VC Cliché of the Week

I heard the other day that a prominent venture capitalist had threatened an entrepreneur who wouldn’t do what he wanted him to do with these words "I’ll ruin your reputation".

That really pisses me off.

But upon reflection, I realized that nobody can ruin anyone else’s reputation.

You can only ruin your own reputation.

And a really good way to do that in the venture business is by threatening entrepreneurs like you are Tony Soprano.