Typical myopic NY times static view. Omission of dynamics.

Did the same families/people/organizations own this land five centuries? If so, England is in the company of Florence families.

Who was the owner at different points in time?

See Taleb on inequality https://medium.com/incerto/inequality-and-skin-in-the-game-d....

The VC model is surely older than 'relatively new' and older than industrial companies of the 1900s.

One example of the VC model has been around as late as the early/mid 1800s (or perhaps as early as 1600-1700s) in a different industry.

Look up whaling ventures.

Probably multiple other, older examples as well.

Very true, my mind was stuck on tech VC since the 70s, but yeah the idea of buying equity in a venture isn't new.

Have you raised VC money recently or in the past? Raising is far from easy - in fact the opposite in my experience.

It's a full-time job for 1 person for months, or even the better part of a year. That's one founder taken away from keeping customers happy and building on the product.

The cost off the term sheet is real.

As a founder attempting to raise pre/seed in 2018, saying yes without much in exchange for funding is how I might have imagined fundraising to be in 2012-2014. Certainly not in 2018 or 2019 without relationships w/ VCs, in my personal experience.

VCs asking for order of magnitude ~$100ks ARR before a seed round in '18 and '19 makes total sense for VCs. Lower risk of failure with revenue as evidence.

If we get to that point of ARR, we are closer to being a free cash flow positive business and will consider forgoing VC altogether.