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Calacanis on Ellen Pao and Fixing the Gender Issue in VC

28 points by rsobers 12y ago

foobarqux 12y ago
> Venture capital used to draw the best of the business-school crowd, but today it’s being taken over by 30- and 40-year-old founders who have the credibility of having run a business. From what I can tell senior partners are still predominately MBAs. Beyer, Doer, Boetha, Gurley, Khosla, etc
- CurtMonash 12y ago
  Khosla was a Sun founder. Doerr was an HP exec, albeit not terribly senior IIRC.
needacig 12y ago
Ok, but "be a billionaire and start a VC firm" and "kick ass" aren't actionable pieces of advice for anyone except the half-dozen or so women he mentioned. I appreciate the characterization of VC firms as clubs though. That makes sense.
youngButEager 12y ago
What doesn't make sense in my circle is this. If EP was so adamant about trying to 'bring KPCB along' and change it's 'boys club' culture -- which really rings with JC's point #2 -- -- why did she leave VC? She's 100% convinced she got passed over for promotion at KPCB for illegitimate reasons. Thus she's convinced she has a lot to give in VC. And she has years of experience. And there are other VC firms with a very inclusive environment for both genders. Why on earth abandon a highly remunerative career path, if she's confident of her VC talents? Being CEO of Reddit isn't bad, but financially she'd be MUCH better off sticking with what she knows.
CurtMonash 12y ago
A note on Ann Winblad. It took her and John Hummer 18 months or so to get their fund started. They had one substantive hook -- they promised to be the first software-only VC firm. (Accel, already well established then, was just software-mainly.) They also had a gimmick -- their visual. Ann is tiny, while John is a former NBA forward. If there isn't a full 1 1/2 foot difference in their heights, it's close to that. As Ann told the story then, it helped people remember them. :) Ann, by the way, was a founder, while John had worked for another VC (Pitch Johnson) and elsewhere in finance (Victor Niederhoffer) after his hoops career ended.

28 points by rsobers 12y ago

> Venture capital used to draw the best of the business-school crowd, but today it’s being taken over by 30- and 40-year-old founders who have the credibility of having run a business. From what I can tell senior partners are still predominately MBAs. Beyer, Doer, Boetha, Gurley, Khosla, etc

CurtMonash 12y ago
Khosla was a Sun founder. Doerr was an HP exec, albeit not terribly senior IIRC.

needacig 12y ago

Ok, but "be a billionaire and start a VC firm" and "kick ass" aren't actionable pieces of advice for anyone except the half-dozen or so women he mentioned. I appreciate the characterization of VC firms as clubs though. That makes sense.

youngButEager 12y ago

What doesn't make sense in my circle is this. If EP was so adamant about trying to 'bring KPCB along' and change it's 'boys club' culture -- which really rings with JC's point #2 -- -- why did she leave VC? She's 100% convinced she got passed over for promotion at KPCB for illegitimate reasons. Thus she's convinced she has a lot to give in VC. And she has years of experience. And there are other VC firms with a very inclusive environment for both genders. Why on earth abandon a highly remunerative career path, if she's confident of her VC talents? Being CEO of Reddit isn't bad, but financially she'd be MUCH better off sticking with what she knows.

CurtMonash 12y ago

A note on Ann Winblad. It took her and John Hummer 18 months or so to get their fund started. They had one substantive hook -- they promised to be the first software-only VC firm. (Accel, already well established then, was just software-mainly.) They also had a gimmick -- their visual. Ann is tiny, while John is a former NBA forward. If there isn't a full 1 1/2 foot difference in their heights, it's close to that. As Ann told the story then, it helped people remember them. :) Ann, by the way, was a founder, while John had worked for another VC (Pitch Johnson) and elsewhere in finance (Victor Niederhoffer) after his hoops career ended.