The art of important work, of making a ruckus and of inventing the future
Entrepreneurs teach VCs, not the other way around. And I was lucky early in my career to back Seth Godin, who taught me a lot. When I met Seth, he was writing books and building a web company.
Context & Ripple Effects
Fred Wilson's argument that entrepreneurs teach VCs rather than the reverse is a continuation of a thread he has been pulling for years: his 2010 case for investing in the mess made the same bet that raw, unpolished founders are where returns live, and this post names his own proof case — backing Seth Godin early, while Godin was writing books and building a web company, and learning more from him than he taught.
The post also lands inside a broader shift the trade press had already flagged: by March 2011 the Wall Street Journal was reporting on founders gaining clout in the venture world, so Wilson's framing of the investor as the student reads as a prominent VC conceding the point publicly. Techdirt picked the piece up twice the same day, giving a personal blog post unusually wide circulation.
First-order effects
- Wilson publicly repositions his own role from selector-of-founders to student-of-founders, using Godin as the named case study — a reputational stance other investors now have to answer to or match.
- Godin gains a high-profile endorsement of his investor-facing influence at exactly the moment his brand-as-teacher posture (books, blog, speaking) is his core product.
Second-order effects
- If entrepreneurs really do teach the VCs, then a fund's pitch to founders has to compete on mentorship quality and network rather than capital alone — pressuring smaller firms that cannot credibly claim operator-grade learning relationships.
- The founder-leverage dynamic the WSJ documented in 2011 gets reinforced every time an established VC validates it, making valuation and term concessions harder for investors to resist.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, early-stage venture consolidates around investors who function as platforms for founder judgment rather than gatekeepers of capital — the scarce input stops being money and becomes access to people like Godin who compound a portfolio's learning.
- A venture culture that treats founders as the teachers blurs the line between investing and education businesses, pointing toward funds building media, community, and curriculum as core deal-flow strategy.
The trend: Power in early-stage venture is migrating from the checkbook to the founder, with investors competing on what they can learn from and offer entrepreneurs rather than on capital alone.