Blaming the Entrepreneur—He's Dumb
The stereotype is a kid in his 20s running an Internet start-up on other people's money, living the high life, and in the end blowing it all. But what about the older, more experienced people who gave him all that money? Did they just turn away in blissful ignorance while he tried to figure out how the company should spend investors' money?
Not likely. Far more likely was a situation in which the investors gave advice and direction to young entrepreneurs. This was, in fact, often the case. In instance after instance, venture firms encouraged dot-com entrepreneurs to follow a get-big-fast strategy and provided, as an incentive for the entrepreneur to do so, funding for his or her company.
In essence, the advent ...
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