Venture capitalist Seth Levine strikes a cord that is so relevant right now.  He penned a blog post called “I’m getting Sick of this Bullshit”.

I am grabbing this post by venture capitalist Seth Levin and posting it in it’s full form to mark a significant time in history – link is here so go there and read it.

I’ve been thinking for some time now the nonsense I’m seeing with what I call “hipster” or Fake Entrepreneurs and VCs.

Here is Seth’s post and my comments underneath it.

I love the start-up world. I love working with founders and young companies. I love the excitement of working on business ideas that are new and different. I love seeing the success that often comes from this hard work. I’ve never before in my professional life seen a time of such innovation and creativity. At Foundry we see more business plans now than we ever have. And what’s more, more of those business plans are really interesting (and fundable).

It goes without saying that I love the business of venture capital. I love helping entrepreneurs work on their ideas. And I love helping companies figure out how to become as successful as possible. I love the challenge of trying to figure out the next great investment and the energy that comes from working with amazing and creative people.

But I’m worried and I wanted to get it out there.

I’m worried that in all the hype, in all the “we launched our company” events, and “we changed our name again” parties, and “we redid our website – come celebrate!” shindigs, and the SXSW parties, and the hoodies, and everyone who is “killing it!”, that we’re losing sight a bit of the really hard work that is creating and building a business.

I’m worried that in offering term sheets after a single 60 minute meeting, and in pricing early stage deals like they were already late stage successes and most egregiously by constantly running around self promoting and self aggrandizing, VCs are falling prey to a cult of personality about themselves and forgetting that their jobs are to help companies be successful. And as far as I can tell, very few seem to believe what I hold as a fundamental tenet of the venture industry, which is that entrepreneurs come first, not VCs.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy a good party (not to mention a good hoodie!). And I recognize the reasons to celebrate important company milestones and in going to industry events like CES and SXSW. And in bringing a bunch of customers, prospects and partners together at a social event. But I feel like I’m hearing less of “did you see XYX company’s great new product” and more “are you going to so and so’s party at ad:tech:”. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I’ve received 30 invites to SXSW parties but not a single invite to a panel session at the conference. And when someone tells me that someone is “killing it” (a phrase I think I hear 10 times a day these days), more often than not they mean “doing the job they were hired for”.

I hear more and more stories about companies making a pitch to a VC and having an offer before they walk out of the room (entrepreneurs: do you really want to work with someone who puts so little thought into their investment process that they would do this?). And the way VCs talk about the companies they work with has clearly shifted to be substantially more VC centric (lots of use of “I” and taking credit for company success as something they themselves created rather than participated in or helped with). And, of course, much has been written about rising valuations and the potential risk this poses to particularly early stage companies. Not to mention the increasing popularity of the “party round” where many VCs participate but no one actually takes ownership (also not good for entrepreneurs, in my opinion).

And it feels like a lot of this is for external show. I’m cool; I run a shit hot start-up; I saw [insert big name technorati here] at our company party last night. I’m in such and such company with [long list of other investors] and doesn’t that make me awesome. I’m awesome I’m awesome – look at me!! And not really about building great products or great businesses.

So by all means, lets keep having fun. But let’s also remember that the goal is to build great companies. And please – my fellow venture capitalists – can we take it down a few notches and remember that our role is a supporting one. If you wanted to be the star you should have become an entrepreneur.

I was explaining to a friend back east about the craziness in Silicon Valley.  So much insane behavior on what people think about entrepreneurship.  Such an emphasis is of  this so called “I’m cool or I’m one of the cool kids”.  Makes me want to PUKE.   Data points something is wrong:  more me too hyped up ventures than real technology startups, bloggers are turn into venture capitalists, bloggers are getting funding from every VCs in the market, and more startup accelerators than actual startups.  This is causing massive noise pollution.

Why is Seth’s post so freaking great?  Seth hits the big problem in this market – the get rich quick scheme via noise pollution of hyped up deals.  Watching the spray and pray investments by people who have never ever built anything and/or have zero technical or business experience is nonsense at the early stage.

The best early stage investors have technical and product degrees and experience.  I think that anyone can be a good VC at the Series B through E stage because of education, discipline, experience, and a unique business model.  These things can be learned and perfected. The best of Silicon Valley over the decades has been the “gut” or vision not learned tactics.  Early stage is more art than science.  That is why Ron Conway has been so successful.  He turned hard work and combined it with gut feeling on people and markets.  This really can’t be replicated.

For entreprenuer looking for early stage money or developing a early stage company please only take money from investors who have the expertise. Stay away from the Snake Oil Salesmen out there promising influence and connections.

The Best Investors

The best investor get positions in markets early and do solid transactions for PROFIT.  Yes I said it.

To me all of this grandstanding is for promotional lead generation. For those entrepreneurs who think that they just got mega funded by a hipster VC just got used big time by those “snake oil” VCs.

Lots of my friends are VCs and the most successful VCs aren’t even talked about online.  The best VCs are invisible and most people don’t even know their name.  One thing is certain the entrepreneurs know who they are.

The best VCs let their game do the talking – the investments that they make speak for them.

Great investors have vision and financial responsibility not just a working awareness of the trends.

I feel sorry for those entrepreneurs being used as “show horses” for attention starved and self promoting VCs.  Just look and you can see them as clear as day.

I hope this post by Seth can mark a point in time where there is a transformation to entrepreneurship of quality – real business, real technology, and real science (tech and social).

Viva Real Entrepreneurship — bye bye Hipster or Fake Entrepreneurship