Ask PG: Why is Ben Horowitz's startup school 2012 video not available?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4707113

by marcamillion • 14 years ago

64 20 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It's the only link that says 'recording unavailable'.

Is it that it will never be available, or not available yet?

bobrenjc93• 14 years ago

Probably because of the "No Bitch Ass Ness" shirt he wore during his talk. https://twitter.com/MCHammer/status/259783902699339776

verganileonardo• 14 years ago

Why would this be a problem?

osxwm• 14 years ago

Follow the money.

Partners at VC funds are employed (funded) by limited partners (LPs). LPs are typically institutional cash and tend to be conservative. A26Z's LPs and potential LPs would not be pleased if they saw a video of Ben giving a talk wearing his "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt.

brackin3• 14 years ago

I'm guessing he was just open and honest to all of the founders and sometimes being open when you run a huge VC firm is a risky challenge. So not recording it means he can offer insights without a clip of it going on TechCrunch.

nbashaw2• 14 years ago

I was there and nothing was said that was very controversial

brackin3• 14 years ago

Maybe not controversial but just talking about portfolio companies or commenting on them directly can be risky when you have a big fund and LP's to deal with.

zmitri• 14 years ago

Here's a youtube video from 2010 of almost exactly the same presentation he gave at startup school http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-LBSqm3xh4

If you need to be assured that it's the same talk, here's a live blog from sus2012 http://backspac.es/r/Xx8736cUap

kloncks• 14 years ago

Slide deck had something along the lines of, "Property of A16Z. Do not share or redistribute."

zenten• 14 years ago

or he probably just declined to be recorded.

renee• 14 years ago

Ben choose not to be recorded at Startup School. That is why the video is not available.

johncoogan• 14 years ago

Of course, but the real question is why did he choose not to be recorded?

pg• 14 years ago

I don't think any of us asked him.

nbashaw2• 14 years ago

I was there, and he used much of the same slides and material from this talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-LBSqm3xh4

witoldc• 14 years ago

Theory: This is the only way his regurgitated attempt at a speech would get any attention.

swah2• 14 years ago

jfoster• 14 years ago

There almost certainly is a recording of the talk. Someone in one of the first few rows was recording all of them on a tablet.

swah2• 14 years ago

BTW, what's your opinion on niche markets? When github started, was hosting source code repositories considered a big market?

Ask PG: Why is Ben Horowitz's startup school 2012 video not available?

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