| This paper is simply a comprehensive survey of VC opinion broken down statistically, rather than a genuine study into how VCs work. In other words, the singular focus on survey data without a sharp focus on correct interpretation has killed the spirit of digging deep and understanding the VC setup, with the result that it's not very actionable or insightful. If the findings were perhaps informed by cross referencing with a survey of others in the ecosystem who aren't VCs, the authors would probably have been more skeptical and possibly better educated on reality. It'd have been extremely valuable to go to entrepreneurs and ask. Reading one of PG's essays provides a far more useful perspective. The challenge with a generic survey such as this is that while it gives an (really long) introduction into how VC works, it misses all the subtleties. A better researcher would have looked into that, and turned this into a legendary paper. Why is that important? Because as a VC, decisions are the most important thing you make, and subtleties play a huge role in that. If you don't dig deep, then you're just documenting interviews rather than understanding and interpreting reality correctly. What the authors should actually have focussed on is: How do VCs really make decisions? |