The Plight of a VC

from the eye-opening-stuff dept

It was really refreshing to see a fairly balanced view of how difficult it is for Micheal Moritz (a partner at Sequoia Capital) to choose the "winners" of the new economy. I've often tried to talk to my friends in the venture capital community about this but they usually find it difficult to open up fully about their experiences due to the general taboo that as VC's they shouldn't complain about their difficulties (ridiculous!).

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  1.  

    which VCs are you talking to?

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    Mike (profile), Oct 23rd, 2000 @ 2:49pm

    Did we read the same article? I don't know... that article reads like every single other VC penned article I've ever read. They all pretty much say the same thing. They talk about the same thing: "Oh, VC investing is pretty difficult because we can get duped by some crazy entrepreneur." They never talk about how the VCs often fuck up companies just as badly. I don't see what's so special about that article.

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: which VCs are you talking to? 2 MD of VC funds

    identicon
    Ryan, Oct 23rd, 2000 @ 4:12pm

    I think the fact is that we as entrepreneurs don't see all the craziness that VC's do. I know that when I started my own small start-up at university the money thing always got me on edge but of course compared to the amount of money VC's have to manage it pale into insignificance. However, he didn't criticize all ent. he pointed out that there are the occasional few that finally pull things off.

    Think about how difficult it must be to watch ent. blow it about 9/10! It would probably drive most people nuts. I just think that often ent. view the VC's as the bad guys, whilst forgetting that they also have to deal with a lot of crap (even if they decide ignore us when we ask for funding of a great idea!).

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: which VCs are you talking to? 2 MD of VC funds

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    Mike (profile), Oct 23rd, 2000 @ 4:33pm

    I'm not saying that it's not difficult to be a VC. I'm just saying that that article seems kinda pointless to me. All it does is blame the entrepreneurs for "pulling one over" on VCs.

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: which VCs are you talking to?

    identicon
    mhh5, Oct 23rd, 2000 @ 6:46pm

    Isn't that sorta the job of an entrepreneur -- to get people to believe in your company? I sorta agree with Mike here, except I'm not sure that the message is "VCs blame entrepreneurs for their troubles".... It's more: "being a successful VC requires a healthy amount of skepticism"... In which case, can I be a VC?

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re: which VCs are you talking to?

    identicon
    Ryan, Oct 24th, 2000 @ 8:03am

    Umm... I think so, all you need to do now is put together a huge fund (at least several million) to start your partnership. I suggest Techdirt Venture Partners, assuming we all join you and mike gives his okay. Then we could all help you make a pile of money on exciting companies, anyone want to be one of our limited Partners (i.e. investors)?

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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