For Ben, his background doesn't look very technical, i.e., like someone able to draw from the research library, add some new ideas, and come up with a silver bullet in, what, two months, two weeks, over a weekend, in the shower after a 2 mile run? Next, in the Bayesian sense, there is a high 'prior' probability that a guy with Ben's background would resent technical work under him that he didn't understand.
An entrepreneur needs to know, to be quite sure he has a Board able to work effectively with silver bullets. I know many such people although only a few in business, and all of those people had good advanced technical backgrounds. Net, finding such a person in a VC firm looks tough.
I will add a point from my project: Back there many moons ago, I wanted some info from the Internet and couldn't get it. So, I put my feet up, popped open a cold can of Diet Pepsi, reviewed the problem and some of my best graduate school math, and had some new ideas. For both mathematical reasons and just simple judgment, the technical ideas look at least comparatively good as the crucial, core technology needed for a business to let users get more info from the Internet. Then I noticed that my ideas solved much more in getting info from the Internet than my original problem; such a situation is common because commonly a solution does not use every detail of the original practical problem and, thus, also applies to other problems that share the details that were used. It's like someone cooked up the Pythagorean theorem to help survey farm land in Egypt after the flood waters receded but use nothing about farm land. So, the Pythagorean theorem also works for carpentry, stone cutting, navigation, astronomy, and with some generalizations, much of multivariate statistics, Fourier theory, Hilbert space theory, and, thus, quantum mechanics -- my ideas are not nearly that powerful, just have utility nicely beyond my original question.
So, I wrote the corresponding, core software. Then I needed to put a Web site in front of my core software. Then, given my thin checkbook, reality came between me and my keyboard and typing, and I got delayed. In addition, I ran into computer security problems with Windows XP SP3, some Windows system administration problems with SQL Server, etc. -- more delays.
So, I'm a pre-revenue project that needs just a few more Web pages, one moderately involved and the rest dirt simple, some initial data, and some routine things like a domain name to go live. For where my techniques for getting info from the Internet work, if Internet users, in the US and around the world, like my work, judging from the latest version of Mary Meeker's (KPCB) report, then the project will be able to grow to be a big thing. Right: For a large fraction of what's on the Internet, a much better way to get that info for the US and around the world, 2+ billion people, so, sure, $400 billion. My project didn't start out with any such ambitions; I just wanted something fairly routine, but the usual Web sites were not much help.
It does look like even with my thin checkbook I can (continue to) bootstrap this thing, still, if only for a source of what aviation calls "reserve fuel", I contact venture firms.
I've learned that apparently most of the firms have agreements with their limited partners that they will fund only projects with good 'traction', that is, usage and/or revenue significantly high and growing rapidly. And, then, the venture firms will 'play with the Web site', look at the user interface and user experience, and try to estimate how 2+ billion Internet users, desktops to smart phones, would like the site. Okay. Fine.
But the key to the work was some silver bullets. That is, the market need is easy enough to see; the issue is how the heck to get data and write software to manipulate that data and get the results for the users. From efforts from others, clearly cooking up how to do that ain't easy. For that, my answer is some original applied math -- then the core software just implements the math.
Well, not a single venture firm has shown any interest in the crucial, core silver bullets. A16Z essentially deliberately laughed at any possible role for applied math (NSF and DARPA don't). Okay.
Fine with me to continue on with my thin checkbook, go live, and get some traction. Shouldn't be much more work for me assuming that people like the site at all (even if my math works as well in practice as I hope, still people might not like my site).
But, then, I come to the idea of what might come after a venture check? Okay, there will be a Board. If A16Z were to write the check, then Ben or one of his colleagues would be on the Board. Setting aside A16Z, there would be one or more venture partners on the Board.
Then once the initial crunch after going live dies down, and if the usage is growing quickly I've hired a COO to help address that, it will be time for another silver bullet, in this case, for some quite different approaches to ad targeting. I want especially effective ad targeting but only from my own data and with next to no concerns about invasion of user privacy. I have some ideas how to proceed, but they are silver bullet ideas. If I put up the applied math in a Board meeting, could count with shoes on all the venture partners in the US with educational backgrounds to understand.
So I will be asking my Board to back a silver bullet project for ad targeting. And there's a lead bullet approach -- mostly just use ad networks with their pros and cons. And I can see Congress getting all concerned about privacy and severely constraining what ad networks can do. Tilt; my revenue could be at risk.
Sure, some VCs emphasize how much freedom they give their CEOs. Fred Wilson and Brad Feld do. But a lot of VCs also emphasize how they are 'hands on'. Either way, the Board can fire the CEO, before the stock is vested, and that's me. So, net, I want a Board that can work effectively with projects to generate silver bullets (or to use Mother Goose, golden eggs). For more in Mother Goose, the story of Little Red Hen is too close for comfort.
So, how do I know if a VC can work with silver bullets? Sure, contact them and see what questions they ask and how they react to my answers. Do they ask good questions? Or if they can't evaluate the silver bullets I've already got in production quality software, what the heck are they going to do with a silver bullet ad targeting project that starts from much less? More generally, what would they do with other silver bullet projects?
The US DoD got the scram jet working, after only a few failures. Good for the US DoD. They've been nicely successful with silver bullet projects since early in WWII -- drag free satellites, GPS, etc. So, it is possible to work effectively with silver bullet projects. There are lots of people who know how, and I've worked with some of them in my career in DoD work, in grad school, and in computer science research. And if I have to have a Board, then I want such people on my Board. When I look at VCs, I don't see that they have such backgrounds. I'm concerned.