
Thiel: The majority of the capital I give companies is just going to landlords - arikr
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peter-thiel-vast-majority-capital-give-companies-just-going-landlords-134709786.html
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rdlecler1
Maybe nitpicking here but Theil is not giving money away. He’s investing it as
he is expecting a return. He invests it in Silicon Valley companies because
there is a concentration of talent and capital. Is this an optimal way to
distribute resources when the vast majority of that money will ultimately go
to landlords? Probably not, but Thiel is also not running a charity.

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xkcd-sucks
A large portion of his funded companies' profits go to investors, and the
circle of life is complete.

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sytelus
I have no idea why people still insist on building their startups in SV. As a
startup founder, you want to be penny pincher and have maximum runway. Even
keeping aside high commercial rents, the people available for hiring need huge
salaries + options because they need to pay their bills as well. Why not just
go to SV for fund raising and go back as fast as possible?

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nthj
It’s my understanding founders sometimes want to go back home while the VCs
insist on SV. From the VC side, I wonder if the high burn is almost a plus:
they need the founders to need a lot of money so the VCs can scoop up a higher
percentage, and they need the founders to feel the monthly burn so they build
something fast.

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jmalicki
From the VC side, it's because they don't want to help build your business,
they either want you to be a unicorn (where you absolutely need the top talent
that can only be found in SV for exorbitant salaries) or go bankrupt. If you
want to build a business with less than a billion dollars of revenue, best to
avoid the VCs altogether, they'll just fuck you.

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namlem
Time for land value tax.

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forgottenman
Texas uses property taxes instead of income tax. This seems to benefit
landlords more since they can afford lawyers to argue with appraisal boards to
lower the appraised value of their properties and ultimately their tax basis.
This is among other loopholes like agriculture exemptions that they use. I'm
starting to think an income tax would be preferable.

