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This logic blows my mind. Winning back your penny at the penny slots isn't the result you're playing for, but it's a better result than losing the penny. I do
by furyg3 12y ago
This logic blows my mind.
Winning back your penny at the penny slots isn't the result you're playing for, but it's a better result than losing the penny.
I don't know the details of the FourSquare pivot, and hindsight is 20/20, but if I had even a small chance at medium-to-long term profitability (good brand, loyal followers, but flat growth), and a minuscule chance at riches by burning down the building, I wouldn't light the match.
- wpietri 12y agoWhich person are you projecting yourself onto here? The CEO doesn't have that choice. He'll get replaced by the investors. The VC investors don't have that choice. It's not their money they're working with. They've promised their investors, the limited partners, that they'll go after high risk, high reward scenarios. If they don't make those gambles, they won't get the capital needed to run. The limited partners also don't generally have that choice with this money. They are people who manage large pools of cash, and part of what they need is long-term, high-reward investments, which are necessarily high risk. [1] They have other money in safe, low-return investments. This money is for go-big-or-go-home bets. This is the devil's bargain people make when they take VC money. There are other ways to build businesses, but they aren't the kind that will let you spend $100m-2b before you get to break-even, which is apparently what it takes to build a social network. [1] http://www.theequitykicker.com/2010/12/01/where-do-vcs-get-their-money-from/ http://www.theequitykicker.com/2010/12/01/where-do-vcs-get-t...