VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Capital

Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by Karrot_Kream on Thursday September 03, 2026 @07:08PM (#49558380)

There's no strong consensus, but there's weak consensus that post-GFC regulation is a factor behind but is not causal in any way, for the decrease in IPOs. Here's a paper [1] (well it's the paper author discussing his paywalled paper lol) exploring SOX regulations and their effects on IPOs. There's other papers and I think a good survey will help you on this topic. I don't think there's consensus on regulations being the causal factor, but it is one of many.

I thought GP was modest in calling it out as simply a contributing factor. Regulation is complicated and reaching for it should be something done with care.

(Also FWIW, I think you're being a bit cheap by appealing to culture war talking points.)

[1]: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2009/09/21/the-effect-of-sox...

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Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by unknownfuture on Thursday September 03, 2026 @07:11PM (#49558414)

I think you're being oversensitive or just looking for a fight if you detect even a hint of "culture war talking points" in my comment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by Karrot_Kream on Thursday September 03, 2026 @07:13PM (#49558430)

It's hard for me to read '"Regulations bad" is a pretty common platitude around here but you've stated your main thesis, here, without a hint of support to back it.' as anything more than that.

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Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by unknownfuture on Thursday September 03, 2026 @07:16PM (#49558456)

It's an observation about prevailing libertarian values in the HN community that tend to attract upvotes while going unchallenged.

If you consider that part of a "culture war", then it seems that term has lost all meaning. Might as well just accuse me of being "woke" and get it over with.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by Karrot_Kream on Thursday September 03, 2026 @07:20PM (#49558488)

I think this forum has a lot of values and don't think it's been libertarian in outlook in a long time based on what gets upvoted here so appealing to that is a bit silly but anyway I don't think this is a fruitful conversation so have a good day.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by danaris on Friday September 04, 2026 @02:23AM (#49561164)

I think we're running into (or at least pretty close to) a Two Guys Fallacy here:

There's still a strong libertarian streak in HN posters, in a variety of ways.

However, there are also (mostly) different posters who have more vocally shifted the site's Overton window to the left.

These days, I find it fairly common to, for instance, make a comment that points out the very obvious problems the Republican Party has created in recent years, get downvoted to -3, and then upvoted to +5 (or vice versa), all within a few hours. This would suggest that there are contingents of posters (or at least voters!) in both camps.

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Re:VC isn't VC anymore – understanding the rise of Cancer Ca... by Karrot_Kream on Friday September 04, 2026 @01:31PM (#49567621)

I generally operate with the understanding that HN today has lots of groups, with an overall "left" lean (as much as anyone can flatten politics into a single axis.) Libertarians, leftists, liberals, nationalists, everyone is here. Appealing to one "enemy" group strikes me as a cheap blow; it's sure to increase engagement for your post with little added discourse value. IMHO at least.

[ Parent | on HN ]