Cancer Capital: VC didn’t use to work like this

When I talked about the rise of Cancer Capital, I mentioned that it represents a massive shift from how venture capital has worked over the years. But my conversations in recent years with people in tech, and especially with those outside the industry, reveal that most folks have no idea just how huge that shift has been. It's easy to illustrate exactly how extreme things have gotten just by using a few examples, starting with companies that are familiar to everyone, and sharing some details of what I've seen firsthand. First: The companies that defined the modern era of tech weren’t founded with venture capital. Neither Microsoft nor Apple took a penny of venture capital funding when they were founded. Both got started from money they got from their founders and their first customers, and took off from there. Building for the ages In Microsoft's case, they didn't get any venture capital investment until the company had been around for six years, and were already doing $17 million…