

Fear of Flying - yoseph
http://500hats.com/fear-of-flying

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malandrew
Does it not strike people as somewhat ironic when something like this is
written by an investor, a person whose MO is to basically spread risk across a
portfolio of companies instead of an entrepreneur like Elon Musk who has
actually done what is described in the post time and time again?

Don't get me wrong, I really like DMC, but it strikes me as somewhat
contradictory for a piece like this to be written by anyone but a person who
consistently/repeatedly spreads risks a lot of what they have on bigger
ventures. Once you have an exceptional network and reputation, there are few
positions, besides maybe being a lawyer, that come with less risk in Silicon
Valley than that of an investor.

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rdl
He wasn't always an investor, and setting up a new fund/accelerator/etc. is
closer to being an entrepreneur than the investor role of a random principal
at a big VC.

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rgrieselhuber
Definitely. A 5 minute conversation with Dave will sound remarkably similar to
a 5 minute conversation with other founders - he's always spread too thin,
trying to raise money, figuring out the hustle, helping wherever and however
he can.

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malandrew
Agree, however I just don't see where the fear of flying motif comes into play
when you don't have all your eggs in one basket. Once a fund is raised it's
typically for 10 years. There's a lot of hard steady work to do in those 10
years, but you don't really have a milestone to meet every 12-18 months
otherwise you've failed and your business is over.

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borski
Actually, the milestone you have to meet every 12-18 months, in 500's case, is
raising a new fund. Given their speed of investment and quantity, this is an
incredibly herculean task. Definitely not easy, and very easy to fail - the
failure mode here, of course, being not raising another fund. Sure, the first
fund might do well, but 10 years later 500 will have failed as a VC if it has
only raised one fund.

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greghinch
This is definitely a cultural thing. In discussions with the folks I'm working
with (in London), failure is still the big fear. In Europe it seems, one
failure marks you for life. In fact I had this exact discussion, I (Bay Area
based), have definitely felt much more the fear of success. My take is that
when you are afraid of success, you are probably picturing a much different
version of what success is than someone who is more afraid of failure.

At the end of the day, fear is fear, we all have it, you either keep going or
you let it stop you.

~~~
zalew
While I don't like generalizations about Europe (there was some topic recently
here), this one is certainly true. It's something I admire about the American
way of thinking, that failure doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. AFAIK
in most European countries (if not all), failure is treated like a toxic
disease, both socially and by law. I believe it discourages enterpreneurship
on a bigger level we can even imagine.

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tzaman
If I take this article a bit more literally - I was afraid of flying too (with
airplanes), then I decided to put an end to it and took skydiving lessons;
Yeah the ones where not only you climb to the sky with a plane, but you jump
out of it on about 13k feet (4km). _Liberating_ is pretty much the word that
describes it, and I'd also like to think about the same sensation (minus a bit
of adrenaline) when you actually succeed (however you define success is up to
you) in business.

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eduardordm
Does it really has to be that way? Is it flying or crashing the only
possibilites?

Maybe not. Maybe soft landings are possible, just don't put everything you got
in just one shot.

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shimms
Could you expand on soft landing? Flying high and crashing and burning are
somewhat self explanatory from a fund manager's perspective, but I'm curious
what you meant by soft landing.

Do you mean a 'life-style business', or trying a few smaller ideas
simultaneously?

(Genuinely interested, not sniping or anything).

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hayksaakian
Presumably something that's profitable but does not have mass appeal

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eduardordm
Exactly. But yet, some end up getting really big.

