5 ms·

> "I mean, I literally don't think there's anything to be learned from other people's stuff." That is exactly what happened with Color, which Nguyen never even

by esk 15y ago

> "I mean, I literally don't think there's anything to be learned from other people's stuff." That is exactly what happened with Color, which Nguyen never even bothered to test. "I'm not here to practice. I'm here to play," says Nguyen[...] I don't think there's any other way to read that.

artursapek 15y ago
My reaction was the same. This pull-quote makes me think of a little kid: "There is no one in the world who I won't outlast. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way."
zheng 15y ago
I'm naive when it comes to anything related to VC's and funding, but I'm pretty sure if I had a ton of money to invest, it wouldn't be anywhere near someone like that. Even after reading the article, I don't think I fully understand why he can secure funding so easily.
- tptacek 15y ago
  VCs know that most of their investments aren't going to pan out. When they evaluate companies, they aren't worrying about whether they'll fail. Even the good companies fail. What the VCs are worried about is that they're going to say no to Facebook, and then have to explain 5 years from now how the fuck they possibly could have said no to Facebook. What that seems to mean is that if you: * have a persona that at least superficially seems driven, ambitious, likely to succeed, and * you tell a convincing story about a market that might experience explosive growth, and * you have any kind of track record of any sort to make it hard to write you off as a total bozo, and * you have some sales skill, so you can manage the pitch process and create pressure to VC firms, then you're probably fundable even if you think testing means "practicing instead of really playing". These kinds of pitches seem very different from the kinds of things people write in Show-HN: postings. In particular, these pitches aren't meant to be reasonable. This is way more of a response than you were looking for; sorry, I just had to get this out, since all I can think of when I read about Color is how good an illustration it is of VC cliches.
  - patio11 15y ago
    Life note for HNers: Like almost any other market failure, this is profitably exploitable.
    - statictype 15y ago
      Can you elaborate?
      - jamesaguilar 15y ago
        I think what he's saying is that if you can act like this guy does, you can probably make a lot of money without ever having a decent shot at providing the value. And that VCs will continue paying you for the act. Or he could be saying that if you can come up with a move clever way of investing that avoids projects like these you may be able to be a better VC firm than the ones that currently exist. Or maybe something else.
      - barry-cotter 15y ago
        Let me sketch the exploit, assuming you are not that guy. Find someone who has done more than one highly impressive thing, prefereably in approximately the same line, who seems high energy and sociable. If they have anything resembling sales experience that's a big plus. One of the best hunting grounds will be in and around universities, as they're full of people with not much money and confidence that's higher than is justified, and some of them will be much more impressive than their age mates. Find one. Harvest startup ideas by say, looking at previous Show HN posts, or doing a Madlib generator on the Crunchbase DB for X of Y, and look for something that you can build a good story about explosive growth around, or have what you think is a good idea already. Sell your ambitious young go-getter on your idea, or on you, somehow, and start pitching VCs with your incredible story of wild growth and fantastic riches. Meanwhile iterate on your idea. Pivot if it looks like a good idea, and hope and pray for growth while pitching VCs all the freaking time. Basically, have an idea that could conceivably grow explosively and have a business guy with previous record of Impressiveness, capacity to Believe in your Great Idea, and the ability to Sell Stuff, including your Awesome Idea. If you are that guy, and you can program your own mockup and iterate you might be able to get into YC as a single founder.
stevenp 15y ago
That pull quote blew me away. This guy comes across as totally arrogant, plain and simple. Even Steve Jobs, who Nguyen apparently worships, got inspiration from other people's products. If nothing else, this article is a great warning against ever working for this guy.

by esk 15y ago

artursapek 15y ago

My reaction was the same. This pull-quote makes me think of a little kid: "There is no one in the world who I won't outlast. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way."

zheng 15y ago

I'm naive when it comes to anything related to VC's and funding, but I'm pretty sure if I had a ton of money to invest, it wouldn't be anywhere near someone like that. Even after reading the article, I don't think I fully understand why he can secure funding so easily.

tptacek 15y ago
VCs know that most of their investments aren't going to pan out. When they evaluate companies, they aren't worrying about whether they'll fail. Even the good companies fail. What the VCs are worried about is that they're going to say no to Facebook, and then have to explain 5 years from now how the fuck they possibly could have said no to Facebook. What that seems to mean is that if you: * have a persona that at least superficially seems driven, ambitious, likely to succeed, and * you tell a convincing story about a market that might experience explosive growth, and * you have any kind of track record of any sort to make it hard to write you off as a total bozo, and * you have some sales skill, so you can manage the pitch process and create pressure to VC firms, then you're probably fundable even if you think testing means "practicing instead of really playing". These kinds of pitches seem very different from the kinds of things people write in Show-HN: postings. In particular, these pitches aren't meant to be reasonable. This is way more of a response than you were looking for; sorry, I just had to get this out, since all I can think of when I read about Color is how good an illustration it is of VC cliches.
- patio11 15y ago
  Life note for HNers: Like almost any other market failure, this is profitably exploitable.
  - statictype 15y ago
    Can you elaborate?
    - jamesaguilar 15y ago
      I think what he's saying is that if you can act like this guy does, you can probably make a lot of money without ever having a decent shot at providing the value. And that VCs will continue paying you for the act. Or he could be saying that if you can come up with a move clever way of investing that avoids projects like these you may be able to be a better VC firm than the ones that currently exist. Or maybe something else.
    - barry-cotter 15y ago
      Let me sketch the exploit, assuming you are not that guy. Find someone who has done more than one highly impressive thing, prefereably in approximately the same line, who seems high energy and sociable. If they have anything resembling sales experience that's a big plus. One of the best hunting grounds will be in and around universities, as they're full of people with not much money and confidence that's higher than is justified, and some of them will be much more impressive than their age mates. Find one. Harvest startup ideas by say, looking at previous Show HN posts, or doing a Madlib generator on the Crunchbase DB for X of Y, and look for something that you can build a good story about explosive growth around, or have what you think is a good idea already. Sell your ambitious young go-getter on your idea, or on you, somehow, and start pitching VCs with your incredible story of wild growth and fantastic riches. Meanwhile iterate on your idea. Pivot if it looks like a good idea, and hope and pray for growth while pitching VCs all the freaking time. Basically, have an idea that could conceivably grow explosively and have a business guy with previous record of Impressiveness, capacity to Believe in your Great Idea, and the ability to Sell Stuff, including your Awesome Idea. If you are that guy, and you can program your own mockup and iterate you might be able to get into YC as a single founder.

stevenp 15y ago

That pull quote blew me away. This guy comes across as totally arrogant, plain and simple. Even Steve Jobs, who Nguyen apparently worships, got inspiration from other people's products. If nothing else, this article is a great warning against ever working for this guy.