This was way, way before the Funded came out. And while it would be nice to add my two cents in, (a) the VCs themselves never actually did anything unethical, they just used the EIR as a proxy, so they can always shrug it off like, "It wasn't OUR fault - we had a "rogue" EIR who did things his own way ... and (b) I've had enough years of ruminating and one day decided to put the past behind me lest I become a bitter old man in my late 20s/Early 30s.

This article just struck a nerve and I wanted to add my 2 cents ...

That's why I get miffed whenever I hear talk of "ideas are nothing, it's all in the execution" because I couldn't help but think that those two EIRs weren't executing jack-sh@# before I told them the idea and HOW to execute better than anybody else could, what to do when you had duplicators, etc.

Never mind me, I'm just a rampbling, bitter old man in a young man's body ...

So UNBELIEVABLY FUNNY ... not even 24 hours after you posted this, the firm in question is cited in a recently posted article on this forum

http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/11/thefunded-penalizes-ventur...

Where they nabbed vcs for trying to create multiple accounts and artificially up their own ratings on the system to make themselves seem to have a good rep ...

Who is mentioned prominently?

Check article.

So unbelievable.

I was shocked that their rating was so high ... almost too high ... and I though perhaps the guy had a serious spiritual soul-searching session after 9.11 or something and decided to play it square.

Instead he will now be forever branded, through nobody's fault but his own, as "the guy who tried to manipulate his own Funded rep in that Venture Beat article.

Unbelievable.

Karma worked, in this case at least - in this lifetime!

Unreal.

I feel ... sniff sniff ... sob ... vindicated ...

It's been a long journey.

I'd like to thank my manager, my hairstylist, my dance coach ... there's just to many people to keep track of so don't be offended if I miss you ...