causal

VC requires high growth rates to work

Venture capital only works in domains with high growth rates because investing in early-stage companies is so risky — roughly half completely fail — and the only thing that can counterbalance that risk is the astonishing returns of the winners, which require explosive growth.

causalpending

Speaker

Paul Graham

Evidence Quote

The only thing that can counterbalance the fact that half the companies completely fail is that the ones that don’t fail sometimes have astonishing returns.

Source

Paul GrahamConversations with Tyler
Created: 6/12/2026, 4:55:44 PM

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