The Twice Shy Entrepreneur
Sunday, December 9th, 2007Silicon Valley these days is made up of two kinds of entrepreneurs (I’m painting with broad strokes, bear with me). The first group is the old guard. These are people who started companies during the late nineties and up until the 2000 stock market crash. The second group was either in school during that period, or doing something other that working in the tech world, and have started companies after the fallout from the crash.
Generally speaking, experience counts for something. So you’d expect entrepreneurs who’ve been through the ups and downs of a tech startup to have an advantage over the newcomers. Or at least have an equal chance at success. But in fact the opposite may be true. A number of venture capitalists I’ve spoken with have said that too many “old guard” entrepreneurs are not being bold enough in their business decisions, and it’s hurting their startups.
The first VC to bring this up to me was CRV’s Saar Gur at a recent conference. Since then I’ve brought it up with a number of other VCs. Across the board they agree – many entrepreneurs from the first bubble are overly cautious, and hurting their businesses.
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