THE DREAM IN ACTION

Tonight I watch the interview between Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, and Peter Thiel, once PayPal CEO and current Facebook board member.

Thiel is sharp and the interview was great. One of the most interesting questions was, “what is the best startup success predictor?” Thiel’s response:

The lower the CEO salary, the more likely it is to succeed.

The CEO’s salary sets a cap for everyone else.  If it is set at a high level, you end up burning a whole lot more money. It aligns his interest with the equity holders.  But [beyond that], it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks.

In practice we have found that if you only ask one question, ask that.

Also, Dave McClure’s question, about how the affect of significantly cheaper startup costs are affecting VC investments, was awesome. Dave also asked about startup incubators that are investing less money but giving more guidance and how they are taking away “larger scale” VC deals.

In his response Peter Thiel commented that there are likely many “undiscovered” alternatives to big VC funding. He alluded that he thinks Y-Combo type investment funds will drive a new style or even era in startup funding. These are the kinds of pearls that should make your ears perk up and your mind sharpen around developing new ways to invest or new ways to collect/find investment depending on what side of the investment you are on. Great question Dave.

TechCrunch50 is really a phenomenal event. I watched much of it at the live stream on Ustream.  I am surprised that it is being live streamed as I figured that would devalue the tickets, but I’m glad that it is.