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Comment by Kalanos | Hacker News Reader

Who would have thought that a decade of: a bunch of consultants running copycat investment strategies, flushing money down the drain on crypto + indefensible AI wrappers, throwing cash at kids from Stanford with no real world experience, chasing near term exit multipliers, and ignoring biotech wouldn't pay off big?!

https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZ2pmN296bjRqM28...

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I'm sure it's totally normal and a trustworthy business strategy to have CTO and CEO of something with a $100 million+ budget and rapid burn rate at 23 years old. Nothing to be concerned about whatsoever.

In the telecom sector I've seen so-called "CTO" of startup companies that have less hands on experience with network engineering and building internet things than a junior/mid-level NOC staffer. How did they get in these positions? Well crafted business plan documents and pitch decks.

Can you imagine that the people who spent all of the VC money on the Juicero put any serious research or due diligence into the entire concept?

There's an entire cadre of people out there who are so far removed from the concept of the impostor syndrome that they'll go blithely full speed ahead into a brick wall. Just being cocky and confident and having a good pitch has apparently got them a ton of money to mess about with.

You forgot the part where they did drugs with some vc’s kids at Stanford

> Just being cocky and confident and having a good pitch has apparently

This isn't just in tech. It's just a condition of human nature. I've seen it in every single industry I've worked in. To the point that I now distrust any claims of expertise in anything. So many people have just recreated something they've seen on YouTube and claim it is something new especially to the Olds because it's not like they've seen the original from YouTube. Or something similar to that concept even well before YouTube.

Any examples, at least when it comes to industries?

Juicero is hands down my favorite product ever. It’s a over(under)-engineered press that squeezes pre-masticated bits of fruit with an internet connected software stack whose entire purpose is to tell you “no”. That’s it. The entire reason for it to be anything other than a hand crank or something is to tell you “no”.

The AvE tear down video is among my favorite ever.

To be honest (not a troll comment) I loved the idea of Juicero - easy pressed juice service. Before, I had to source, buy, clean, peel and chop veggies and then clean up the mess. They just gave bags of veggies ready to press. I tried to buy one. Since I live on the East Coast I had to put my name on the email waiting list. I realize the gadget itself became a poster child for over-engineered Hubris, but again, I like the idea and would definitely pay a few hundred bucks a month for the service (if it delivered on promises).

Pay a few hundred a month? That is closing at having it delivered daily or twice to door...

I think part of problem is that they believed there is any sizable class of people paying those premiums.

Wait; all they need to do is operate in founder mode, no?

The article doesn't blame bad investments as the problem though. Apparently there are 1440 private companies worth over $1 billion.

That is to say, the investments are bad because most of them are are overvalued. Who do you think is writing the Series B checks that puff them up to $1B?

"Valued $1 billion" does not mean that you get $1 billion when you attempt to sell any significant part. Private companies are hard to value.

One reason why they don't do IPO is that it would reveal their true value better and collapse valuation.

It’s all fun and games until you have to share your books with the SEC.

I see the word AI in your post, but didn't read the rest. Where can I invest?

can't flush down money into crypto without someone else grabbing it (maybe china, maybe europe, or just other parts of the US)

Thats not exactly how it works. The proof of work algorithm makes sense and works by using electricity as an input and Bitcoin as the output.

You can say energy generation companies are "getting rich" off Bitcoin but that ignores the fact that a lot of Bitcoin hashing is done using surplus or very low cost electricity.

You could try a straw man and say "early investors" are making bank but most of us have sold and traded along the way, only the already wealthy could hold from the early 2000s until today.

I can't really makes heads or tails of your comment, how do you think Bitcoin works?

One thing not mentioned in the article is the flood of dumb money from the Gulf states. Saudi investments, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, etc. have been buying stuff from VC investors. Not always directly but trough some funds or companies like SoftBank.

That money is so dumb.

but LPs being dumb is acceptable. The job of the VC firm is to funnel that dumb money into smarter investments.

Number of smarter investments don't increase when you add more money.

More money + equal amount of smart investments -> ROI decline.

It didn't?

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