

Ask PG: Why is Ben Horowitz's startup school 2012 video not available? - marcamillion

It's the only link that says 'recording unavailable'.<p>Is it that it will never be available, or not available yet?
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renee
Ben choose not to be recorded at Startup School. That is why the video is not
available.

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johncoogan
Of course, but the real question is why did he choose not to be recorded?

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pg
I don't think any of us asked him.

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zmitri
Here's a youtube video from 2010 of almost _exactly_ the same presentation he
gave at startup school <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-LBSqm3xh4>

If you need to be assured that it's the same talk, here's a live blog from
sus2012 <http://backspac.es/r/Xx8736cUap>

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bobrenjc93
Probably because of the "No Bitch Ass Ness" shirt he wore during his talk.
<https://twitter.com/MCHammer/status/259783902699339776>

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verganileonardo
Why would this be a problem?

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osxwm
Follow the money.

Partners at VC funds are employed (funded) by limited partners (LPs). LPs are
typically institutional cash and tend to be conservative. A26Z's LPs and
potential LPs would not be pleased if they saw a video of Ben giving a talk
wearing his "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt.

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ghshephard
Not so much. Have you read many of Ben's Blog articles or spent much time with
Ben in person? If you had, a "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt would be considered
entirely appropriate dress for Ben. My guess is that he just instinctively is
conservative about cameras, and being recorded. Probably the result of all the
discovery he's gone through over the years as an executive and CEO at various
companies.

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nbashaw
I was there, and he used much of the same slides and material from this talk:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-LBSqm3xh4>

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brackin
I'm guessing he was just open and honest to all of the founders and sometimes
being open when you run a huge VC firm is a risky challenge. So not recording
it means he can offer insights without a clip of it going on TechCrunch.

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nbashaw
I was there and nothing was said that was very controversial

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brackin
Maybe not controversial but just talking about portfolio companies or
commenting on them directly can be risky when you have a big fund and LP's to
deal with.

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amirmc
When speaking at an event with 1000+ people, anything you say should be
considered public. No more risk from this than blogging.

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brackin
Agreed but there's a difference between being on video and someone writing
about your talk. Some people just don't like the pressure of a talk being
recorded and prefer people to write about the general talk if they want to
write about it.

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kloncks
Slide deck had something along the lines of, "Property of A16Z. Do not share
or redistribute."

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jfoster
There almost certainly is a recording of the talk. Someone in one of the first
few rows was recording all of them on a tablet.

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swah
BTW, what's your opinion on niche markets? When github started, was hosting
source code repositories considered a big market?

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zenten
or he probably just declined to be recorded.

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witoldc
Theory: This is the only way his regurgitated attempt at a speech would get
any attention.

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swah
?

