" They keep cheerleading on a clear conflict of interest, non-stop"
That's their business model: they buy and then pump the companies in hopes that someone will buy stake from them at a higher valuation later. The nature of the VC model precludes multi-decade investments and incentivizes quick exits even if they blow up in others' faces
that is exactly correct. VC's are facilitators, middlemen, and wholesalers, they are not equity holders. Their goal is to move equity. If the 'end-user' of the equity ends up owning a great business, great, if not, makes no difference to the VCs. You could argue there's reputation risk at stake but I don't see it: Fred Wilson made his name with geocities, a company that never earned any dividends for its ultimate owners (yahoo) while generating huge returns for its equity resellers. And we celebrate him and that deal as a success. Finding the greatest sucker is not a sustainable strategy, it's simple wealth transfer, no value gets created. it's not a way forward.
It's true that VCs have moved a lot of eventually worthless equity but they've also moved a lot of really valuable equity. Google, Amazon, Genentech, Oracle, etc. are companies with real, fundamental long-term value which could not have existed without some kind of investor (whether you call it a "VC" is largely semantic).
That's their business model: they buy and then pump the companies in hopes that someone will buy stake from them at a higher valuation later. The nature of the VC model precludes multi-decade investments and incentivizes quick exits even if they blow up in others' faces
FW replied to a similar remark i made: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4068495