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Comment by InfinityX0 | Hacker News Reader

One thing that may be awkward to talk about but comes up, here, is that my imagining of VCs were that of all rich people, even partners. I imagine Siegler is well taken care of a Techcrunch, but it seems "well taken care of" is a far broach from having the cash to be a Venture Capitalist. Am I misinterpreting the needs of such individuals? Is it possible he's just a one-off exception who has the cash to spend here?

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A VC Firm is just a company like any other company. Generally they are Partnerships rather than LLCs or Full-Out Corporations but they're still just a business and their investments (and the money they have to make them) are all assets of the company.

So you can be penniless and still be a General Partner at a VC Firm if the other partners choose to vote you in. In his case they obviously feel his experience and connections are of some value and are willing to give him a part of the firm to acquire that experience.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean – he's not investing his own cash here.

Apparently I didn't have clarity on the technicalities of a "Partner". Always imagined it as someone with a percentage stake of the company and/or here, someone who was also investing their own coin.

The investors of a VC fund are known as "Limited Partners" or LPs. They put up the money but do not select the investments, sit on the boards of portfolio companies, or generally do anything except collect their money at the end of the fund.

The managers of the VC fund are known as "General Partners" or GPs. They are the ones who decide on what to invest in, take an active role in advising those portfolio companies, and are paid a management fee as well as a percentage of the positive returns (the "carry").

So "Partner" doesn't mean anything, unless prefixed with "Limited" or "General".

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