Criticized For Turning $250k into $78M In Two Years?

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Someone please explain to me how you can criticize Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz for turning a $250,000 investment into $78,000,000 in less than 2 years.

Despite Instagram’s awesome performance and our monstrous return, a number of articles have come out criticizing us for not making even more money on our investment. Ordinarily, when someone criticizes me for only making 312 times my money, I let the logic of their statement speak for itself. However, in this case, the narrative that some critics put forth has the nasty side effect of casting two outstanding entrepreneurs—Kevin and Dalton Caldwell—in an unfair light and glosses over an important ethical issue that we faced.
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Eh, anytime you make an investment that ends up with you having the ability to do absolutely nothing for the rest of your life and live a very VERY comfortable life you've done good in my book! Now if they turn around and try to go bigger with the 78M and fail hard ending up with nothing... then yeah they should have gotten more out of it :D
 
That's the definition of being successful.

Just haters raging over it.

The simplest ideas are the most successful.
 
What it often boils down to is the lack of journalism these days. Most folks writing about stuff have no clue whatsoever about what it is they have been 'ordered' to write about.
 
It's not the media, it's Wall Street. If you don't meet or surpass analysts' expectations then you suck. It doesn't matter if you managed to make 73% net on 1 billion gross, if they predicted you will be making 75% and you only made 73% then you are in the crapper.
 
Envy... pure and simple...

Unfortunately the media supports this view and are unwilling to understand that equal opportunity does not guarantee equal outcome. They of course MUST of done something unfair to make the amount of money... it couldn't have just been a little luck and A LOT OF HARD WORK... that's crazy talk.
 
Monkey God said:
People complain about everything.
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Exactly. Doesn't matter how amazingly awesome you do. Someone will always bitch that it wasn't enough or you could have done better. Parents that do this piss me off to no end. Their kid is never good enough, or never did their best... Then, it goes into the professional world and the same thing: you make $77,750,000 and it isn't good enough. Sure, you spent $250,000 to come up with it, but why not $150,000,000? Just wasn't good enough.

Bastards. I think they did f'in awesome, and its very rare to get that kind of return on any investment. I wanna see what the critics best investments were to see how this one wasn't as good... Waiting.... Didn't think so. I'd love to get a return like that, even a 1/10th of that.
 
This is the "can not's" hating on the "have done's". End of story, dried ink and yellowed paper. Hell, if I could make 250k into 10 mil, I'd have a monster grin on my face...not to mention likely swimming in a small swimming pool full of dollar bills. Why? Because papercuts made with your riches don't hurt as much.
 
Hard to make an assessment of the reaction to the criticism, without reading the criticism, itself.
 
I was jealous the second I heard about this, and who wouldn't be? But its not like these guys magically made this piece of software. Hard work and a bit of luck paid off in the end.

All this story reminds me of is that groupon turned down an offer and I am now getting google offer ads to my phone.
 
travanx said:
I was jealous the second I heard about this, and who wouldn't be? But its not like these guys magically made this piece of software. Hard work and a bit of luck paid off in the end.

All this story reminds me of is that groupon turned down an offer and I am now getting google offer ads to my phone.
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You understand the criticism is not toward the developer of Instagram?

This blog is responding to criticism directed at the investors who initially funded Instagram (well, initially funded a program that is claimed to have led to Instagram) while simultaneously funding PixPls and then deciding that their ethical obligation was to return all rights to the developer of Instagram and only fund Pixpls?

These guys that are being criticized are providing seed money, not much to do with hard work or luck (in the way you're referring to).
 
See it all the time on here. People envious over those rich people making more than them.

"They don't deserve all that money. We should take away 99% of that and spread it around to everyone else. They should be happy with $780k."

...and then these guys give the finger to the US, move their company and jobs to some island nation and come up with new products where most of the profit is not stolen by jealous liber... people. ;)
 
no, that's the definition of being really, really lucky.

It is pretty absurd it is valued so much, but that blame lays with boneheaded investors, not the creators.

wiseoracle said:
That's the definition of being successful.

Just haters raging over it.

