[noblethrasher]

During an interview[1] (with one of the AirBnB founders no less), pg offered the general advice that startups should search for success using a hill climbing algorithm, and not worry about dangerous local maximums; only to be immediately confronted with the counter example of AirBnB (the cereal episode).

That company just seems to be an outlier in multiple categories.

[1] http://youtu.be/nrWavoJsEks at about 7:00

[jacquesm]

Which is amusing if you realize that VC depends on outliers in order to make it to the next cycle.

In other words: the only worthwhile companies for VCs are the ones that do not follow the set patterns and to which the rules do not apply.