{"id":20570,"date":"2021-06-04T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T14:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/company\/stories\/location-still-matters-primary-ventures-brad-svrluga-cornell-tech-bloomberg\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T23:11:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T04:11:54","slug":"location-still-matters-primary-ventures-brad-svrluga-cornell-tech-bloomberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/company\/stories\/location-still-matters-primary-ventures-brad-svrluga-cornell-tech-bloomberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Location Still Matters for Primary Ventures\u2019 Brad Svrluga (Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was the peak of the first internet bubble and Brad Svrluga was riding high. He had recently joined a friend\u2019s VC firm, the sort he now claims never should have existed in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was 1999,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they were doing great.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Working in venture capital after an early career stretch in consulting put Svrluga in the satisfying middle ground between hands-on operations and the intellectual challenge that consulting offers. After his first big meeting with one of the firm\u2019s portfolio companies, he realized that the startup would make serious changes to its strategy based on the advice of his colleagues. Svrluga was compelled by the role\u2019s potential for immediate real-world impact, which contrasted with the bureaucratic and slow-moving nature of consulting at large established enterprises.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Svrluga recalls a memory in which he and his partner shouted the exploding share price of a company in which they\u2019d invested back and forth across the hallway of their office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody would hit refresh and see it had gone up another five percent, and another five percent, and another five percent,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just seemed illogically easy, but I was 26. And then, everything just kind of collapsed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The firm kept doing deals after the dotcom bubble burst, but then 9\/11 happened and they knew the ride was over.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not just \u2018last call\u2019 anymore,\u201d he recalls. \u201cEverybody was getting kicked out of the bar and sent home…anything that didn\u2019t have a sound business model or a path to profitability was toast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Svrluga walked away from the crash with a few lessons, which he shared with Bloomberg Television\u2019s Scarlet Fu during an online talk on April 7, as part of the <\/span>Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg Speaker Series<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n