[molsongolden]

> We pitched various "traditional" VCs. The overwhelming feedback we got was that nobody doubted our team, the product, or the model. The problem was that the returns weren't big enough.

Sahil @ Gumroad has talked about this in good detail. The VC idea that "yes, your business/idea is/will be profitable but you shouldn't waste your time making money when you could be working on changing the world"

The "changing the world" business will also hopefully be profitable and make money down the road but they are looking for outsized returns from a market disrupting unicorn.

--

Regarding the "new VCs" concept. Alex Danco and others have discussed this and the funding model ceases to be VC when it is low-risk, medium-reward.

It's possible that many areas of tech are maturing to a point where VC will no longer be the optimal funding model, outside of high innovation specialties. As the industry matures, there are many businesses that might provide stable returns and have a risk profile that is different from that of the unicorn VC-startup. These businesses might be better served by debt funding and a debt-based investment vehicle/product might attract more investors and allow for greater de-centralization of tech funding.

Linking Alex's blog post below instead of rambling in this comment.

https://alexdanco.com/2020/02/07/debt-is-coming/