On the one hand, stealing from people is bad. On the other, do venture capitalists count as people? Was that money ever going to be put to a better cause?
"I have money but no talent, so I'll pay someone with talent to make me more money. Oops, talent kept money."
Maybe it would of the environment was better. As is many investors have seen so little truth they can't even understand what's wrong with silicon valley. They buy into trends almost as a way to seem "with it", for social capital. Not joking.
I mean the king of tech VCs, @paulgbot.bsky.social (that's a reskeet bot of his other site account) always said that startups should be "naughty". As in, they shouldn't be outright evil but should be willing to habitually break rules.
It's no wonder that they see cart blanche for crimes.
There are some cases where being "naughty" was legit good. Uber is a scam and their self-driving test was a murder-machine, but they did fix taxi service in some big cities that had turned the medallion system into feudal sharecropping that just ripped off *everybody* for medallion-holding gentry.
I'll never forgive what SV huckaters did to me and my coworkers. It's such a blight that the most valuable skill in a world of super-concentrated wealth is suckering the wealthy.
The grift has always been around, tech has just been the latest vehicle for financial scams. They’ll move into to something else when investors sour on tech
4 million users Janice claimed equals 25% of US college undergrads. That is a huge. Look up how many companies/products have that share. A quick AI search would have revealed that.Great salary for Dimon. Impressive due diligence. There should be penalties for that level of negligence.
I remember hearing a theory that part of why Theranos went the way it did was Elizabeth Holmes was obsessed with the "Young entrepreneur" idea and couldn't wait for science to catch up with her vision or accept the unfeasbility of her ideas, because she would become too old to be an entrepreneur.
So it was better for her to fake results and endanger the health of others in a scam than allow herself to age out of "Young entrepreneurship" and grow old while making something that might actually do what it claims to do.
I think it's more that legitimate innovators can be very successful, but are hard to tell apart ahead of time, so it's a very fertile area for con men.
That doesn't make, say, Jensen Huang or Benoit Dageville a huckster.
They're just really embracing the "move fast and break shit" and "ask forgiveness not permission" ethos. I mean... they probably didn't think the latter would be done in front of a judge, though, LOL
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The recent history of America is just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
"I have money but no talent, so I'll pay someone with talent to make me more money. Oops, talent kept money."
It's no wonder that they see cart blanche for crimes.
Tom Petters with big box
Deloran with cars
Mega Churches
Etc
It's everywhere
That doesn't make, say, Jensen Huang or Benoit Dageville a huckster.
No fraud, no dodgy dealings, yes playing D&D with his dad and brothers live on stage.