

Should VCs publicly criticize companies? - lleims
http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/17/should-vcs-publicly-criticize-companies/

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staunch
As far as I know, Keith Rabois, although he calls himself an entrepreneur, has
never actually founded a startup. Doing so tends to make people a lot less
likely to mock other founders.

 _It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short
again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the
great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows
in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat._

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rdl
I'd probably go with no, at least in this case and how it was done.

While dens can certainly take it, I don't see any way this was designed to
"help" him, or really do anything but be a cheap and mean way to earn buzz for
Keith.

Keith managed to eke out a successful "Hail Mary Bebo-style outcome" from
Slide, so there's some hypocrisy here, too.

It's fair to criticize someone for doing something wrong when you could
probably fix it (e.g. I think Refer.ly was doing it wrong in paying small
amounts of money to contributors, and I told dmor this repeatedly and made
comments to that effect; I cared because it seems like an awesome team who
will do awesome other things). It's not really fair to criticize someone who
can't fix things (e.g. telling a 2 year old that his painting sucks because
the sky is not yellow), or where there's no real way to fix things (e.g. I
know a company where the CTO suffered a skiing accident and major TBI, telling
the CEO that they are probably fucked is not so helpful).

~~~
samstave
Couple thoughts;

First, I can't recall myself ever seeing PG admonish or otherwise belittle in
any way any YC alum company. Or any others for that matter (not that i stalk
comments from PG - I have just never seen anything come out as negative)

In fact, when YC invested in iCracked, and I personally said that I was
confused in this and thought it was weird (among other things) - PG defended
their belief in iCracked...

I think that PG/YC does an amazing job of participating in the discussion
about the startup scene without doing any of the following: over-hype, flame
wars, arrogance, [insert-adjective]

I think that Keith should look back on his recent leaving of Square and how
the startup community supported him and have a little more grace. He may have
started that tweet-flame with a joke - but he dug a-hole for himself as well.

Its hard to be sympathetic to him when, in just a few short weeks after his
personal calamity, where many supported him, he just comes out looking like a
dick.

VCs should be truthful, but should refrain from posting to the internet whilst
drunk.

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spindritf
> @hunterwalk same number of real users.

was a funny line. While the whole "haters gonna hate" response from @dens made
it sound like a hip-hop feud, the original exchange was much better:

>>>> Wow, who knew 40,000 developers use the @foursquare API...

>>> @hunterwalk same number of real users.

>> @P2chairman eh, VC has softened @rabois. Prev he would have predicted an
actual date of failure ;-)

> @hunterwalk true.

Either way, this article is one step above gossip. A tiny step at that.

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aviswanathan
I've never followed Keith much, but it's a bit surprising to see him come out
so critically following his awkward departure from Square. Undoubtedly a great
businessman (PayPal, etc.), but I think this was totally uncalled for,
especially in public context. What really irks me is that he keeps it going
and defends it.

I've never been a huge fan of Foursquare, but as a founder, I know my limits
in criticizing others' ventures and ideas. My company is my baby. Publicly
humiliating someone's hard work is something I think most founders would
definitely take personally, so I can relate to Dennis' reaction. This
definitely got way more publicity than was necessary, but I think it brings up
an interesting reference point in providing feedback and criticism on
ideas/businesses.

~~~
trotsky
_What really irks me is that he keeps it going and defends it._

I agree. It's one thing to have an opinion, but once it's clear that people on
twitter disagree with you it's just unforgivable if you don't immediately
abandon it.

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pla3rhat3r
So you have money to invest in a startup so that gives you the right to
criticize others? I guess I'm missing the connection here.

Companies are going to make mistakes. Does it mean it gives anyone the right
to criticize them? The answer is yes. We are consumers and in the digital age
we are also critics who have instant access and require instant gratification.
Yelp proved that. It just means that the quality of the content is less than
honest and usually without integrity. But these days integrity seems to be
subjective.

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girvo
God Pandodaily is gossipy trash. In terms of the actual 'argument', Keith came
across as a dick, but hey, it's his prerogative. I'm sure Dennis can handle
it.

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saosebastiao
I don't see why not. There is no fiduciary duty or ethical standard to not
opine on the industry in which you play. FourSquare can likewise bite back and
criticize Keith's more dubious investments. Either can choose to do so at
their own peril. Sometimes words bite, and sometimes they bite back.

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yesimahuman
Well at least it's easy to see someone's personality when they do this. Gives
you more data if you want to seek these VCs out.

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lquist
Is it just me or does everyone involved in a twitter argument ever look like a
moron?

