HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from Venture Capital - Silicon Valley Ponzi Scheme - Chamath Palihapitiya Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Venture Capital - Silicon Valley Ponzi Scheme - Chamath Palihapitiya

MAK - Mudassir Akber Khan
Interviews
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this interview1 month2020–2023 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited in threads about startups, VC and private equity as an insider's description of how VC economics work, though commenters note he is self-serving.

A 13-minute clip from This Week in Startups in which Chamath Palihapitiya describes venture capital as a Ponzi-like scheme driven by fees and inflated valuations among VCs.

“This video is a good explanation of how the VC world actually works.” (HN, 2020)

1 recommendations · 5 citations · Interviews

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@nowherebeen Dec 2020 Recommends
on HN thread How to Start a Startup (2014)
> all this money and all this failure, its going to end badly, these investors are gonna get burnt No, I think all these startups employees with families to feed are going to be out of a job. VCs fund startups that shouldn’t have been funded in the first place. They create a market that artificially props up unsustainable businesses. This video is a good explanation of how the VC world actually works. [this video]
Explains how the VC world actually works

Citations, criticism and jokes

@Reedx Jan 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100
It seems that a lot of VC is a multivariate ponzi scheme of sorts, which might explain some of it. If they're making fees regardless, then they just need to show/push fast initial growth to attract more layers of investment and it doesn't necessarily need to make long term sense. Chamath Palihapitiya describes this here: [this video]
Chamath describes VC as Ponzi-like fee scheme
@cryptica Sep 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Fuck You Startup World (2016)
Let's not ignore the 'minor' detail that the entire space is a ponzi scheme to begin with (coming from Chamath Palihapitiya; a billionaire who was one of the first Facebook employees): [this video] And let's not ignore that the entire financial system within which this ponzi scheme operates is also a giant ponzi scheme: [link] So the startup world is literally a ponzi scheme within a ponzi scheme.
Cited as evidence that startup world is a Ponzi scheme
@jiveturkey Jun 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Amundi warns that parts of private equity market resemble ‘Ponzi schemes’
Not a new understanding. Chamath Palihapitiya talked about this in 2019, and others before then although I don't have references. [this video] Warning, video is self-serving but simplistically, this is part of it. To be clear, the VCs understand what they are doing. They aren't fleecing themselves.
Chamath discussed this in 2019, with a self-serving caveat
@stillwithit Nov 2023 Cites it
on HN thread More on Sam Altman's Ouster from OpenAI
Yeh he was setting up another funding funnel MS -> OpenAI -> his AI chips [this video] Make it appear on paper like there’s proper separation of concerns but really building a web to form monopoly with MS’s backing because they can’t get in trouble if some startup is doing it. Just more shell company games to play the system, screw everyone else by using their churches to claim dominion over all of tech. These guys are too obvious now. The elders who don’t know better are dying off leaving behind a more technically literate voter base.
Linked alongside claim about Altman's circular funding funnel

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close