Poking Fun At VCs
Chicago tech entrepreneur Jason Fried, who runs a hot Web-software and development firm called 37signals, last month slipped a funny, fake press release onto his company’s blog. Titled “37signals Valuation Tops $100 Billion After Bold VC Investment,” the satirical screed poked fun at the nosebleed valuations commanded by some money-losing, VC-backed Internet start-ups lately. 
Then another funny thing happened. VCs started calling Fried to inquire about possibly investing in his company.”We’ve gotten, I would say, between 30 to 40 calls from VCs over the last few years,” he told Forbes. “After we released that press release, we started getting another wave of calls.” Most of the callers knew the release was fake but were nonetheless interested in 37signals’ actual business, Fried says. But one confused venture capitalist seemed to think the document was genuine and “wanted to get in” on the made-up deal it described, he says–a financing through which 37signals sold 0.000000001% of the company for $1, implying a valuation of $100 billion.
Let’s hope that VC made his inquiry before gulping his first cup of coffee. But it all seems to buttress Fried’s not-so-subtle point that some tech investors remain more enamored with eyeballs and page views than they do with real businesses that make money. Read full story:
