vc

There's been a larger cost to this focus on venture capitalists and financiers over coders, engineers, and inventors: It's gone to their heads. Part of the reason is that some of the investors, long ago, used to make products. A handful of them even made successful ones, and some of those successful ones were even good. But after riding on the... See more

What is really a business, then?

So: beware of people conflating pushing pennies around with actually doing the hard work of building a business. Beware of those who pretend that venture capital and the VCs who run that industry are the voices of entrepreneurship — or that they’re even on the side of entrepreneurs.

And beware of anyone who thinks... See more

. One reaction to Chad IDE captured exactly the vibe shift that is occurring. This is what Will O’Brien, the founder of Ulysses, an autonomous underwater drone company, said:

“Venture funds that choose to back “slop startups” like this and other startups with questionable morals (Cluely, gambling apps, goonbots etc.) should know that mission-driven

... See more

And, in my opinion, the other commonality that a lot of those companies have is that they’re led by ideological purists. People that believe in a mission.

As The Consensus Capital Machine has raged on, it has only further eradicated the survivability of contrarian perspectives.

The ongoing pursuit of consensus has poisoned every aspect of the company building equation and, increasingly, the culture building equation. Everything from the influence of vibes pushing the CEO of Starbucks to go “all in on... See more

I’ve written before about this idea that probably 90% of venture firms shouldn’t exist, we just don’t know which ones in any given vintage are the 10% that do deserve to live, so we keep trying to find out.

I believe that the North Star for YC shifted from helping people understand how to build a company to maximizing the number of companies moving through the funnel. And despite feeling similar, those aren’t the same thing.

The most important takeaway here is that I don’t believe this is YC’s fault. Instead of laying the sins of an entire industry at... See more

But the poison of Consensus formation has spread from capital deployment to culture formation. The prevalence of normativity infects every aspect of our lives . Independent critical thinking gives way to cultural adherence within the party line as contrarianism dies.

I call this out because now, more than ever, when I’m evaluating earlier-stage businesses, I often find five to ten competitors per category, sometimes more. It’s easier than ever to start a company. And because we’re in such an expansionary period (and so many of the markets being created today are greenfield), it’s common to see all ten companies... See more