"Be careful how you treat people because the toes you step on today may be
attached to *#s you have to kiss tomorrow"
— Aunt Scotti
I had an entertaining talk with Bob Lepowski today about the state of the VC industry. It is clear that VC’s do not have the best reputation in the world. Some of this is do to attitude and actions and some of it is due to misunderstanding and miscommunication. Way too often, VC’s will develop an excessive sense of entitlement. They feel their voice needs to be heard and their desires realized. Often there is a disconnect between reality (especially given the specifics of what a CEO is dealing with) and what the VC conceptually thinks should happen.
There is a clear contingency of our brethren who view themselves as being higher up on the food chain than others. We came up with the term VC Feudalism, to describe this perspective. VC Feudalism sounds much better than Den of Thieves or Sith Lord Counsel. Conceptually, the analogy is that certain VC’s see themselves as feudal lords. They strive to remain independent and to set up moats around their castles. They are to be obeyed by the vassals and serfs. For the sake of survival, they syndicate/partner with other lords to form alliances…some brief and some long-term. These alliances are key in helping them to hold off assaults and gain new territories. See the post on the Hochberg paper about venture networks. So, tongue-in-cheek, in the world of inflated VC self-importance: lord=VC, vassal=entrepreneur, serfs=employees,fief=company, barbarian hordes=competitors. There is a good reason Feudalism died out…
Michael Lissick recently wrote about the old "waiter test". It is a great way to understand what degree of arrogance or "entitlement" your lunch partner maintains (VC or other).
"Have friends and family observe your behavior while dining. How we interact with servers at restaurants is a clue to the state of our integrity. If you are treating these strangers as "subservient," it is a sign that compartmentalization has gone too far, cues are being overlooked, others are not being given their space, and that ethics issues lie in wait."
As I said yesterday, neither the VC nor the entrepreneur is entitled to anything that is not earned.
The balance of views on entitlement is insightful. Is there a way to be as specific with the entitlements that VCs develop as with the ones that the entrepreneurs develop? You were quite specific with the entrepreneurs. I get the feudal analogy, but is there a direct way to observe how VC’s develop entitlement in language nascent to their industry (i.e. like you did for the entrepreneurs?)
The balance of views on entitlement is insightful. Is there a way to be as specific with the entitlements that VCs develop as with the ones that the entrepreneurs develop? You were quite specific with the entrepreneurs. I get the feudal analogy, but is there a direct way to observe how VC’s develop entitlement in language nascent to their industry (i.e. like you did for the entrepreneurs?)
Top 5 VC Entitlement post coming in the near term…
Along these lines of “entitlement,” what about busting out of the rather staid gender roles in VC? This was an interesting link … http://www.freewebs.com/shervster/index.htm?blogentryid=488872
Along these lines of “entitlement,” what about busting out of the rather staid gender roles in VC? This was an interesting link … http://www.freewebs.com/shervster/index.htm?blogentryid=488872