Laci Kiszely
Sep 5, 2018 · 2 min read

Wonderfully written article, thank you for sharing your thoughts! I have 2 observations which may or may not be relevant/interesting.

First, about how (some) VCs’ investment logic is biased — at least here in Europe. In case you consequently follow an investment assessment approach, it will also give you a number about how many investments (and in what stage) the portfolio should consist of. So the logic has an impact on the fund size — unless of course the fund is relatively small to the total market. However, there might be cases, and I think this is mostly the case in Europe, where first you have a fund available (probably outsized compared to market opportunities) and then if you want to stay in business, you have to invest that, in addition in a given timeframe. So the primary optimisation shifts from “how to generate best return” to “how to allocate most of the fund into something I won’t be fired for, and then generate some returns, the more the better of course”. So the decision becomes more biased due to the available pile of cash, burning your pocket.

Second, about spending time with “losers” or underperformers. Well, it is often said “no pain, no gain” and that the best learnings come from failures. I would think a VC who watches cases gone wrong closely enough, (and analyze them and takes away some key things) may be better equipped later to spot anomalies and even improve the well-growing businesses. In other words, I do not think you can learn when everything you see around is success… (But I know well it is difficult to see the struggle and things going south, and also it can feel better to distance myself from something now going that well).

Anyway, thank you again for your post. I am sure I will read it again :)

    Laci Kiszely

    Written by

    Tech to serve people well. Interested in innovating for actual customers experience. StartUp mentor, co-founder, CxO level consultant.