Comments on: Reality Check

By: laurascheper

laurascheper — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:15:01 +0000

As Heidi Klum says “one day your in, and the next day your out”. It’s time for the young, fresh minds of America to take their place in the business world.

And your response to “not get married to soon” was insightful and correct. Why put an age on love?

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:26:34 +0000

Hey Scott – we’ve connected before. What Guy had to write about young wannabe VCs made me squirm. And this is despite the fact that I was part of the founding team at the $20M student-run University Venture Fund where we invested in great companies and achieved two billion dollar IPOs on the NASDAQ. Our record is better than many of the well-known venture funds in Silicon Valley. Nevertheless, I think the model that works best is old guys investing in young guys. I don’t think it works that well when old guys invest in other old guys. We made it work as young guys investing in young guys but I suspect we’re the black swan of venture investing.

By: newrepublican

newrepublican — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:52:44 +0000

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By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:41:06 +0000

As I mentioned at VentureDig, I really enjoyed the post and I commented on it on a recent post at my blog (shameless plug): http://marktomarket.typepad.com/marktomarket/2008/11/path-to-becoming-a-vc.html. Two things that come to mind here … 1) I don’t understand the whole “getting married young” discussion. I admitedly haven’t read the book, so I don’t know what he says about it (I really don’t see the relevance either), but this is a tough thing to just throw out in a broad statement. It’s like some of the other commenters talking about “what does ‘old’ mean?” What is too young to get married or too old? This is a personal decision that is different for each person based on their circumstances and personality. I know a guy who is almost 30 and had no business getting married the way he did and I know others like myself who got married right out of college and not only was it the smartest decision I ever made, but I would never regret it or do it differently. It’s just kind of a ridiculous claim, in my opinion, that people have to be a certain age or whatever to get married. Sounds like Guy might be trying to translate his personal experience into broad advice for everyone else’s. 2) On the comment about I-bankers and consultants being good VC’s … I agree that many bankers haven’t made good VC’s because honestly there is no linkage between the two businesses, but people think they are very similar. I comment on that discussion in my post linked above, but I disagree on consultants, or at least some of them. Maybe it’s because I come from a consulting background, but I can tell you that the very nature of consulting is figuring out ways businesses negotiate challenges to acheive growth – that is exactly what you have to do in a start-up. Sure, there are definitely differences between the large consulting environment and a start-up, but the lessons learned definitely translate, which again, I talk about on my blog. Awesome points, Scott!

By: Emad

Emad — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:11:58 +0000

Sounds interesting. I will try and read it, if I ever have time. I strongly disagree with the “don’t get married” part. I think that is a terrible advice but “get married” is just as bad.

That is something that you don’t plan for. It just happens. One day you are thinking I never want to get married, the next day, you meet someone and realize that life has more meaning and there is more to it than just work and success. All of a sudden you realize you can’t live without her.

But if you are going to put your business ahead of your family then definitely don’t get married and enjoy all your money ALONE

By: sscheper

sscheper — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:38:39 +0000

@misshsplace I understand what you’re saying. But in both my review and the book, experience can be a violent liability as much as it can be an asset. Like the Greek mythological character of Icarus, where the protagonist made wings out of wax(asset) and flew too close to the sun, causing them to melt. So too is the concept of experience in the world of startups.

Would an old, experienced person launch something as seemingly absurd as facebook, myspace, youtube or even google? (Google faced an extremely conglomerate, competitive search engine market at that time). Really, who knows? All I know is that all of them were young when they launched those ideas.

By: misshsplace

misshsplace — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:21:14 +0000

Scott, while I love your sentiment that sometimes old people just don’t get it, especially with technology that changes daily, you are missing the importance of experience. I wrote a post today that talks about how “old people” need to listen to Gen Y when making hiring and compensation decisions and often times they don’t. I totally understand why you say that old VCs don’t get it but I think that a lot of value that VC’s bring is their experience with being entrepreneurs or IB’s who really really have a lot of experience knowing the numbers…

Not sure if this rambling made sense but I hope you got what I’m sayin…

By: sscheper

sscheper — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:10:26 +0000

I don’t think that one should assign a number to being “old.” I actually wrote what I consider old in the first draft; however deleted it because I got too long-winded.

When I think “old,” I think of people that live a sedentary life. Old grey-beards that hoard their money from one previous success. They brush off new trends as unworthy, they stick their nose up at new technology, and they treat people poorly.

If you’re reading this post and wondering, “crap, am I old?” Just ask yourself, (i) do I constantly learn new things? (ii) And, do I have an advanced understanding of technology TODAY? (not 20 years ago; TODAY). I don’t consider Guy old, for instance.

By: Michael Laine

Michael Laine — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:02:19 +0000

Scott, great comments. I’ve only recently started paying attention to GK. I’ve known ‘about’ him for years, but only recently started listening to what he has to say. Turns out, some of it is solid gold. Although I do agree that being ‘young’ is a good thing – at some times, and pretty bad at others. In VC, i’d aim for ‘youngish’. Certainly they need to understand the things you decribe above.

And that goes for every business, not just ‘net companies. If you don’t deeply understand the internet, one of your competitors will, and they will take your customers. The End. That is not a good scenario for a VC.

By: macewan

macewan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:59:53 +0000

While vacationing in Samara, Costa Rica a friend lent me Guy’s The Art of the Start. Call it the Law of Attraction on crack, but simply going for it led to more and more opportunities.

Paid for my vacation consulting and pin pointed some unmet needs. From there through new contacts I had the opportunity to speak at a dot tv event. This is all truly due to reading his book.

On a side note… what age are you referring to as “old” VC’s?