When I say unfair advantage, I am most certainly not talking about improper conduct. Whatever their motivations (and I suspect that for all of them the motivations are noble, but as I said, I gave up decades ago trying to figure out people’s motives), Feld/Suster/Wilson have made a huge contribution to the entrepreneur ecosystem in many ways, including helping entreprenurs understand how VCs think. That is big difference from 20 years ago, where most entrepreneurs found VCs to be difficult to figure out.

From a Michael Porter point of view, every company should be striving for an unfair advantage. As Hank Ace Greenberg, who was CEO of AIG for decades, said, “All I want in life is an unfair advantage.”

So the job of every strategist (CEO, Board member or whatever) is to understand his company’s strengths and weaknesses, the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors, and the nature of the market, and then to construct as many unfair advantages as possible. Warren Buffett, for examples, wants to purchase companies with deep moats. A moat is simply an unfair advantage. Coca Cola, due to its strength as a brand, has an unfair advantage.

What’s stopping other VCs is:

Most of them are not as smart as Feld/Suster/Wilson
Most are not as good writers
Most don’t have as much energy
At 11 pm at night, most of them are playing with their kids rather than writing posts

Certainly in some cases seeking an unfair advantage can be based on unethical conduct, as Microsoft has so aptly demonstrated. But it does not have to be.

Interestingly, Feld/Suster/Wilson do not seem to view other VCs as competitors. A lot of their blog posts are about how other VCs are so great. Me, I do lead generation for attorneys, there is one 800 pound gorilla (his name is obvious but I will not mention it) and I never talk about how smart he is. I am not going to say anything bad about him but at same time, I am not going to toot his horn.

Perhaps I’m keying in on one particular word too much, but I obviously feel its important (when you accuse someone of being unfair, it deserves attention).

In the Buffet item you cite as defense of the word “unfair”… a deep moat is most certainly not an unfair advantage… it’s simply an advantage. The moat was created thru brilliant strategy, precise execution, luck in some cases (i.e., when preparation meets opportunity), but not unfair business practices. And the existence of said moat — and the protection or fortifying of said moat — so long as is it done within the bounds of what’s available to anyone else attempting the same (and is done so in accordance with the rules and regs governing that moat), is not an “unfair” practice either.My point being, you simply cannot term what some do by creating and leveraging a platform “unfair” when everyone can — but may choose not to — do the same.To my point, look at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a highly successful VC that simply doesn’t do what the ones you cite here do… they have a Facebook Page with around 700 likes, and that’s pretty much it as these sorts of things go. (Dan Primack wrote a great profile of the firm recently for Fortune.) They have no celebrities on staff, they stay under the radar, and they do very well, as do hundreds of other firms like those Feld/Suster/Wilson are affiliated with. 

James:

While you may not see much merit in staying under the radar, many VCs do, and their results — as is the case with NEA — are all that matter. 

As for the “unfair” item, we simply don’t see eye-to-eye on this one. It’s still beyond my understanding how anyone can view creating and leveraging a platform as being an “unfair” advantage and not simply an advantage when everyone can exactly the same (it’s not like Brad or Mark are preventing other VCs from doing what they do). 

In your two examples – Ali and Stallman – no one is forcing you into the ring or contest… contesting and fighting are your choices. Were you forced to compete or fight, indeed, an unfair advantage could be claimed, but here again, no one is forcing anyone into anything… you’re simply objecting for reasons I and other reasonable people I suspect would fail to understand and agree with.

Simply put, blogging, speaking, authoring, teaching, presenting, etc., are not “unfair” advantages because anyone — at least anyone we’re discussing here (i.e., VCs) — can choose to do the same and no one is preventing them from doing so.