Vanessa Fraser leaves BTC

People like you always get confused because you ascribe all the various opinions of the commenters to a single letsrun entity, and then you call out “letsrun the person” for having inconsistent opinions. For example, I never feel like a runner should retire if they still feel like running, but I also recognize that a highly competitive runner might quit in their prime to pursue a more stable career with a long term trajectory. And I just think the entire field of VC is slimey. Rich people throwing money at the wall and getting celebrated for whatever sticks. And people get these jobs not because they’re objectively smart or gifted (what even is that honestly) but because they have the stamp of approval from the right people and institutions. It’s not like VC is exhausting the list of smart hard workers, they have a type. And it is a dang circle jerk.

im sure my opinion contradicts someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean letsrun is contradicting itself. It’s just a forum with some people who have (believe it or not) different opinions. We don’t have to all get on the same page to have a legitimate discussion lol, that makes no sense.

What makes you think she's rich? She's from Scotts Valley and went to Scotts Valley High School, not some fancy private school. Scotts Valley is a decidedly middle-class town near Santa Cruz. It ain't Atherton. It's not even Silicon Valley. I'm sure she had a comfortable middle-class upbringing, but we're not talking "rich" in the way most of us think of the term.

as someone who went to one of those schools, hahahahaha

all your qualifications listed, are hard to really evaluate. So you get the in-group using horribly simplified heuristics, like: “what kind of gut feeling did I have when I read their resume,” “did they attend a prestigious institution,” “are they articulate, as I define it” (????)

like yeah these biases exist in every hiring process, but VCs like to act like they’re finding really valuable candidates when what they actually care about are the type of vibe you have and how much they suspect you’ll run yourself into the ground without anyone having to tell you.

VCs (and other industries with a consolidated, homogenous type of person at the top) are turning down people left and right who would probably revolutionize their fund by providing an actual different perspective. The things that get you in the door at a lot of these places, are not the things that make you good at it. But that extends to the dumba$$es at the top too, I’m not singling out VF here, she’s just buying into a system that pays very well to go along with if you’re granted entry. Credentials at these places are like a key through a gate - once you’ve opened the gate with your key (eg stanford education), the key has kind of served its purpose (unless you actually learned something when you were a D1 athlete full time lol, but that’s just a bonus and not at all necessary)

You can’t use where she went to high school to decide she isn’t wealthy any more than I can use other facts about her to decide that she is. Factors indicating her family is well-off: being a D1 athlete in the first place (in a non-lucrative sport), going to Stanford (and not because of the tuition, but because of the factors that lead to someone gaining access). Rich people go to public schools if they’re good enough. In fact they make sure they get their kids in the right school. I’m kind of using money and power interchangeably here, because well

Also her father placed a baton in her hand with the stanford legacy. All signs are pointing to this being another run of the mill story of wealthy powerful people passing wealth and power down bloodlines. Not that I blame them! But VF fits the profile of charmed upbringing/charmed life. You’ll find that sort of backstory a LOT in the types of “prestigious” institutions and companies in the US. Yeah not a mega rich family, but you can see how everything is a green light.

And I think people on the ladder cope by believing anyone can get into these institutions or get these jobs if they want it bad enough. So a corollary is believing all these extremely well compensated money-shovelers are the smartest and best and most deserving people for the job.

it would be crushing to look at the situation more objectively, because then they’d have to admit there are barriers outside their control that would likely prevent them from gaining access. No fun to daydream about being rich one day when you also have the knowledge that the best predictor of being rich as an adult, is being rich as a child. Everyone wants to believe the world is their oyster, and they have unlimited upside. Ya don’t, shoulda gone to stanford lol

Impressive!

That's a lot of words just to say you aren't going to say that VF should STFU, but she should, but not because you are jealous or bitter or because she doesn't deserve that job, but because...reasons. Lots of reasons.

And nothing personal, but she doesn't deserve that job.

This is a larger diatribe against the power structures in our lives, VF just happens to be the one I was thinking about when I went off. She isn't unique, I want her to STFU just like anyone else who works in the VC field. Act like you work in the oil industry.

She deserves the job just as much as anyone else getting in the door.

WTF, bro, WT-Holy-F? Why didn't you just say this, this way, from the start? Why did you waste all that time on lazy lame trolls?

You could have started off: "Congrats to Vanessa. She deserves the job as much as anyone who gets it. But we shouldn't pretend...." Or some such.

Sure, you'd get "lit up," but maybe you'd make some people think a little bit more carefully about the bigger issues.

PS "larger diatribe against the power structure..."? Give me a break! Who do you think you are -- Judith Butler? Maybe you should take a break from the latest hipster political economists and read a bit more Hemingway. Or Mather. (You know, the guy who had the plaque that said "Be Brief" over his desk.) Or even the Marx of "All that is solid melts into air."

The real problem with pretentious BS like that is that it makes your really good lines ("Act like you work in the oil industry") less effective. You know: Hiding your candle under a bushel and all that.

There’s no point in going to a good college (like Stanford) if you don’t get a good job. She made the most of her opportunities, so congrats to her

And before people criticize me, it’s true. You can get a FAANG job easily from any school if you’re smart enough and work hard enough, but you can’t get jobs that start at good salaries (300-350 or more) if you go to a low ranked school

There are two different people you're engaging with. I never complained about getting lit up, I expect that any time I submit a comment!

Why'd you write all that, WT-Holy-F?

You're just clogging up the thread with your advice on how to present my thesis, and your thesis isn't exactly brief. Tuck tail, find another thread.

Well with Teare signing with BTC, gonna say this is probably incorrect. Have a hard time seeing Nike funnel one of its young stars into a group they plan on shutting down shortly.