pmarca

15 ms·

151.
by pmarca 13y ago
So you're not a founder but you're offended by his advice to founders. Interesting!
152.
by pmarca 13y ago
Hard won marketing lesson: being different is way better than being better. Scott McNealy polarized this further -- he would say, I want half the potential customers to hate my products but half to love them.
153.
by pmarca 13y ago
It's almost like it's easier to criticize new ideas than come up with them or implement them. Oh, wait...
154.
by pmarca 13y ago
OK, we'll buy it back, $1M, the seller can keep 20% for schmuck insurance.
155.
by pmarca 13y ago
OK, $10M Series A on $30M pre-money, 15% pool, standard preferred stock, offer expires Monday 5PM.
156.
by pmarca 13y ago
So "it"?
157.
by pmarca 13y ago
Forbes.com: Defining success down since 2013 :-).
158.
by pmarca 13y ago
Paul's stance on this form of bluffing being "arguably permissible" is dangerous -- if you try that with a VC and they find out you're bluffing, you're screwed, not just on that deal but with that VC for the rest of
159.
by pmarca 13y ago
Yes -- this is what engineers who refuse about sales never come to understand. The decision is typically emotional; the facts are assembled and interpreted to justify the decision. The reason it isn't insane for VCs to invest money in
160.
by pmarca 13y ago
Virtually all of the breakthrough conceptual innovators in any field (music and art, to name two) also have comprehensive knowledge of all of the creative work that came before them. It's really rare to get the big breakthrough out of
161.
by pmarca 13y ago
Genuinely new markets are really rare. They do happen -- VMWare was a great example. But they are few and far between. This is why lack of competition is often scary to potential investors -- paradoxically -- they ask themselves, how attr
162.
by pmarca 13y ago
Any evidence for that? We don't get to see the counterfactual of Apple being far more public about what they are building. And we have no idea whether their focus on secrecy is causation or correlation to their success.
163.
by pmarca 13y ago
Boy, Hacker News has gone in a strange direction. Killer new product from legendary engineers. Let's all get together and shit on it!
164.
by pmarca 13y ago
So what you're saying is that all German lit experts are dour and depressing?
165.
by pmarca 13y ago
They Valley is so much better now. There's no comparison. The fun stuff is just starting now.
166.
by pmarca 13y ago
Very relevant question given current events. What happens in practice is that the acquiring company effectively recaps the startup on the fly. This takes a bunch of different forms but a common method is that a big part of the purchase pri
167.
by pmarca 13y ago
How are all your hedge funds doing?
168.
by pmarca 13y ago
That happens exactly as Ben described it, including at some very well known startups. It's a ticking time bomb not just in terms of employee morale but also 409A (tax law).
169.
by pmarca 13y ago
My guess is very few but I'd love to know as well.
170.
by pmarca 13y ago
Supporting that, big established companies have gigantic legal, financial, and regulatory staffs already in place to deal with new regulations like Sarbox. New companies do not.
171.
by pmarca 13y ago
Total market funds pick them up quickly.
172.
by pmarca 13y ago
Number of US public companies in 1997: 8800. Number today: 4100. Total stock market index fund return adjusted for inflation between 1997 and today: 0%.
173.
by pmarca 13y ago
Scott's point is that Enron was a giant, long-established public company. Sarbox may have helped prevent the next Enron, with an unanticipated side effect of all but killing IPOs and growth in the public market. It's like passin
174.
by pmarca 13y ago
I think this discussion gets too polarized around "speculating on IPOs" too quickly. Think instead about the general characteristics of the overall equity market. Assume for example that you simply hold the market index. What&#x
175.
by pmarca 13y ago
That's right. The percentage of individuals who have access to top decile hedge funds, PE funds, and VC funds (and in all three categories the top decline generates almost all the returns) is infinitesimal. In practice, the investor b
176.
by pmarca 13y ago
Actually there's a good case to be made that Scott is talking against our own book. We have entirely private money locked up for 13+ years, we benefit from longer private holding periods. Whether that's good for the industry or
177.
by pmarca 13y ago
Ha! That's hysterical. Fantastic.
178.
by pmarca 13y ago
Doug was our Einstein, but he largely punched out in the mid-70's, right as the PC and the commercial software industry took off. Later, I met him in 1998 and by that point he had no interest in talking about anything. He had any num
179.
by pmarca 13y ago
Doug was the Albert Einstein of our field. Oral history for people who want to learn more about him: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/histsci/ssvoral/enge...
180.
by pmarca 13y ago
Please have the founder send me an email at pmarca@a16z.com so I can fix. Thanks!

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