@KirkHerbstreit Congrats, Herbie. You’re the model now. You take the guff that comes with the job with grace, and keep your sense of humor. Your knowledge of the game, players, schemes, coaches and programs is unmatched in a world that today is more entertainment than X’s & O’s. Appreciate you…
@dhaber 100%. I was so fortunate to have spent my early career at SAP and then PeopleSoft. So many great companies and people came from the leadership trees there.
So many flaws—today’s VC climate—too much $ being put to work too imprecisely (absurd valuations, poor due diligence, rushed cap table decisions), $ then put in the hands of those with little/no operating experience, being guided by those who have even less. Rinse, repeat. So much bad advice being given every day often by so-called ‘top tier’ investors.
@jmj And don’t forget the general rule of thumb that the more VC (partner or firm) talk about how they are “operators at heart” the less likely they actually are…
The issue with this entire exercise is it supposes that a trade imbalance is inherently a bad thing. As a company you have lots of suppliers that you buy far more from than they buy from you, because it’s a supplier that makes you more competitive and your product better. The “free market” has spent decades arriving at this particular set of trade imbalances for a variety of strategic reasons.
If we want to bring back manufacturing to America, which is a good goal, we should do it in strategic categories that are existential to us (chips, energy, cars, etc). Stimulate this via tax credits, deregulation, federal land use, commitments from foreign manufacturers, etc. and make it far more affordable to build here vs. more expensive elsewhere.