"When Journalists Believe They Are VCs, Beware," startup survivor Ben Rooney writes in the Wall Street Journal, of former Mashable editor Ben Parr becoming a venture capitalist at the whimsically named #DominateFund, along with two young startup founders.
VentureBeat reporter Jolie O'Dell, a former colleague of Parr's, seemed measured in her commentary: "Time alone will tell whether our reservations are unfounded or whether Ben Parr and two kids make up an unexpectedly awesome startup investment dream team."
But she concealed a highly arched eyebrow into the Web address of her article on the matter: "ORLY," which is textspeak for "oh, really?"?
The case against is simple: Journalists don't know anything about business, and when they get drawn into the world of startups and venture capital, it's because they've lost the needed distance and skepticism.
It's a kind of dismal worldview that treats journalism as a life sentence and business as some kind of spooky cult.
Now, we have no personal interest in becoming venture capitalists, and it certainly seems like there are plenty of early-stage investors backing consumer-oriented startups.
But there's one thing we want to point out: There is a great historical example of a journalist becoming a venture capitalist.
His name is Michael Moritz. He was a Silicon Valley correspondent for Time magazine?covering Apple in its early days, among other stories?before he went on to become a partner at Sequoia Capital, where he funded a few companies you may have heard of: Yahoo. Google. LinkedIn. Zappos.
Not a bad career move for Moritz. Not a bad outcome for Sequoia's investors.
Consider Moritz before you write a blanket rule banning journalists from the field.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/journalist-venture-capitalists-2012-11
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