When do VCs make mistakes?

Sort of related/unrelated: But I had this thought about traction:

Wall Street is often blamed for encouraging short-term thinking as it is driven by results from one quarter to the next. And since incentive schemes for top employees are often connected to stock price you end up with short-term strategic thinking.

The same way I think that VCs and angel investors in startups, with their relentless focus on traction, push entrepreneurs towards a particular class of products, one that lead to dramatic growth. But that also leads to, I think, short term thinking by entrepreneurs. And so you see a lot of social photo-sharing mobile local stuff. Hockey-stick here I come.

But just as easy it was for these entrepreneurs to get dramatic growth in that space one has to think that others will come later and experience the same.

I think that actually slow-growth in a company, building barriers to entry, switching costs, relationships with players in the ecosystem might lead to more sustainable meaningful business than the ephemeral satisfaction of rapid growth.

I guess, easy come, easy go.