VC Change: Would you like Fries with that?

Perfect. Right on schedule. There is just something heart warming about things unfolding as they should.  Most really successful products get targeted by somebody else who says we have the X killer.

Most disruption, in any industry,  usually begins with the old school taking shots at the new school as they struggle to figure it all out.  The really smart ‘old school’ gets new school really quick, leaving old school behind.

A friend of mine (thanks, Ken) sent along a link to a New York Times article entitled: Venture Capital Blogs? They're About Anything But.

A quick scan, yeah, yeah, some reporter taking some shots at VCs blogging digs up some academic wonk who is clueless about what goes on out here in real world 101. Some ‘balance’ in the article about Fred Wilson’s blog and Brad Feld’s blog.  Time to hit the ol delete key.

Next email. (noodling begins)

Hmmm.. Wait a second.. Hmmm.. Undelete. Read slowly. Splattered all over this article is one each Paul Kedrosky.

Most of you probably know/read a blog called Infectious Greed by Paul Kedrosky. Sorry, Dr. Paul Kedrosky, sorry.

Here are some of the things Dr. K. has to say about VC blogs.

Venture Capital blogs are “filled with the blogging equivalent of white noise”

He said “most venture capitalist blogs were insincere..”

For VCs, he said, “There's zero incentive to tell the truth.”

There was this fun quote:

"The reason you see so many venture guys blogging is because they have time to do it. How many C.E.O.'s do you have blogging?"

Then there was the last line, after saying he got some criticism for a few things he wrote in his blog:

“He declined to give specific examples of his gaffes. "I don't know that I'd want any of it in print," he said.”

Yowsa, Dr. K, a little bee in that VC bonnet?

First, you should go read the entire article as I might have taken something out of context; go read make up your own mind, I could be wrong.  Second, take a quick look at Dr. K’s qualifications. He is not a lightweight so you might be better served to ignore me and listen to him.

I don’t have a Ph.D, an MBA, nor have I sole-authored 300 papers. Well done, sir, well done.

Nope.  I worked at Safeway as a bagger. I learned, at 14, that being nice to customers and telling the women what a cute baby she had, got a tip almost every time.  I manned the fry station at Burger King and learned girls used to love being slipped a large bag fries ‘by mistake’. That was until people got all health conscious.

So, use care in reading my views on this stuff, I’m new and unproven.

I sincerely mean that. I’m telling you the truth; sincerely.

Articles like this annoy me because broad, over reaching comments from ‘experts’ are damaging to my new profession. 

Consider this nonsense about telling the truth.  All one has to do in order to put this rubbish in it’s place is simply read Fred Wilson.  Fred tells the truth, for example, about his views on music and digital rights management. He has said, at least 3 times, I suppose that makes me a thief or words to that effect.  Raw truth and opinion. Surprise, surprise, a MUSIC management company shows up on his doorsteps to do the pitch because they clearly understand where he is coming from. Fred’s sincere, truthful, blunt, and respected. Doesn’t look like white noise to me. But I could be wrong. I can point you to other blogs where it appears truth, sincerity, and good signal to noise ratio exist. Brad Feld, is another example. Heck, for all my snarky comments about Guy Kawasaki, he too appears to be sincere, telling the truth, and trying to be useful versus noise. 

In short, the comment shows a real lack, well, let’s just say Dr. K needs to get out more or at least read more. My challenge to Dr. K is simple: Show me the money, errr, sorry, show me the insincere VC blog.

With respect to this comment about “how many CEO’s do you see blogging”, Doc, Doc, Doc.. Here’s a quick little test for you.  Wander Engadget, Download Squad, Tablet PC or a number of blogs out there that talk about new companies or “Web 2.0” companies. We can start with the biggies, like Technorati and that company CEO, David Sify. Blog? Check, blog.  Since I know you are busy (not like the rest of us VCs), I’ve done some work for you. Of the last 60 companies that I’ve been told about via blogs, email or word of mouth, 40 of em have blogs and most of those blogs are the CEO/Founders.  So, to answer the question of how many? Lots.

VC change. It’s coming, folks, it is totally coming. I predict that guys to watch are Fred, Brad and a host of other VC blogger types who get it. Those are the guys I’m watching, I’m trying to catch up with. I’m leaving the (dare I say “old school”) stuff to others.

Besides, I remember the important lessons, just in case I really am wrong:

Will that be paper or plastic? Is that for here or to go? And my personal favorite: Would you like fries with that?

Comments

[Daniel Nerezov]

Rick, I think that's a great post.

It's like this: whilst I'm as cynical as the next guy, I read http://feeds.feedburner.com/MasterVentureFeed everyday and I don't think I'll stop reading it.

I think all of the 70 or so existing vc blogs are on that feed, and except for 1-2 or that fizzled out quickly, all of the authors are pretty sincere - including you.

All of you guys take blogging personally, argue your points of view and fervently respond when people take shots at your posts - and that's just great.

* In case anyone needs it: all vc blogs list http://southerncrossventures.com/Venture_Diaries/blog/our_blogroll

[Sucky Marketing]

I think the WSJ article was dead on. It would bug me to think about my VC spending loads of time blogging into the wee hours of the night, posting about god knows what including what albums he's currently listening to (updated daily?!). Sure, they can do what ever they damn well please in their free time. But if I saw dozens and dozens of posts per week on crap AND IF (a big if) that VC took a couple of days to return my call or couldn't attend a board meeting because he was too "busy", I would be friggin livid. I would wonder, what if he could spend just 1/10 the time making calls for me, or doing research for me, instead of telling the world what his kids listen to on their iPods. I would resent the hell out of it. I have heard a million times how busy VC's are--they're always in a rush, can't return the call, or pass something off to an associate. When I see them blogging to extremes, it makes me wonder, not how busy they are, but HOW THEY CHOOSE TO SPEND THEIR TIME.

And sorry, if I had to choose a VC, I doubt it would be one of the ones you say "get it" just because they have a blog. I would want the ones who get: M&A, finding the best people, scaling businesses, execution, bringing in the best coaches, forming partnerships, marketing, business models, etc etc.