Michael Dempsey

Michael Dempsey (Compound): 'Dear VCs, Just Give Up'

Compound's Michael Dempsey explains the genesis of his satirical essay 'Dear VCs, Just Give Up,' written during the firm's writing week (an essay a day from every team member), arguing that investing is supposed to be hard and that VC existential dread stems from echo chambers and 'model collapse' in tech conviction. He details Compound's thesis-driven, research-first approach — multi-step, second- and third-order projections now that ChatGPT has commoditized paper explanations — and his band-of-outcomes view on price, including sitting out 18 months after raising in 2021. He also covers how he communicates that patience to LPs and the founder traits he backs: high learning rate, competency at the edges of the industry, and storytelling.

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