Comments on: Siminoff, Venrock part ways, reasons unknown

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:02:40 +0000

It's clear that none of you know David well or have worked with him. It is also clear that you all have unfunded business plans. What, couldn't make it on cash? boo hoo I bet that's David's fault too

By: jim

jim — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:22:20 +0000

siminoff's an asshole and venrock asked him to leave because, again, he's an asshole

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:32:10 +0000

Ha! looks like they fixed the site I mentioned above:) Somebody at Venrock is reading this.

Jay…. I guess that makes the west coast a dog yard.

By: Ramon

Ramon — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:35:52 +0000

I though he was an visionary and very knowledgeable in digital media. He was very accepting of small companies that did not have all their ducks in a row and gave them great direction. He was not abrasive but quite busy, when he gave you time it was undivided and fully focused.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:52:43 +0000

David is can a good partner if he likes you, generally you have to be still an undergrad at Stanford or recent Stanford grad. He likes people who will listen to him because “his wife was employee #5 at Yahoo” and won't question his direction.

You can read the posts on TheFunded, he was widely viewed as abrasive and arrogant. From my personal interactions I can say I totally agree. He was a total jerk in my experience.

By: jay

jay — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:35:59 +0000

Rob:

WTF–Has there ever been even a mediocre consumer Internet venture headquartered in Boston? The last one I can recall is Lycos.

Complete graveyard for consumer web companies.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:11:21 +0000

David Biesl has an enormous following in Boston with his WebInnovator events. Ive got alot of respect for that guy…. so I'd have to disagree with your general statement here about them as a company…. I woudln't judge Pakman so quickly. I've never met their west coast team so.

By: jay

jay — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:04:26 +0000

Yes, this is why no self-respecting web entrepreneur would take money from Venrock. They are the last refuge for the desperate, which is the case for each of his investments–all panned by any reputable Internet VC.

By: buzzsaw

buzzsaw — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:50:14 +0000

I'd have to agree that this guy was the WRONG person to hire for Internet VC. Venrock took the wrong advice from some headhunter. They likely made an equally bad choice in Pakman.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:50:00 +0000

Dogs are being polite!

http://www.crunchyroll.com/about/
"wondering if the business plan was checked for punctuation when they asked for 4MM"

http://www.slideshare.net/
"good idea but a revenue longshot. Slideshow creators are a dime a dozen"

http://www.tapiocamobile.com/
" visit it in IE, site doesnt even work properly. How are they going to make content for 1000's of phones if they cannot do for 4 main web browsers"

By: jay

jay — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:39:47 +0000

He was a ludicrous hire to begin with. No understanding of the social web. Look at his investments at Venrock, all dogs.