hard problems in computing I don't see them suddenly solving hard problems in other fields. And with "hard problems" I don't (only) mean CS, I mean problems with the state of computing like security, robustness, cross-platforms tools etc. that could be huge enablers for other fields.
• foobarqux 13y ago
  A VC's job is to take in money and return even more money. Not to be ambitious. Pension funds don't care about creating innovation.
  • hiddentao 13y ago
    Spot on. A VC will fund something really risky and innovative if and only if they think they'll likewise make a larger profit from it compared less risky ventures. But as pointed out by other commenters even this risk-taking is limited. Ventures like SpaceX and Tesla that have a long lead time and (at least in these two cases) are loss-making at the start probably wouldn't get YC-VC funding. Or at least they wouldn't get anywhere near the level of funding they'd need to get to profitability point. I wager that for some of the really big world-changing projects we simply have to be willing to fund it as long as necessary, taking an extremely long-term view. And for this, VC funding is probably not going to be enough. Both Tesla and SpaceX needed to take in public (read: Government) funding to keep going.