How to Turn Your VC into Your Worst Enemy | Hacker News Reader

How to Turn Your VC into Your Worst Enemy

lovemytool.com

18 pointsbabul8 comments

What I took away from the article, which I found quite helpful, was that a VC is nothing but money in the form of a walking, talking, human body. If money had a personality, that would be what a VC is. So you must cajole them into your arms and then reassure them that they are safe with you while you get as much as possible out of them. It is perhaps not by chance that a VC sounds like a mistress, since they are both forced to maximize a huge, time-sensitive asset (money, looks) while lacking any expertise.

willchang - thank you for your insightful comment. I believe you have captured my intent for writing this particular article which is that I am not trying to demonize VC's but only to explain that VC's are humans too (using your words) and they have needs and responsibilities, just like entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, for most entrepreneurs, we don't understand how VC's operate and as a result, we end up paying dearly for our mistakes when we project our own romantic desires onto the harsh reality.

Based on my past experience, my only correction to your analogy is that we (the entrepreneurs) are in fact the mistresses here, not the other way around. The relationship is asymmetrical and we are on the short end of the asymmetry (until we can generate net cash on our own).

Great article. Denny is one of the nicest people I've met in the startup world...

I have never met Denny, but I really like his articles.

Added him to the list of people I would like to meet if I am in the U.S. and we are able to :)

I met up with him a few times while he was CEO of Gigamon, he came to our office when I was exploring setting up a reseller arrangement for the Giga-VUE (which is a kick-ass networking device).

babul - if you are ever in San Francisco, look me up. Would love to take you out to lunch. In the meantime, I am learning to use Friendfeed and you can track my online movement. Good luck.

http://friendfeed.com/dennykmiu

Great. I hope to be in SV maybe this fall to visit friends doing things there. It would be nice to meet you.

Just starting to use friendfeed/twitter/etc myself (in an effort to lead a more transparent life and connect the dots), so will add you in shortly.

Thanks. Take care :)

this is an incredibly good article. i have had it open in my browser for a couple of days and finally read it today. wow.

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