The simplest ideas are the most successful.
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Thuleman said:
It's not the media, it's Wall Street. If you don't meet or surpass analysts' expectations then you suck. It doesn't matter if you managed to make 73% net on 1 billion gross, if they predicted you will be making 75% and you only made 73% then you are in the crapper.
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Lol right - while you kick back with your millions of dollars and the "analysts" sit there and...analyze.

Analysts mean jack shit.
 
Thuleman said:
It's not the media, it's Wall Street. If you don't meet or surpass analysts' expectations then you suck. It doesn't matter if you managed to make 73% net on 1 billion gross, if they predicted you will be making 75% and you only made 73% then you are in the crapper.
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That's because traders have built that future expectation into today's price. When the prediction falls short, a downward adjustment follows. This hurts some of the day traders and many of the higher execs expecting to borrow against their stock options to buy that 3rd vacation home. :(
 
sleepeeg3 said:
See it all the time on here. People envious over those rich people making more than them.

"They don't deserve all that money. We should take away 99% of that and spread it around to everyone else. They should be happy with $780k."

...and then these guys give the finger to the US, move their company and jobs to some island nation and come up with new products where most of the profit is not stolen by jealous liber... people. ;)
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o boy pot, the kettle called you black!

I find it funny that you pretty much did the same thing these analysts are doing... Focusing on your perception that most liberals want to take 99% from the rich, just as the analysts focus on their perception of success being meeting their expectations and NOT actually looking at the fact the company multiplied investors money by a factor of 316.

But we can play the same game, "selfish repub... people:) that are anarchists wanting the wild west with no law or regulation (unless they don't like it, like gay marriage or insurance coverage for contraceptives )..."

You want to bitch and complain about American politics, hey I understand there are tons messed up on BOTH sides. EVERYONE should be pissed honestly. But quotes and attitudes like yours is the core of the problem today, both for America and this freaking article.

No one in America can seem to be able to remove themselves enough to make any sort of rational opinion on anything. Currently its in the culture, we have been raised to believe many things and consumption, profit/stock earnings are at the core. Thus analysts aren't happy with a x316 of investment, and for what ever reason people feel they are personally slighted if 2 other separate people could possibly get married because they are the same sex.

All Americans are like this (elseware too, look at history), I would like to believe I think about situations in a truly honest and impartial manor but constantly I offend my own beliefs by yelling at some idiot texting driver, when every so often I do the same thing due to some "important" or "special" circumstance that only I apparently have a right to mess up. Who's to say that isn't their first time texting in a car in 3 months????
 
Only in America can a technical analysis of an independent investor's business decisions immediately morph into a nutty religious argument about "liberals who want to take from the rich" vs 'wall st analysts who mean jack shit".

Wall St analysts had nothing to loose or gain from Horowitz' error (or non-error). None of them were betting on the outcome of his $250k investment. Furthermore, the original NY times article was not a "criticism." It simply laid out exactly the same set of facts that Horowitz later posted on his own blog, noting that Horowitz could have chosen option (C). It concluded that Horowitz probably would have chosen option (C) if he had taken the time to make an unemotional decision; failing to choose (C) was therefore a mistake.

I thought the Times article was interesting. It highlighted the importance of rational decision-making, which is a valuable lesson for 1%ers and 99%ers alike.
 
He would have chose (C) if he was an unethical douchebag. Since he isn't an unethical douchebag, he went with the more ethical choice. Hell...he could have chosen A then kept all the rights he rightfully owned. He just gave them back for the sake of ethics. And he was still richly rewarded. Maybe he could be richer if he were a douchebag.


Isn't THAT the whole point of the "Occupy" bowel movement? Bringing ethics into financial decision making will actually benefit the most people in the long run?
 
REKnight said:
Envy... pure and simple...

Unfortunately the media supports this view and are unwilling to understand that equal opportunity does not guarantee equal outcome. They of course MUST of done something unfair to make the amount of money... it couldn't have just been a little luck and A LOT OF HARD WORK... that's crazy talk.
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That's cute that you think that their riches are a result of a lot of hard work when the reality is, those who work hard are most often lower middle class workers at best. :rolleyes:
 
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