Travis Kalanick kicks off another round of VC bashing: ‘1% are helpful’
- ID
- 15798
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 20 Aug 2026, 5:48 AM
- Fetched
- 20 Aug 2026, 6:08 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/travis-kalanick-kicks-off-another-round-of-vc-bashing-1-are-helpful/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 20 Aug 2026, 6:08 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_founders
What happened
Travis Kalanick, now raising mega-rounds for his robotics company Atoms ($1.7B led by Andreessen Horowitz), told David Senra's podcast that only 10% of VCs 'do no harm' and just 1% are genuinely helpful, advising founders not to take Benchmark's money due to his 2017 ouster. He framed the founder-VC relationship as a chess master dealing with a chess enthusiast who drops in occasionally.
Why it matters
For founders evaluating term sheets, Kalanick's framing reinforces a concrete heuristic: treat VC money as capital with strings attached, and diligence the specific partner—not the fund—for operational depth. Malaysian founders raising from regional or global VCs should pressure-test whether a partner can actually contribute beyond capital, since Kalanick's '1% helpful' claim suggests most won't.
Discussion angle
What's a practical checklist for Malaysian founders to evaluate whether a VC partner will be in the '1% helpful' tier before signing—reference checks with portfolio founders, board behavior, domain depth?