Barnacles

Barnacles-iantoons

“Barnacles” – a cartoon that illustrates how many new venture firms have set themselves up with the sole strategy of trying to get into the same deals as Tier 1 venture funds.

Characteristic of this behavior is the mad rush to get into a ‘hot’ new startup’s investment round when the likes of Andreessen Horowitz or Sequoia are known to be involved.

This behavior can result in dumb capital getting into a startup, which over time has an impact on board decision-making and getting consensus on restructuring/exits from the investors.

As an analogy, ships that spend most of their time in the water have to contend with tiny plants and animals attaching themselves to the hull beneath the waterline. Not only does this marine growth slow down a vessel’s speed, but over time organisms can penetrate the hull and damage it.


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“Good one Ian Foley”
Sales, RelativityOne
“Do you think founders should turn down this “dumb capital”?”
Futurist & Sustainability Advocate
“Are you using Doodle?”
Building Companies & Careers
“Reminds me of Captain Haddock and “Billions of blue blistering Barnacles …”. This group think not only hinders the startups like you posit but also leaves several deserving founders from getting capital (often minorities) in turn creating less employment opportunities for those segments in startups and so on. Overall not inclusive nor a sustainable model.”
✅ 𝐼𝓃𝓋𝑒𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓈/𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓊𝓁𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓉/𝒫𝑜𝒹𝒸𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝐻𝑜𝓈𝓉 ✅ 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕔𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕜.𝕤𝕦𝕓𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜.𝕔𝕠𝕞 ♦️ | 𝕚𝕧𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕪.𝕔𝕠 💡 | 𝕥𝕓𝕖𝕗𝕚𝕥𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤.𝕔𝕝𝕦𝕓 🏃 |
“Love it! Brilliant perspective!”
I help teams do difficult things. —— “Does not purchase Lead Gen services”
“Thanks for posting this!”
Facilitating Equity Financing in the $15-50M range.

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