John Goodrich Says We Still Have A Long Way To Go

from the pessimistic dept

Big shot Silicon Valley lawyer John Goodrich was recently on a venture capital panel discussing when things would turn around. Unlike just about everyone else, Goodrich is extremely pessimistic about the economy picking up again. He says there won't be another "boom" like the one we just had for sixty years. He thinks that there's too much money in the hands of "promoters" who think they're VCs. He thinks most VCs simply don't "get it", and don't understand that real venture capital takes a lot of hard work. While I agree that many VCs are too inexperienced and got into it for the "easy money", I think a lot of his arguments come off as "well, back in my day, we had to walk uphill both ways through the snow..." Basically, he thinks things won't get better because the people doing stuff now are too young. He seems to forget that his law firm was the big one that pushed all these young kids into starting companies and becoming VCs. It's good to hear a critical voice, but it would have been more worthwhile if he had some things to say that people could learn from instead of that venture capitalists "don't get it", are "too young" and "things aren't getting better". It would be more useful if he suggested what people could do to get a better understanding, or to get more experience.