Private SPACs, a short thread. Too many founders I meet these days are literally choosing to raise $5M-$10M pre-idea because they can and because it's more fun than a regular job and offers more optionality. There is the possibility, i guess, that they will come up with an idea.

2/ To be fair, they are not really pre-idea. They have an idea of how to raise the round. They know which buzzwords and logos and advisors to string together to convince VCs to make a bet.

3/ Sometimes there is the seed of a truly great idea buried in there somewhere. Sometimes there is not. Sometimes there is barely anything at all. Sometimes they are one of literally 20 companies doing exactly the same thing.

4/ In most cases, sadly, there isn't evidence of a real struggle with basic questions of product-market fit, of competitive differentiation, or go-to-market strategy, or of team-building.

5/ Is this irrational? Probably not. If your choices are (a) get a job, (b) keep thinking/planning, or (c) raise a ton of money and then start thinking and planning, I suppose (c) is really pretty attractive.

6/ But on a system-wide level, this is a very dangerous time. It selects for founders with fundraising skills that vastly outstrip their passion to wrestle with a problem and actually start solving it before they raise.

7/ It also creates conditions where VCs that ask tough questions are disadvantaged. Short term easy, but long term iffy.

8/ Finally, it perpetuates a delusion that building a startup is riskless - or, at least, that efforts to gradually de-risk are foolish and it would be better to plunge in guns blazing.

9/ Too many startups today are effectively Private SPACs: Shells of a team, hints of a concept, but beautifully packaged up for investor consumption - and hoping they might stumble upon an opportunity worthy of their efforts, time, and capital.

10/ In some cases, the strategy will work and yield a great outcome. But the barriers to entry here are deceptively low...