Comments on: Quick Hits with Venture Capitalist Bill Bryant, Partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson

By: Mitt Dhotisurn

Mitt Dhotisurn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:37:02 +0000

I think Concerned’s point is still valid, even if Bill is indeed as moral and upstanding an individual as he says he is (or as his friends might say he is). The point is that his entrepreneurial interests *might* conflict with counseling other entrepreneurs. Lawyers are refuse potential clients when such a conflict arises, for instance. I know of no other Venture Partner who has put himself in such a situation. Bill could sign a simple non-compete with entrepreneurs and this should be taken care of.

As far as the Madrona point goes, I’ve seen physical evidence of this from a local entrepreneur so, from my POV at least, Bill’s out-of-hand dismissal seems ill considered.

By: Bill Bryant

Bill Bryant — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:50:21 +0000

No, I won’t be taking over existing DFJ board seats. The DFJ partners who are involved with companies like Redfin, Nanostring and Varolii have been involved with those companies (and the entrepreneurs behind them) for several years — nearly eight in the case of Varolii. The current DFJ partners have a strong connection to their portfolio companies that I’d be hard pressed to replicate.

What I really hope is that we’ll find enough great startups for DFJ that we’ll be forced by capacity to get even more DFJ partners traveling to Seattle !

By: Krassen Dimitrov

Krassen Dimitrov — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:37:06 +0000

Mr. Bryant,
would you be taking over the DFJ board seats in Seattle?
You know, it could reduce DFJ’s carbon footprint by reducing air-travel. Think about it!

By: Bill Bryant

Bill Bryant — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:42:56 +0000

To concerned: I can’t speak to Madrona or other firms, although I suspect that the story of Madrona “stealing” someone else’s idea is one of those apocryphal myths that never seems to go away in the world of startups (”I had the idea for Facebook before so and so stole it from me”). Ideas are cheap and plentiful, so no need to misappropriate.

But I do want to respond to the concern. I believe those who know me, know that I’m a person of integrity. I have *NEVER* been accused of “taking someone’s idea and running with it”, and conversely none of the startups that I’ve been involved with were based on someone’s idea who wasn’t also part of the founding team.

Happy to discuss this further with you offline.

Bill

By: concerned

concerned — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:19:57 +0000

As a serial entrepreneur in the Seattle area that has met with Bill, one comment above especially concerns me: “I’m still hoping a bolt of lightning will strike, and I’ll be involved in a brilliant startup idea. In the meantime I’m happy to support other people’s projects.” This puts Bill in a conflict-of-interest position vs. the entrepreneur; he benefits from not having to sign NDAs since he’s a “VC Partner” (actually a Venture Partner which is *very* different) and could take off with your business plan to pursue his own competitor. Think this doesn’t happen? Madrona has done this to at least 2 entrepreneurs I know by using their EIRs as a means to capture intel and incubate their own competitive solution…