On the other hand, as JWZ says, if a VC says 80 hour weeks are what engineers should work in a startup, the VC is saying it for his own benefit, not for the engineers’ benefit.

An angel investor is a kind of venture capitalist who gets to keep all the profits because they own the fund they’re investing from.

Anybody 12 years on who falls for that guff has no excuse, because now they can compare the number of people who bought into it to the number who cashed in on it.

Thank the Kindly Ones of global capitalism that I only sweated a few months in a European dotcom that went pear-shaped and I landed a good steady gig that I still have (knock on wood). The stock options thing never caught on here (they’re still taxed every year that you hold them) before it all went up in a puff of ones and zeroes. It didn’t help either that the big dotcom “success” story was a woman who founded an ISP and cashed in big while her employees didn’t, because she’d sold her shares months in advance and the buyer dumped them all on IPO day.

Anyway, this is the Great Recession. You don’t need appeals to machismo to get people to work harder and suck it up. The guy sent down by Mitch and Murray will suffice.

Thanks for not feeling sorry for anyone, though. Wouldn’t want to spend any of that emotional profit you’ve obviously saved up.

One of these days I’ll learn my lesson. In the meantime, I gotta gbtw.

same shit.

So, since there are corrupt Republicans, can we cut out all this saber rattling about Iran?

Anybody who’s believe that a VC’s job is hard is foolish.  Their job is to find hard-working, desperate individuals looking for startup capital.  Lifting a finger, aside from writing checks, is not in their scope of work.

And how much wealth have the people created for wall street?
That’s like calling an employer a job creator while ignoring the effort of the employee to go out and find a job in the first place.  Does it not take two to tango?  Oh yeah it’s your job to educate and market yourself but I’m the job creator because I have a need for you.

Does my employer expect me to believe they hired me out of the goodness of their hearts?  No, they hired me to fill a need and if that need should cease to exist then they will fire me.  If I fail to fill the need adequately they will fire me.

But will the republicans call them a “job destroyer” when they lay me off?  No, because its just good business.  Just like hiring people is good business.  So lets stop beatifying employers for simply acting in their own best interests.

Capitalism is a force of nature, not a moral philosophy.  Attributing benevolence to it is tantamount to sun worship. 

Occupy Congress. Wall Street has created a hell of a lot more wealth for a hell of a lot more people than congress.

I agree with Arrington that startups require blood, sweat and tears, especially if you’re a founder. There are going to be times that nearly break you. I don’t care if you got your money from a VC or friends and family. If you’re starting any company, be it a bakery or a tech startup, you will be sacrificing part of your life. If you’re going to do it, it has to be for more than just the money.

Where I disagree with Arrington is that you have to be stoic about it. I have started four companies, three of which were venture backed. The idea that you can’t vent your frustrations sometimes is complete B.S. The people who don’t have an outlet, crack.

That said, if you have a venture capitalist or angel investor telling you that everyone in your company should be working all hours and sleeping under their desks as a course of business, you’ve picked your investors poorly. While a startup does require an offering from time to time, it should not be a permanent state. An investor who is with you for the long haul should understand that. Sadly, there are more than a few investors who are just interested in flipping companies. Avoid them like the plague.

What struck me was just how dispassionate the VCs were with shutting down the companies. “It’s just business.”  But for the employees and founders it was their lives.

My VC told me the odds of doing what I did, even with the benefit of a top five sector  VC firm were astronomical. They see dozens of deals a week. Meet with only a few. Have second meetings with even fewer and at the end of the year, only really do about ten deals. They figure a third will tank quickly. Three will make a lot of money and their job is to try to move the middle four into the black or kill them quickly. I made the cut. Made the top three and even for a long time was the biggest deal they ever did. 

VC’s do bring a brand of discipline most entrepreneurs are missing. Your odds of surviving with a VC are better. When the guy handed me the check he told me “we usually find an entrepreneur who has stayed too long or an incompetent COO. You have to let me decide which one we have here.” Fortunately, they thought the COO was more of a salesman and got rid of him and let me stay to work 90 hour weeks. If you do a VC deal, plan on spending hours a day on the phone with them for the first six months. Only after they get comfortable will you ever go days without hearing from them. They do bring a lot of contacts. However, today, you better be way past the A round of financing before you even bother calling them. The “venture” part of their name is being slowly diluted by their reluctance to take risks. Today, they want as close to a sure thing as possible. It was an experience. We left on good terms after they sold out after the IPO but fell out a few years ago over a disagreement on another deal. I knew their tricks. With a bigger wallet, I was less willing to bend over as far as I did when I was poor. 

So yea, it’s not just VC firms who are looking for increased productivity from workers.

http://boingboing.net/2011/11/21/peter-thiel-on-the-iphone.html#comment-369802450

If the VC guys bought their own checkbooks to the game, I’d be all for them getting a big fat personal back in return. But in fact, they bring somebody else’s checkbook, and expect a decent size chunk of the return as if it was their own.