Let’s just get this one out of the way.
1. You probably won’t get a fair hearing. The seductive narrative of Silicon Valley stars a genius-hero who goes on a journey, overcomes myriad obstacles, has a flash of insight and is rewarded by wise and benevolent investors with Series A funding.
This narrative is bullshit, but it’s everywhere. Take Marc Benioff’s bookBehind the Cloud. Not to pick on Benioff – I’m a fan, his foundation does good work and his book contains its own chapter on why you shouldn’t raise VC – but he started salesforce.com on leave from his executive gig at Oracle, with $6m in savings (!!!), $2m in seed money and the mentorship of Larry Ellison. That makes it difficult to buy into any portrayal of him as an underdog — but it also offers some insight into the kinds of people that do get funded.
