Lady Luck
Luck is an essential element in successful investing, venture capital included. I consider myself a lucky person. My dog is named Lucky and he has lived up to his name.
Last night, after dinner in Vegas, headed back to my room, we stopped at a craps table. I put $40 on the pass line and the stickman handed me the dice right away. I rolled three straight 7s, then back to back eights, then crapped out. The table was going wild. I took my chips and left. Figured that it couldn't get better than that.
I don't honestly recall what my take was, but I think I made 3x in five minutes.
I hope you backed up those bets! You only get true odds on the back --
Posted by: AlFromChicago | April 17, 2007 at 12:27 PM
>>I took my chips and left<<
That's called being both lucky AND smart.
Great story.
Posted by: Michael Parekh | April 17, 2007 at 12:38 PM
This is a general comment. In IE7 your page is cut off. The bottom half of the page is a blank white screen. It has been like this for a few weeks now.
Posted by: Gunter | April 17, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Would that they had been so lucky in Blacksburg.
Posted by: Karen E | April 17, 2007 at 03:20 PM
I don't gamble often but I've also had a lot of strange luck at it. I don't envy you though. I think so much of the hit and miss of most startups have nothing to do with quality of the technology or any other ingredient, but rather what mix starts the fire. Here's a fascinating recent article in the NYTimes on just that:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15wwlnidealab.t.html?ex=1177560000&en=6584977e0f78f43f&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Posted by: David | April 18, 2007 at 03:42 AM