Is there anywhere a list of investors who called Zynga a "big deal" two-three years earlier?
- Michael Arrington
- Kleiner Perkins partner Bing Gordon
- John Doerr
- Fred Wilson
The NYT ("Will Zynga Become the Google of Games?") and San Francisco Chronicle ("[Pincus] was indisputably farsighted in recognizing the opportunity") are also on the list.
Sheryl Sandberg and Business Insider are named as well, but the quotes attributed to them don't seem to be in the same league.
1. http://valleywag.gawker.com/heres-everyone-who-hyped-zynga-b...
To be fair to them all, it reads like a who's who of the VC world from Brad Feld and Reid Hoffman through to Andreessen Horowitz, Softbank, and Union Square Ventures. I'm not sure any blame could be laid at their doors though, it was an exciting and high growth company and that's exactly what they tend to invest in (and what gets celebrated the most around here on HN.. growth > profits, a "startup" isn't really a startup unless it's growing fast and all that, etc.)
But now we've seen. The question is whether we will treat this as a freak accident purely unique to Zynga, or learn something from it. First, though, we need to allow that discussion rather than just saying "just make your own company if you think Zynga was bad." Really?