(2005-03-16) Graham On Vcs

Paul Graham adds to the dogpile-on-VentureCapital. Add up all the evidence of VCs' behavior, and the resulting personality is not attractive. In fact, it's the classic villain: alternately cowardly, greedy, sneaky, and overbearing. I used to take it for granted that VCs were like this. Complaining that VCs were jerks used to seem as naive to me as complaining that users didn't read the reference manual. Of course VCs were jerks. How could it be otherwise? But I realize now that they're not intrinsically jerks. VCs are like car salesmen or petty bureaucrats: the nature of their work turns them into jerks.