cool/weird:
"But Mr. Chen said the team also “liked the idea of saving one of the original Web 2.0 companies that started the social sharing movement on the Web.” He added: “There was some sense of history. We were genuinely sad that it would be shut down.”

Both founders acknowledge that they were never diehard Delicious users. “I signed up in 2005 and I didn’t use it again until 2011,” Mr. Chen said with an embarrassed laugh."

Interesting post/comment thread on why businesses are often closed or "translucent" rather than transparent. Not everyone involved is interested in making a big announcement, don't want to be a "hot startup" just want to put their heads down and work "tending their own garden", "translucency == storytelling"—sharing finished ideas (rather than process?) is more convincing (and profitable?), dealing with "undisclosed conflicts", helpful private exchanges over email.

VC industry has a really complicated relationship with access to information. Another post (forget where) pointed out that it's truly a social undertaking. Everyone wants to be first, based on speculation. While it would be fun to have open/leaked access to these kinds of communications (I'm sure it would tell a different story) "openness" can't really apply here in the way it can to journalism. the point of journalism is to tell stories. The point of VC is to grow companies. One requires exposé, the other requires discretion.

Fred Wilson:
"At Union Square Ventures, we pride ourselves on our transparency and openness. Wednesday's Airbnb post and Paul Graham's followup posting of our email thread on that opportunity is a good example of where being open benefits everyone involved, from Airbnb, to Y Combinator, to Union Square Ventures, and mostly to entrepreneurs out there who have always been curious what really goes on.

But there are plenty of times when we are not open. If an entrepreneur comes in and pitches us on an investment, we don't blog about it. We have all sorts of things going on in our portfolio right now that we'd love to talk about but obviously we can't and won't. And when we make an investment that the people involved decide should be kept quiet, we are fully capable of doing that."

Fred and the Airbnb founders have generously agreed to let me publish this email exchange (with one sentence redacted about something that's strategically important to Airbnb and not an important part of the conversation). It's an interesting illustration of an element of the startup ecosystem that few except the participants ever see: investors trying to convince one another to invest in their portfolio companies. Hundreds if not thousands of conversations of this type are happening now, but if one has ever been published, I haven't seen it. The Airbnbs themselves never even saw these emails at the time.

spoiler: it's not good

VCs need founders as much as startups need cash

On an otherwise-normal Monday morning in August, Andrew Mason storms down a hallway at Groupon’s Chicago HQ, angrier than any of his employees have ever seen him. “Running with the Devil” blares from behind the door of a studio apartment with which the fastest-growing company in history shares a floor, and Van Halen’s power chords are disrupting operations.