Every time in the past week or so that I’ve seen someone talk about a bad venture, they’ve given the same example. That suggests that there is indeed a shortage of bad ventures—or at least, ventures bad enough to get widespread attention for how bad they are. (Most ventures are “bad” in a trivial sense because most of them fail, but many failed ideas looked like good ideas ex ante.)
It’s not clear that Juicero is actually a bad venture in the sense that doesn’t return the money for it’s investors.
Even if that would be the case, VC’s make most of the money with a handful companies. A VC can have a good fund if 90% of their investments don’t return their money.
I would guess that the same is true for high risk philanthropic investments. It’s okay if some high risk investments don’t provide value as long as you are betting on some investments that deliever.
There’s no shortage of bad ventures in the Valley: https://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2017/04/21/this-400-juicer-that-does-nothing-but-squeeze-juice-packs-is-peak-silicon-valley/#.tnw_Aw4G0WDt
http://valleywag.gawker.com/is-the-grilled-cheese-startup-silicon-valleys-most-elab-1612937740
Of course, there are plenty of other bad ventures that don’t get funding...
Every time in the past week or so that I’ve seen someone talk about a bad venture, they’ve given the same example. That suggests that there is indeed a shortage of bad ventures—or at least, ventures bad enough to get widespread attention for how bad they are. (Most ventures are “bad” in a trivial sense because most of them fail, but many failed ideas looked like good ideas ex ante.)
Or that there’s one recent venture that’s so laughably bad that everyone is talking about it right now...
It’s not clear that Juicero is actually a bad venture in the sense that doesn’t return the money for it’s investors.
Even if that would be the case, VC’s make most of the money with a handful companies. A VC can have a good fund if 90% of their investments don’t return their money.
I would guess that the same is true for high risk philanthropic investments. It’s okay if some high risk investments don’t provide value as long as you are betting on some investments that deliever.