Fundamental Hype is a blog about venture capital markets and the people and organizations that make them tick. We cover marijuana, software, blockchain and crypto tech, cleantech, mining, biotech and the financial media that keeps the dreams they’re selling front and center.
In our coverage of companies, we try our best to use data to determine and illustrate how a promotion is going. We’ve got a lot of respect for traditional metrics, but think it’s also important to cover the bought and earned media that these companies generate. We hope to give our readers an original look at the micro and macro hype cycles of both companies and sectors and, ultimately, some insight on how they’re timed.
WE DON’T GIVE INVESTMENT ADVICE
Fundamental hype is not qualified to tell you how to manage your money. You should talk to a pro about that. We’re just bloggers. If we have a position in a company we write about, or a company has paid us to write about them, we say so.
Growth equities need hype
Venture Capital is, has always been, and will always be all about selling dreams. No matter the industry, significant revenue is always a long ways off in venture stage companies, never mind profitability. Dividends? Please. We’re busy plowing this money into something that’s GOING TO BE BIG! You just won’t believe how big it’s going to be! Eventually.
The first rule of managing money is “don’t lose it.”
Venture investing breaks that rule explicitly, because it was probably some yield guy who said it, and he lacked vision. The nerd who cooked that up was so focused on the odds against Facebook and Google becoming Facebook and Google that he missed out on Facebook and Google! The ash heap of failed ventures that accumulated along the way, and the money that was burned to make them doesn’t matter because it’s a total bore! Nobody who invests in venture stage equities wants to think about that. What a buzzkill. They want to think about the next Facebook! The guys who go on about prudent risk-management are always the same nerds asking if the party boat has life jackets.
Ultimately, whether or not any given company is going to end up being the next Facebook doesn’t really matter. There is plenty of alpha to be created as the dream builds, and trading collective delusion is a time-honored global tradition.
Braden
