Apparently Bill Maris of Google Ventures hadn't yet spoken to David Byttow of Secret when he spoke to New York Times. He changed his mind after the conversation with Byttow. Its only fair on NYT's part to reprint the Maris's updated note which basically takes back everything he told NYT.
https://medium.com/gv-notes/a-few-thoughts-on-secret-3cb50a3...
Here’s the text of an email I sent to Mike Isaac at the NY Times earlier, and thought it was important to share this context and nuance.
Hi Mike,
Regarding the article on Secret earlier today:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/the-lessons-google-...
I want to correct and amend a few things. I wanted to let you know how my views had evolved since we spoke. I aspire to be someone that says when that’s the case and it is here.
I hadn’t spoken to David Byttow when you and I chatted, and I should have done that. I’ve spoken to him now and have a better understanding of things.
We weren’t part of the secondary. I don’t know what the agreement was among David, Chrys Bader and those that did. And I don’t know the status now — maybe they’ve returned the money, maybe they don’t need to or can’t. But even if they returned all of the money, it wouldn’t affect GV, as we didn’t participate.
I do want to make clear that this was not a “bank heist,” and that was a poor choice of words on my part.
That implies that the founders were trying to line their pockets at the expense of others. After having a heart to heart with David, I don’t think that’s true. David rightly pointed out to me that he and Chrys worked extremely hard. They built something that captured the imagination of a lot of people and had a huge amount of users. The tone and content of my comments as printed don’t pay the appropriate respect to that fact.
As a fund, one thing remains true — we are not excited about founders selling stock early in a company’s life cycle. It provokes the question — if founder’s are sellers, why would we or others be buyers.
As for it not being “sustainable,” there is no way to ascribe that to the founders any more than the million other reasons a start up can fail. This one did. But credit to the founders for not just running out the clock and spending all the money — and instead returning some capital to investors rather than running it into the ground. That takes bravery. It doesn’t happen often.
As I now understand, David is doing a lot to make it as right as he can with his investors and employees. I’m glad your article sparked the conversation that had enough truth in it to help me evolve my opinions to some that I think are more correct.
Best,
Bill