Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by cookiecaper 4028 days ago
Check out this snippet from an episode of Shark Tank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88RoyiKyLmI&t=18m40s

It perfectly personifies the idiocy of SV VCs. The kid comes out in a hoodie with the typical college startup story: "changing the world from our dorm room". He has an app called Scan, a barcode scanner, that makes virtually no money and has already garnered almost $10 million in funding. When the Sharks are skeptical, he lays down the most stereotypical tech kid answer ever: "I have some interviews with investors that look at numbers to make a decision and they miss the boat, and then I have investors who look at me to make the decision." This is supposed to sound noble but it just reveals that SV is so full of idiots afraid that they're going to miss the next Facebook that anyone who comes to them and looks like an apathetic college kid and talks about dorm rooms can get $10 million on completely silly business concepts.

The same applies to Rose. The numbers don't matter, it's about having the visage of a trendy tech whiz. This is apparently enough to convince SV investors to part with tens of millions of dollars. I don't know why I'm not out there trying to cash in on that.

1 comments

That silly business concept you're referring is Scan.me, and it got acquired by Snapchat for $50M. That provided the base for what is now Snapcodes, which are extremely popular by Snapchat users.
Yes, Snapchat surely couldn't have figured out QR codes without that acquisition. If one lumbering, futureless behemoth of the tech industry eats another, what do we end up with? Investors goading other pieces of their portfolio to "acquire" their and/or each others' dying companies is fairly common.

In a serious tone, thanks for letting me know. I didn't know what had happened to them.