The VC Model Is Broken, Part XVIII
Want to get the VC world’s attention? Just create an exceptionally dour PowerPoint presentation, and hope someone leaks it into the blogosphere. Last month’s example came from Sequoia Capital, whose “graveyard” deck provided the firm’s portfolio companies with PR cover for mass layoffs. This month’s comes from Adeo Ressi, founder of love it/hate it website TheFunded.com, and is titled “The Canary is Dead: Something is wrong in venture capital.” Ressi developed the presentation for a private talk at Harvard Business School, and a local startup CEO (and former venture firm EIR) leaked it soon-after. You can see it after the jump, but the basic gist is that the VC model is broken because VC firms don’t believe they can succeed in a more efficient market. In other words, the consensus is: “You have to be brilliant to make money in this system, and most firms are not brilliant. Except for us and a few others.” Ressi’s presentation has been getting slapped
