[calbear81]

I agree with the general point of the article that taking VC money leads to a "get rich or die trying" binary mindset which may not be right for all startups. For many startups, it's not necessarily to become a unicorn to be successful, bring riches to their employees, and in general build a better world.

However, there are some points that I don't agree with especially this: "Would Facebook’s leadership have ignored warning signs of Russian election meddling or allowed its platform to incite racial violence if it hadn’t, in its early days, prized moving fast and breaking things? Would Uber have engaged in dubious regulatory and legal strategies if it hadn’t prioritized expansion over all else? "

Of course, this is subject to survivorship bias but I think it's generally agreed that part of the reason Facebook was able to grow so quickly and Uber was able to capture markets and be the market leader were exactly those things: Moving Fast, Breaking Things, and focused on growth above all else. In hindsight, if they hadn't done that, it's possible that we wouldn't care at all what they did because they wouldn't be the giants they are. There are tradeoffs with every strategy and these two unicorns chose the ones that led to their dominance even if it came with some headaches later on.