Best columns: Business

Why venture capitalists’ ears are burning

Therese Poletti

Marketwatch.com

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The entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley depend on venture capital, but that doesn’t mean they like venture capitalists, said Therese Poletti in Marketwatch.com. Until now, though, entrepreneurs have muted their complaints about venture capitalists’ “bad manners, pompous attitudes,” and “extreme tardiness.” The venture capitalists are sitting on piles of money, after all. But now entrepreneurs have a place to vent. TheFunded.com shines a light “on the cliquish world of private investing and the dirty little secrets of venture capitalists.” Anonymous entrepreneurs can post reviews of venture capital firms and venture capitalists, and their assessments can be “scathing.” Some of the principals of “venerable Sequoia Capital,” for example, are said to have attended “the Leona Helmsley School of Manners.” But the site “is more than snarky comments about failed meetings.” Visitors find plenty of intelligence on the major firms, “and comments and data about many lesser-known firms.” The site has drawn the notice of the venture capital community, and founder Adeo Ressi claims it has “changed the behavior of some of the most blatantly rude VCs.” In what might be the highest compliment, one firm recently demanded that Ressi delete a posting that describes it as “horrible.” Ressi, who launched the site without venture funding, refused.

Our war on tourists is only hurting ourselves

Eric Lucas

Los Angeles Times

“Travel is booming worldwide—except in the United States,” said Eric Lucas in the Los Angeles Times. While travel is growing by 6 percent a year on a global basis, it has declined in the U.S., with international arrivals to this country down 11 percent since 2000. The reason is simple: “The United States is a crass, greedy, and rude host.” Foreign visitors are treated “as criminals until proved otherwise,” and we show them little consideration once they’ve made it past the immigration authorities. For instance, most other countries use a simple icon of an airplane on road signs to guide travelers to the airport. Here, we rely on signs with messages like “O’Hare next left.” Shouldn’t we replace them? No, it “costs too much to add signs for all them ‘furaners’”—as a highway official once told me. Meanwhile, U.S. consular officers turn down visa applications without explanation, inviting those rejected to apply again—for a nonrefundable $131 fee. The travel boom, and billions in revenue, will continue to pass us by—“until we change our official and unofficial attitudes toward the world.”