VC Cliche of the Week

I am going to do something that I may regret.

I am going to mix business and politics to make a point about both.

When I read Bush’s comments last night about the war in Iraq, I immediately thought of Bliss McCrum’s old cliche about follow-on investing.

"You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results"

Every time a company runs out of money and comes back to the VCs for more, you have to assess the management on how well they are doing, whether they are accomplishing the results that everyone wants, and whether its worth putting more money in.

We generally want to support our companies and lean very much in that direction.  But when the results are not good, we go back to Bliss’ cliche about expecting different results.  And so many times the price of the new money is not only dilution, but also some material change in direction of the company.

Because you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

And that is my issue with Bush’s "stay the course" agenda in Iraq.  I personally am well beyond whether this war was a good idea.  We are there and we’ve caused a lot of suffering in Iraq with our forced regime change.  At this point, I am not a fan of pulling out.  I am a fan of getting the job done.

But you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

Bush and his team need to do some things differently.  More troops?  A more agressive effort to take on the insurgents?  A deal with the neighboring countries? 

I honestly have no clue about what they need to do differently, but they’ve got to try some new stuff.

Because their current approach isn’t working too well and the country knows it.