

How to Fix Venture Capital (VCs are too risk-averse and think too short-term) - toffer
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/04/i_agree_and_i.html

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_Google...didn't sell out....Because Google had a deeply felt sense of
purpose: a conviction to change the world for the better._

This reads well, but I believe it's false. From what I've heard, the Google
founders were willing to sell at various points, but they always asked more
than acquirers were willing to pay. Just like Facebook.

The real problem with VCs is not that they're inclined to sell out early. As a
rule, founders are the ones who want to sell out; investors would rather the
founders kept working to generate them more upside.

The reason there aren't more Googles is not that VCs encourage radically
innovative startups to sell out, but that they don't even fund them. One of
the things that has surprised me most about VCs is how conservative they are.
They're terrified of doing anything novel, in case it blows up and their
partners laugh at them. They won't invest in anything unless everyone thinks
it's a good idea. Which is a problem because really novel ideas always seem
like mistakes to most people.

