Reply to post: They're not startups, they're bait shops

Non-big IT vendors: Trying to understand where startups fit in tech

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

They're not startups, they're bait shops

Some guys come up with an idea and investors buy them a rod which they bait and put in the water.

They don't get a bite, so more investors put up the cash for a boat and a few more rods, they get some nibbles from smaller fish but pull the rod so they aren't eaten.

More cash buys a bigger boat and more rods, waiting for that big fish to gobble them up with societies money. Along comes the big fish using untaxed offshore "profits", to take the bait and the "investors" walk away with money that should have repaired your roads or educated your children.

The big fish might just right off the billions it paid for the bait it can't integrate, but, pah, not their money anyway. It was unpaid tax on profits that they've just made in to a tax deductible asset.

Oh, If you took a nibble before the big fish, then what you think you've eaten turns out to be a bait and switch to the big fishes legacy stuff.

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