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Comment by majormajor

4 years ago

The VC drive to jump into the crypto world was startling to me. People hold varying opinions on various crypto products, but so many of the ones getting investment are making claims that should gather extreme scrutiny from a crowd that should be familiar with finance and returns. "We expect 10%+ returns for a long time"? Folks investing in companies instead of banks should know firsthand that guaranteed market-beating returns are almost definitionally suspect!

Even if you think it's not fraudulent on the part of the founders, the industry is frothy and unproven and fraud-adjacent enough that investing in many companies in the space should appear to be a huge potential reputational risk beyond just losing some invested money. The people putting up the cash should be looking long and hard at this whole story.

And then once you get into the details, the moment you hear about one of the use cases for defi lending leading to these high interest rates being "put up crypto collateral to borrow to buy even more crypto since it's appreciating rapidly"... run!

VC has always been about getting in really early and getting out early.

This is their bread and butter.

  • The industry terms are: angel and seed investors -> venture capital (A,B,C round) -> private equity. Yeah, there are grey areas. First Google hit says: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/jobs...

    VC doesn’t want to get out early #386. What drives their decisions is far more complex than your pithy summary.

    • > VC doesn’t want to get out early #386. What drives their decisions is far more complex than your pithy summary.

      Ah, yes, VC's decision making process is too great for us mere mortals to understand. Their motivation and calculus are beyond our ken. Woe to the uninformed laypeople who cannot fathom their singular desire for money and influence. The nuances of 'make more money' justify the great wealth which their discerning judgement deserves. As if a simple understanding of finance and deal making under advisement in most cases and a larger capacity for risk due to having excess wealth makes them any better than the rest of us humans.

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