{"id":3703,"date":"2018-05-14T14:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T21:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/?p=3703"},"modified":"2018-05-11T10:24:19","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T17:24:19","slug":"vc-investment-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/vc-investment-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Companies Not Best Served by Silicon Valley Venture Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most young companies are not well served by capital of the “Silicon Valley venture capital” variety. That has been a common theme of mine over the years, and is a founding hypothesis of my investment fund, Greybull Stewardship<\/a>. Sometimes this is most obvious to the people who have succeeded<\/em> with Silicon-Valley-type venture capital\u2014they know firsthand when it is great and when it is not. It is great if you are an obvious billion-dollar idea, where fast scaling will make all the difference. Other than that, it’s like putting rocket fuel into an off-road jeep\u2014it’s just a bad fit. There is nothing wrong with traditional venture capital; it’s just not for everyone.<\/p>\n

Birchbox Founder: VC Misaligned With Many Companies<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Haley Barna co-founded beauty cosmetics company Birchbox in 2010. She raised tens of millions of Silicon Valley venture capital for Birchbox, grew it to more than a million monthly subscribers, and then became a Silicon Valley venture capitalist herself at First Round Capital. In an interview with Fortune<\/em><\/a> on April 25, 2018, a quote caught my eye.<\/p>\n

\n

Fortune<\/strong><\/p>\n

: Do you ever tell founders they don’t need to raise venture capital?<\/p>\n

Barna<\/strong>: All the time. The venture-backed startup path is such a big part of society in this zeitgeist right now that it’s attracting people that it’s not the right fit for. There’s a lot of really good businesses that can be built without venture, and you never want to be misaligned with your investors. I make it very clear that we’re interested in companies that can be $1 billion or more one day. This means I say “no” all the time to founders who are working on businesses that could be really great “couple hundred million dollar” companies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Categories:Business Financing & Funding<\/a>, Owner Interviews<\/a><\/span>
Tags:Investment<\/a>, Venture Capital<\/a>
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most young companies are not well served by capital of the “Silicon Valley venture capital” variety. That has been a common theme of mine over the years, and is a founding hypothesis of my investment fund, Greybull Stewardship. Sometimes this is most obvious to the… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[86,15],"yoast_head":"\nMost Companies Not Best Served by Silicon Valley Venture Capital - Mason Myers Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/vc-investment-capital\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Most Companies Not Best Served by Silicon Valley Venture Capital - Mason Myers Blog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Most young companies are not well served by capital of the “Silicon Valley venture capital” variety. 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