

Where Have All the Bold VCs Gone? - redorb
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/where-have-all-the-bold-vcs-gone/

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hooande
It seems like news.yc really influences the conversation on tech blogs. I see
a lot of blog posts on techmeme that seem to be in response to "Ask YC"
submissions. Has any one else been noticing this?

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dcurtis
Yeah. So has Michael Arrington, which is why he calls news.yc "small but
influential."

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aneesh
I used to think VCs were in the "encouraging & profiting from innovation"
business. They're not. They're really in the "let's find the least risky deals
and put money in them" business.

I used to think good VCs were those who identified the huge successes before
everyone else did. Instead, good VCs are just the ones who get access to deals
before the ordinary VCs.

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wumi
all the press must be a boon for both YC and its founders/start-ups

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sanj
This is becoming a house of mirrors.

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pius
Good article, but why that title?

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redorb
Because of all the mentions between the (2) parties
[http://www.google.com/search?q=techcrunch+site%3Anews.ycombi...](http://www.google.com/search?q=techcrunch+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-
US:official&client=firefox-a)

specifically this post

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=145316>

and

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=146604>

~~~
pius
That's cool . . . wasn't trying to be a jerk, just genuinely curious.

~~~
redorb
PG; Did you modify my title for me......? its better anyways..

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edw519
scathing?

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freax
Gone? That presupposes they used to be there, but left.

No, it's always been like this, modulo the foolhardy dot-com bubble.

The thing is, there are two types of potentially successful start-ups. The
first kind is start-ups that have the talent and capability but who, if they
don't get a helping hand, will quietly fizzle out.

My impression is a lot of YC groups are like this; getting into YC determines
whether they _go for it_ or just stay in school, for example. If Reddit didn't
get in, would they be millionaires now? The risk here isn't YC missing the
boat, but the boat never departing in the first place.

The second type is the start-up where they are _going_ and you had better get
on board or get out of the way. Steve Jobs personifies this approach. Jobs
would beguile, needle, browbeat, or otherwise force the issue or pressure
anyone he needed to get things done.

Ironically some VC successes aren't based on their BOLD choices so much as
being strong-armed into getting over their risk aversion by someone like Jobs.

