Matt Cohler: I Hope Silicon Valley Doesn't Become Versailles
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“I hope we’re not entering a world where Silicon Valley becomes Versailles”
That was Matt Cohler speaking today at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. Cohler, a partner at Benchmark Capital (and one of the original employees of Facebook), sat down with our own Mike Arrington to talk about the state of the venture capital industry.
This whole behind-the-scenes back-and-forth — including AngelGate — worries Cohler. He’s concerned we’re entering a phase similar to 18th century France, where Louis the XV and his court sat inside Versailles and bickered while revolution happened outside the palace walls. Cohler noted it was a “poisonous environment” and he warned that Silicon Valley, with its less-literal walls, may be the new Versailles.
“We need to get back to focusing on entrepreneurs,” Cohler said. It’s silly to think that innovation is dead — there’s just an aspiration problem. “People aren’t thinking big enough,” he said.
“All that really matters is entrepreneurs building really great companies,” Cohler said.