[HN Gopher] Brian Chesky on Ron Conway
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Brian Chesky on Ron Conway
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 87 points
Date : 2020-12-18 18:17 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.airbnb.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.airbnb.com)
| jamestimmins wrote:
| Interesting that their empowerment award is exclusive to YC
| companies. Seems reasonable as a filtering mechanism, although I
| assume it will also be a lightning rod for people to get angry
| about.
|
| Either way the mentorship will be incredible, as will the ability
| to make connections in the industry. I imagine getting chosen for
| this program will have a large, measurable impact on the
| companies' valuations.
| raiyu wrote:
| Not sure what the point of this is. It reads more like a Press
| Release to generate more buzz for YC, as if that was needed.
|
| You are going to select one company from YC who is already
| selected from the cream of the crop, so that you could mentor
| them?
|
| I mean this is something that you can just email YC about
| doesn't need to be blasted to everyone as a press release.
|
| I mentor a lot at Techstars. We went through Techstars, had a
| great experience, and so I try to help other companies. I also
| mentor outside of Techstars, and generally just try to be as
| helpful as I can to anyone that reaches out, time permitting.
|
| I'm not writing press releases about it.
| an_opabinia wrote:
| Yes, but if you were as obsessed with being Walt Disney as
| Brian Chesky is, you would!
| jamestimmins wrote:
| Yeah that's a fair critique. Just because the mentorship will
| be awesome for some lucky company (depending on what
| 'mentorship' actually looks like), doesn't mean there's a
| need to publicize it.
| bfung wrote:
| I don't know Ron Conway personally - there's different news in
| different circles about him. Less flattering include:
|
| * https://www.google.com/search?q=ron+conway+sf+propositions
|
| * https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/hes-back-ron-conw...
|
| * https://missionlocal.org/2016/10/billionaires-back-bid-to-ba...
|
| So while he maybe a great VC, that's only one aspect of a person.
|
| Def a weird article.
| adolph wrote:
| What is unflattering about making donations to local political
| campaigns?
| justin66 wrote:
| Perhaps the oddest thing in the stuff you linked is that Ron
| Conway has a "political advisor."
|
| _" Ron is exercising his constitutional right - even
| responsibility - to participate in the political process of his
| hometown and have opinions about candidates and issues on the
| ballot. It's no different from any other CEO or union or high
| profile individual making endorsements. Ron understands that
| ranked-choice voting does not allow for multiple votes for the
| same candidate, though his enthusiasm for some candidates seems
| to have been interpreted otherwise. The fact is a lot of people
| in the tech community look to Ron for recommendations and he is
| glad to share them and encourage others to share them as well,"
| said Alex Tourk, Conway's political advisor in an email to
| Business Insider._
| nodesocket wrote:
| That SF examiner article is ridiculously biased and immediately
| demonizes Ron because he chooses to be actively involved in the
| political process. What a hit piece.
|
| And what's wrong with banning people from setting up tents on
| public sidewalks all over the city and claiming that public
| space as their own?
| kelp wrote:
| A few things about this. Looking at your second link, I like
| Joe Fitz as a person, and I know he means well. He is a bit of
| a "progressive" partisan in SF politics.
|
| The "Progressive" camp (I use quotes because their policies are
| often about stopping progress, especially in growing business
| and housing) would often bring out Ron Conways name whenever
| they needed a boogyman for rich tech who is somehow pulling
| strings behind the scenes.
|
| I've seen a little bit of behind the scenes where Ron would
| donate some money to a cause and then just be supportive. But I
| didn't get the sense that he was some political mastermind
| behind the scenes like the progressives often paint him as.
|
| Another anecdote. I was at Square when Jack Dorsey announced
| that Square would no longer be allowed at gun shows or for any
| other kinds of gun sales. This was around the time of a mass
| shooting, I forget which one, there have sadly been so many.
|
| Several years later, I was at an small event and panel about
| gun violence and what would be done about it. Ron Conway was
| there to introduce the panel and he talked about how, a few
| years prior, he had gotten very passionate about the issue
| after some mass shootings. He got a lot of Silicon Valley CEOs
| and leaders together to both raise money but also see how they
| could work to reduce gun violence.
|
| At that moment I put it all together. Jack Dorsey had been at
| that Ron Conway event and that convinced him to shut down gun
| sales with Square.
| grdeken wrote:
| I mean... 90 billion and this is the best he could come up with?
| An award for one YC company per batch. I guess it's kind of cool,
| but it's unremarkable at best.
| jariel wrote:
| This is a cynical take but a reasonable sentiment.
