[Zusha Elinson]
Gunderson Dettmer partner Ivan Gavira is “opening the kimono” to reveal Silicon Valley’s favorite clichés.
In a blog post entitled "A Brief Overview of Silicon Valley Bullshit," he offers some funny definitions for unbearable catchphrases used by every venture capitalist and entrepreneur.
This is my favorite:
“Reach Out/Ping/Circle Back” – No one around here can just call someone. You have to “reach out” or “ping” them, etc. I’m not sure why this is the case but … it is what it is.
So true. How many times a day do I get these nonsense nuggets of language from lawyers, flaks… and everyone else down in the Valley!?
I reached out to Ivan, a corporate lawyer who works with startups and VCs. In fact, I pinged him about the blog post. He circled back to me with this response:
The post was inspired by a blog post from this guy Matt Mireles who is an entrepreneur in New York City. In January, he blogged that he wished more startup lawyers would blog. In the comments, there was a lot of back and forth with lawyers and Matt made the following comment:
"My main critique is that your and other legal blogs like it are too technically focused and boring. The only reason I'd ever go there is to find legal info, which makes it more like a Q+A site than a blog per se. If you want me to actually read your blog, you need to get beyond narrowly focused legal issues and expose yourself more as a human being."
I thought that was a great point. I’ve written some blog posts in the past about legal issues, term sheet provisions, etc. but I’ve never gotten anything like the reaction to this blog post about the lingo.
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