VC Cliché of the Week

I heard the other day that a prominent venture capitalist had threatened an entrepreneur who wouldn't do what he wanted him to do with these words "I'll ruin your reputation".

That really pisses me off.

But upon reflection, I realized that nobody can ruin anyone else's reputation.

You can only ruin your own reputation.

And a really good way to do that in the venture business is by threatening entrepreneurs like you are Tony Soprano.

Comments

[Mo]

:) Good one Fred.

[Paul Hudson]

> I realized that nobody can ruin anyone else's reputation.

I don't agree. Reputation is easy to affect (that's why we have libel/slander laws). If I were influential in the VC community, and went around saying "Fred threatens entrepreneurs as if he was Tony Soprano", then your reputation might well have been affected.

Or - since you do have a name in the VC community - if you had named the VC in your post, then I would expect that that VC's reputation will be affected.

Of course, it's certainly true that anyone can easily ruin their _own_ reputation, but they're far from being the only ones who can.

[Jianing]

Have to agree with Paul. Actually your post is proof of his point: that VC's reputation with you has certainly been affected by whoever told you that story.

[fred]

well you may be right Paul and Jianing but that guy's reputation wasn't in great standing with me anyway.

[Kevin Burton]

Even if I don't like someone I try to seriously avoid saying negative things about them. It's only if I find out that they're about to hire someone or merge companies or buy their company that I'll really speak out. I just hate saying bad things about people.

I think the opposite applies as well. If someone is dogging someone else I try to take it with a grain of salt. Life is too short to say bad thigns about people.