Do you support sustainability, social responsibility, tech ethics, or trust and safety? Congratulations, you’re an enemy of progress. That’s according to the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

  • MajorHavoc@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    1 year ago

    Based on my experience with venture capital, I’m not convinced venture capital has ever produced anything worthwhile.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      Couldn’t agree more. My takeaway from three years working at a VC is that investors are fucking idiots, and lying to get investment is basically normal.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        My favorite anecdote from “the cold start problem” is how zoom got funding not because they thought it was a good idea - the investors thought it was a solved problem - but because they were personally friends with the founder of zoom.

        That’s the quality of decisions we’re dealing with.

    • msbeta1421@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      That’s a bit myopic. VC is just a fancy word for large financial backer.

      You can basically credit the entire age of discovery (America, Australia, etc.) to “VC” in the form of kings and wealthy elite financing voyages.

      I think modern VC goes awry when they become defacto decision makers for the venture in question.

      • MajorHavoc@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        By shear numbers, most companies are small mom and pop owned businesses.

        Edit: The VC shills are out in force. Go read an economics paper if you’re serious about learning something.

        • KarmaTrainCaboose@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Do you have a source for the claim that VC funded companies would have been replaced by equivalent companies if VCs did not exist? I find that somewhat hard to believe.

        • iopq@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Well, yeah, it didn’t really exist before the 1970s in its current form. But it’s not just tech, other companies like FedEx also got VC funding in the early stages