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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

Uggh, these kinds of stories send me into a rage. Here’s someone who evidently knew little about technology, Silicon Valley, or running a business, and yet, she had access to incubators, co-founders, and business-starting capital that many of us (who are actually competent) only dream of. So jealous! More evidence that life is not fair and it’s all about connections and schmoozing.

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>> that life is not fair

Yes, this shouldn't be a surprise.

>> it’s all about connections

Getting anything done requires the help of others. That's how society works. The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. Focus on the people and you will be 100x better equipped to deal with anything than any amount of technical or operational knowledge.

> Focus on the people and you will be 100x better equipped to deal with anything than any amount of technical or operational knowledge.

this is only true if what you're doing isn't innovation, but just making business.

What is "innovation"? You need people to get things done even if you're doing research on new tech, unless you're Tony Stark inventing fusion reactors in a cave.

And that forgets that Tony Stark came from a wealthy family and inherited his wealth and made most of his money off of taxpayers through defense contractors. We only like him because he finally started to do something other than starlets or for himself.

Just proving that whoever is the best bullshit artist can raise money. Look at theranos and 99% of "blockchain" vc funded startups.

Are we somehow surprised that investing, an inherently human and social endeavour, is dominated by people who are good social operators?

It is not surprise being expressed here, but disappointment.

We are social animals, as much as you can be technically competent it's incredibly difficult to build whole products and companies just based on that. Connections are another resource for a company to thrive, contact with the right people at the right time is considered luck but you can work to increase those chances.

It's not fair if your worldview is limited to a deep technical one but that's not how the world works, we need other people to support, help and guide us. We are closer to a hivemind in that aspect as we build on our collective knowledge.

Yeah i'm a bit lost on that. They didn't hire a CFO.... where where folks funding this? They should have been telling them "Uh naw, CFO important, get one!"

> More evidence that life is not fair and it’s all about connections and schmoozing.

What evidence would you be looking for to sustain that conclusion and never bring it up again?

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