

The 'We Need To Own' Baloney - cwan
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/the-we-need-to-own-baloney.html

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jbenz
When he said that his firm owns less than 10% of a company and it will
probably end up as the biggest payoff in his portfolio, I assumed he was
talking about Twitter. But in the comments, he rules that out by saying "We
own more than that of Twitter". Interesting. Maybe it is Etsy? Any other
guesses?

He also says "I am calling bullshit on it and will do it to your face." Wow,
really laying it down there.

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dotcoma
del.icio.us, I would guess. Nobody know yet if Twitter is ever going to make a
penny :)

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joshu
No. Delicious exited too early to be a great exit for USV.

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rjett
Memorable quote: "The VC business is not about grabbing the largest slice of
the pie. It is about getting involved with very big pies."

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ulf
Yes it is, but if we learned one thing about people in finance, it is that
they generally want to have the largest slice of the biggest pie coming from
the tallest apple tree standing on the largest orchard...

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JacobAldridge
I know confusing 'my equity value' with 'my sized slice of the pie' is very
common among business owners (obviously not as much clearer among VCs as I
would have expected).

If you're new to business, it's important to understand the difference between
wanting "a business (pie) worth $xM" and wanting "to own (slice) $xM of a
business". Especially when it comes to external support or funding, a smaller
slice of a bigger business pie often comes as a revelation to people who had
previously only thought about the pie.

Also recommend pg's article on the equity equation -
<http://www.paulgraham.com/equity.html>

