The VC darlings are terrible. Unethical management, and investors do nothing. (In a couple cases, I've informed.) Really awful people. This isn't just my negative experience (I've had some bad ones, for sure) but comes from what a lot of my friends have seen.
Here’s some shit I’ve either seen, or been credibly informed of, in the past 24 months, most of which was never in the news: no-poach agreements, attempted blacklisting of whistleblowers, a rescinded job offer based on a rumor that suggested PTSD, abuse of process within large companies, extortion of ex-employees, gross breaches of contract, frivolous lawsuits, threats of frivolous lawsuits, price fixing among venture capitalists, bait-and-switch hiring tactics, retaliatory termination, and fraudulent, no-product startups designed to embezzle angel investors. That took me about 60 seconds; two minutes more and the list would be three times as long.
So, yeah, there are some horrible people out there. There are also good people out there. I think VC-istan gives the bad ones an advantage, however.
There are good startups. Some take VC. Some don't. There don't seem to be many of them.
However, the mainstream of VC-istan is really ugly. I don't think it's limited to NYC.
But are there humane, interesting, and all-around excellent VC-funded companies? Absolutely. They are rare, and "the cool kids" (a bunch of wankers) won't be interested in them, but they exist.
I blew the whistle on Google (which I regret, because Google has pockets of evil but, on the whole, isn't that bad) although I haven't given the whole story. Google's a case of a decent company (for its size) with some terrible managers, though. I don't mean to cast aspersion on the whole thing. If you get a good manager, I'd still recommend it. There's some really cool stuff happening at Google and if you can get good projects, even now it's a great place to work.
Two of the companies included are defunct. Two are of unknown status (not places I worked).
One is a close friend of mine who eventually got a severance. If I spilled, I'd expose what he told me and risk his package, so no. I shouldn't know, myself.
There's one where I still hold The Card and I'm debating it. I could probably cripple the company, but I'm afraid that it would hurt the engineers (some of whom, I'm still friends with) more than the assholes in charge. That's the real problem. I have enough experience with whistleblowing to know that it's a blunt instrument. You don't get to pick who gets hurt. So I'm being cautions with that case.
Since it was just over a year ago, I feel like the window has passed. However, any individual who wants to ask me if an NYC education startup is That One can email me and I'll confirm or deny. They have truly evil management that deeply deserves to fail, not just at this company but in the future. What keeps me from naming that firm is concern for the lower-level people.
Just to give you a flavor for it... in April 2012, I posted this, from "An ethical crisis in technology" ( http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/an-ethical-cr... )
Here’s some shit I’ve either seen, or been credibly informed of, in the past 24 months, most of which was never in the news: no-poach agreements, attempted blacklisting of whistleblowers, a rescinded job offer based on a rumor that suggested PTSD, abuse of process within large companies, extortion of ex-employees, gross breaches of contract, frivolous lawsuits, threats of frivolous lawsuits, price fixing among venture capitalists, bait-and-switch hiring tactics, retaliatory termination, and fraudulent, no-product startups designed to embezzle angel investors. That took me about 60 seconds; two minutes more and the list would be three times as long.
So, yeah, there are some horrible people out there. There are also good people out there. I think VC-istan gives the bad ones an advantage, however.
There are good startups. Some take VC. Some don't. There don't seem to be many of them.
However, the mainstream of VC-istan is really ugly. I don't think it's limited to NYC.
But are there humane, interesting, and all-around excellent VC-funded companies? Absolutely. They are rare, and "the cool kids" (a bunch of wankers) won't be interested in them, but they exist.