|
| The charitable/giving nature of this hyper large organizations
| is pale relative to their size.
|
| I think this is a something fundamentally missing from the DNA
| of these companies.
| gk1 wrote:
| I guess it's supposed to be a close mentorship, in which case
| the low mentor-to-mentee ratio is a plus.
| Swizec wrote:
| "Waaa rich people don't do anything to help others"
|
| Rich person does a thing
|
| "No that's not enough you must do more! This is crap"
|
| Why would anyone choose to help us peasants if this is how we
| react?
| cactus2093 wrote:
| Based on all the socialist rhetoric I often see these days, I
| suspect the serious answer from the kind of person you would
| be having this discussion with, would be "and that's why it
| needs to not be a choice". Under the "billionaires should be
| illegal" plans from the likes of Bernie and AOC, people like
| Brian Chesky and Ron Conway should have had all their wealth
| taken from them long before they got to this point.
| grdeken wrote:
| I didn't say it's crap. It said it's unremarkable. He is
| welcome to do (or not do) w/e he wants.
| yumraj wrote:
| Several years ago I had attended YC's startup school at DeAnza in
| Cupertino. I think it was 2011-2012.
|
| Ron was there and his one comment that had struck me was, I'm
| paraphrasing, that he only invests in young founder's startups.
| -\\_(tsu)_/-
| xiaolingxiao wrote:
| did he say why?
| max_ wrote:
| "No one, VC or angel, has invested in more of the top startups
| than Ron Conway. He knows what happened in every deal in the
| Valley, half the time because he arranged it.
|
| And yet he's a super nice guy. In fact, nice is not the word.
| Ronco is good. I know of zero instances in which he has behaved
| badly. It's hard even to imagine."
|
| -- Related PG article[0]
|
| [O]: http://www.paulgraham.com/ronco.html
| vincentmarle wrote:
| > My perspective on angel and VC investors is shaped by my own
| experiences as an entrepreneur on the firing line trying to get
| revenue in the door at a startup called Tellme after the dot com
| bust.
|
| > A particularly memorable moment was one night I was in the
| office at 11pm with our then director of finance, Alfred Lin (now
| COO of Zappos).
|
| > We were at wit's end because we had just lost our biggest
| customer opportunity which was with a large US telecom company.
| Normally "losing" didn't phase us as we even developed a motto:
| "losing is just a step on the path toward winning." But this
| time, we were really in trouble because the customer was signing
| a long-term contract with our competitor later that week. We had
| already appealed to the President of the division; the only
| further escalation points were to the CEO or Chairman. We had
| already tapped out our VC contacts. If we lost this customer, as
| Alfred dryly pointed out, it was unlikely we'd be able to get our
| revenue over our fixed costs in any reasonable timeframe. I asked
| Alfred what about any of our angel investors, so we went through
| them and none seemed likely to be able to pull this off.
|
| > Alfred said, "Well there is this one other investor, Ron
| Conway." I didn't know Ron at the time, and his investment was
| quite small. But we had nothing to lose by reaching out. So
| sometime after 11pm, I wrote Ron and essentially said: "hello,
| you don't know me, I'm an executive at a company you're an
| investor in, and we need a meeting--in person--with the CEO
| himself of this Fortune 50 company--this week--and if you can't
| make this happen, hey that's ok, but we may be going down--
| sorry." Ron wrote back in literally 2 minutes and said, in what I
| have learned is Ron's distinctive email style (immediate, short,
| all caps), "AM ON IT." The next morning, Ron had done it. Tellme
| went on to win an eight figure contract that led to a nine figure
| contract. That's a lot o' money from a desperate email from
| someone he'd never met at 11pm.
|
| > Tellme was eventually acquired by Microsoft for about $800mm.
| My view of building startups is that it is somewhere between
| impossible and almost impossible, so you want all the help you
| can get. Tellme's VCs (The Barksdale Group, Benchmark and Kleiner
| Perkins) were also extremely helpful, and I don't think Tellme
| could have succeeded without them, including help with customer
| connections. But my personal opinion is that I'm not sure we
| would have made it without Ron either.
|
| From: https://a16z.com/2010/04/06/ron-conway-explained/
| soumyadeb wrote:
| Am I the only one who thinks the note to thank Ron should have
| been de-coupled from the announcement of the award fund?
|
| The post started of great as a gratitude filled thank you note to
| people who helped AirBnB succeed. But ended as a promotion for
| the award.
| rangitatanz wrote:
| I think it's trying to frame it that they want to be that type
| of angel for someone else.
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