> "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[...]
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.
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.
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.
stevenp|14 years ago
zheng|14 years ago
tptacek|14 years ago
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.
artursapek|14 years ago
"There is no one in the world who I won't outlast. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way."