[polote]

Vc are always the first to take ownership of the success of one of their company but also the first to blame the founder when it goes wrong

[gizajob]

"Success has a thousand parents, failure is an orphan"

(Quoted from Stephen Spielberg but I don't know where he got it from)

[bookofjoe]

"This is an unfair thing about war: victory is claimed by all, failure to one alone." —Tacitus, 56-120 CE

[belter]

Out of an Italian proverb... "La vittoria ha cento padri ma la sconfitta è orfana."

Normally attributed to Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Benito Mussolini.

[rchaud]

"If they win, I deserve all the credit. If they lose, I should not take any of the blame" - P45, this past week

[notimetorelax]

I don’t think this comment applies here. They portrayed the founder in a very positive light initially.

[haakonhr]

Doesn't it exactly apply? They published profiles on their site and associated themselves closely with SBF until this week, when everything unraveled.

[belter]

What does that say about VC's due diligence?

[sam345]

I'll answer. It sucks. But they had a leg tingle during the SBFs presentation when he said that his vision was for FTX app to buy bananas. So they bought in. Now to be fair all facts are in so maybe it went bad after so maybe controls were more of a factor than due diligence.

[belter]

Are these the same VC's that, would grill, up and down, eventual founders on:

- The minute details of a startup 5 year out business plan, cash-flow previsions, the impact of currency fluctuations of their profitable horizon...but ...

- Would allow him to get his girlfriend as the CEO?

[chucksmash]

> Would allow him to get his girlfriend as the CEO?

Ellison was CEO of the hedge fund, Alameda Research, not FTX.

Also, while the descriptions of her in this and other threads as a "Harry Potter fan" and "his girlfriend" dovetail with the erstwhile HN tendency toward "it's so simple, everybody is an idiot except for me," I don't think their relationship was public knowledge until quite recently and until that point she was probably more likely viewed through the lens of "Jane Street alum and Stanford grad."

Which is not that different from SBF's VC friendly pedigree of "Jane Street alum and MIT grad," so given their relationship wasn't public, it's a bit unreasonable to claim she should have been the red flag.