Why VC’s are obsessed with large outcomesVC’s get put on pedestals all the time, called legendary at the first sight of a decent exit whilst they glide around town deciding which entrepreneurs deserve their funding. Pretty much everyone who’s been into the venture game long enough got involved in some notable success that allows him or her to seduce the press and maintain a perception of greatness, warranted or not. Entrepreneurs for their part are either amused or annoyed at the giant exit numbers that VC’s drop like calling cards. With Snap’s I.P.O., Los Angeles Prepares to Embrace New Tech MillionairesBlaine Lourd has long helped the movie stars, professional athletes and heiresses in Los Angeles manage their wealth. Over the past few years, he has also noticed millionaires who made their money in technology begin to dot the west side of the city. “What we have not had is our Google moment,” Mr. Lourd said, referring to Google’s initial public offering in 2004, which produced a horde of new millionaires in Silicon Valley. [ NY Times ] How This Woman Went From Fetching Coffee To CEO Of A $1 Billion CompanyLiz Elting is a self-made woman whose success landed her on the FORBES’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. She’s the cofounder and CEO of TransPerfect, one of the world's largest translation firms. She’s also a linguaphile—by the time she was 25, Elting lived and worked in five countries (Portugal, Spain, Canada, Venezuela and the U.S.) and studied four languages. At 26, armed with her MBA from New York University, she took that “perfect” job that didn’t turn out to be so perfect. But that’s when the romantic entrepreneurial story begins—with her boyfriend, in a NYU dorm room, with no outside funding, TransPerfect was born. [ Forbes ] Aaron Levie on Finding Your Inner Voice When the Outside Shrieks — The Startup Tapes20VC: PEJMAN NOZAD: TECH’S MOST UNLIKELY VC: FROM YOGHURT SHOP TO INVESTING IN STARTUPS NOW WORTH $20BN+Pejman Nozad is the Founding Managing Partner @ Pear.vc, one of the leading seed stage funds in the valley. However, Pejman did not enter the tech industry like most venture capitalists. Having immigrated from Iran, he lived in an attic above a yogurt shop and took a job at a rug store in the Valley. But he immersed himself in what was happening in technology. Slowly, with a few small investments, he developed a reputation for identifying talent and helping take promising ideas to the next level. From next to nothing, he built a $20B portfolio, investing in over 100 startups and seeding several multi-billion dollar companies such as Dropbox, Lending Club, SoundHound and Gusto. [ 20 Min. VC ] Instacart is playing games with its workers’ pay — and will eventually suffer for itIn September, the grocery delivery company Instacart announced a big change that pissed off many of its workers: The startup was replacing tips with a “service fee” that would be collected by the company instead of the people delivering orders. The startup’s explanation was that Instacart workers were too reliant on tips — around 80 percent of orders had one — and that the service fee would allow the startup to pay everyone a more reliable wage. [ Re/code ] 108 Of The Biggest, Costliest Startup Failures Of All TimeFrom financial fraud to just running out money, we scanned our database to identify 108 of the most expensive startup flameouts in history. [ CB Insights ] |