pmarca

16 ms·

181.
by pmarca 13y ago
Who? Let me know so I can fix it!
182.
by pmarca 13y ago
I'm pretty sure this is Asok from Dilbert.
183.
by pmarca 13y ago
I think the title has a typo. Should be "How Did Work-Life Balance in the US Get So Awesome?"
184.
by pmarca 13y ago
This is not a comment specifically on Path -- I don't know anything about what they are doing or not doing. But more generally: one of the most interesting parts of startups is the tension between "Don't Be Evil" and "Don't Fail". It would
185.
by pmarca 13y ago
There aren't that many qualified people over the age of 50 with the energy and determination to mount another startup effort again. It happens, but often people who have done well in their careers simply won't subject themselves to that le
186.
by pmarca 13y ago
We tend to see the opposite. The high-quality young founders tend to be pursuing a single great idea. The high-quality older founders tend to decide to start (another) company first and then try to figure out an idea worth pursuing. The
187.
by pmarca 13y ago
It's not the same equity. Quality is not distributed equally among the sample set of companies. The great startups (as judged retroactively via returns -- e.g. Facebook and Google) often (but not always) can get multiple competitive offer
188.
by pmarca 13y ago
As it turns out, the numbers are BIG! so a factor of 2x doesn't matter. This is literally how it works. The only thing that matters in venture capital is being in the small number of companies (15 out of about 4,000 per year) that generat
189.
by pmarca 13y ago
Man, now I feel really bad for exploiting all those 20 year old Stanford and Berkeley kids by handing them millions of dollars to see if they can get their ideas to work. From now on, y'all are on your own -- good luck!
190.
by pmarca 14y ago
Not specifically re Instagram but in general -- yep -- I have seen certain buyers walk from acquisition discussions when a process opened up. It's a tricky process, and the devil's in the details.
191.
by pmarca 14y ago
Please don't toss around casual aspersions like that. First, any behavior like that would be contrary to our obligations to our investors. Second, we were properly excluded from knowledge of the transaction due to conflict of interest.
192.
by pmarca 14y ago
Due to the reduced size of the round, the announcement can only cite investment from a1z.
193.
by pmarca 14y ago
If our $50 participation hampers your A round, we will bridge you with another $15.
194.
by pmarca 14y ago
Andreessen Horowitz will match your $50 with another $50.
195.
by pmarca 14y ago
Keep telling yourself that :-).
196.
by pmarca 14y ago
This is extraordinarily accurate, based on my experience.
197.
by pmarca 14y ago
There's a subtle reason why VCs will avoid certain kinds of businesses that is not clear until you are inside the sausage factory, which is that your LPs (investors) are sensitive to bad perception and publicity. Specifically your sponsor
198.
by pmarca 14y ago
Tim, is that you?
199.
by pmarca 14y ago
There was also serious backlash from certain people (cough TIM BERNERS LEE cough) that adding images to the web would degrade the user experience, encourage bad use cases, and encourage the riffraff to use it. Why yes, I still remember that
200.
by pmarca 14y ago
Personally, I'm skeptical.
201.
by pmarca 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback -- I'll see if I can work that in before I release the first implementation!
202.
by pmarca 14y ago
The typical metrics are DAUs and MAUs, with attention paid to DAU:MAU ratio, and then some gauge of activity within each session. For some companies that means length of session, but for other companies you'd want something else (e.g. serv
203.
by pmarca 14y ago
That's a little bit like saying the optimal strategy for running the Boston Marathon is to start running naked from the Arctic Circle three weeks prior.
204.
by pmarca 14y ago
I think that's true. I also think that the cliche of the venture-backed entrepreneur who goes for growth yet has no idea how the company will generate revenue is mostly false. Most of the smart entrepreneurs I know who are apparently purs
205.
by pmarca 14y ago
That is a great point, and one of the things VCs see a lot are startups that perform all kinds of contortions to boost their app store chart rankings right before they raise money. Because there are not very many ways to boost your rankings
206.
by pmarca 14y ago
I won't argue against you selecting yourself out, but your argument is incorrect. Google and Apple are insanely profitable.
207.
by pmarca 14y ago
There really isn't a continuum in most technology markets. Startups that constrain their growth tend to get pounded into the ground by startups that don't. Try being a small search engine competing with Google.
208.
by pmarca 14y ago
Amazon of course not only raise venture capital but also raised an enormous amount of money after that. They didn't get to where they are today by constraining their access to capital to their float.
209.
by pmarca 14y ago
I don't recall arguing that our criteria are the only criteria one could use. I would love for someone to start the venture firm that focuses on non-technical founders with weak personalities! It would either be highly profitable or highl
210.
by pmarca 14y ago
Taleb has an exact translation of what Paul is talking about -- Taleb would, and has, described what Paul is saying as "construct a portfolio of cheap high-risk long-dated options, each of which has a high probability of losing all of your

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