SparkToro founder Rand Fishkin criticizes the economic origins and structural incentives of the traditional venture capital industry.
Opinion
Investors avoiding dividend taxes are poor citizens and unwelcome at SparkToro
“If giving the government 12 to 20% of your money is unacceptable to you, first of all, I don't think you're a very good civic person. Right? Like, and second, I don't want you on my balance sheet anyway.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fishkin: Roughly 90% of venture-backed startup founders come from family wealth
“Like the whole idea behind venture capital is we are going to take a bunch of mostly already wealthy people because that's who starts venture backed startups, right? The overwhelming majority, I think something like 90% come from family wealth.”
Insight
A/B testing is harmful unless statistical significance is reached within 36 hours
“I think A-B testing and conversion rate testing in general is great when you have between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands or more visitors to a page and enough of them are converting that you can basically test in 12 to 36 hours. Anything under tha…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
TikTok organic reach will inevitably crash to near zero, mimicking Facebook
“And I think, unfortunately, a lot of these folks are going to find that the same thing that happened with Facebook seven years ago, six years ago, where that engagement rate falls from 11% to 0.09%, that will happen. That will happen to you.”
Assertion Supported
Moz's revenue growth sank significantly after Rand Fishkin stepped down
“After I stepped down as CEO, the growth rate sank significantly. It was trending a little bit down, like, the last six months I was there, so I wouldn't put the fault entirely on folks after I left, but, you know, the last, oh my gosh, the last seven years cer…”
Opinion
Fishkin: About 20% of VC investments get stuck in growth purgatory
“Out of those, you know, average hundred investments that VCs make, the stuck in the middle is a really significant percentage. It's probably like 20 of those hundred, and a lot of those end up being some combination of, like, fire sales, or for more aggressive…”