Should a firm project a unified, inoffensive public identity or a distinctive, polarizing one?

Mike Cessario · Jan 20, 2023

If a product is truly loved by some people, it must also be truly hated by others; universal appeal is impossible and only produces indifference.

Anything crafted to offend nobody ends up being something nobody cares about either way.

0:00 20VC: Turning Canned Water into a $700M Media and Health Company, What Makes Truly Great Brands, How Founders Can Build Their Brand From Day 1 Today & How to Create Viral Content with Little to No Budget with Mike Cessario, Founder and CEO @ Liquid Death

Mike Cessario · Jan 20, 2023

Brand alienation is not worth worrying about; if a brand is truly loved by some, it must be hated by others, and the only alternative is indifference

The same way a horror studio doesn't worry that a kill scene will turn some viewers off — it is not possible to make something everybody loves, only something nobody cares about either way

Scope: on the extreme end you still have to be careful

15:52 20VC: Turning Canned Water into a $700M Media and Health Company, What Makes Truly Great Brands, How Founders Can Build Their Brand From Day 1 Today & How to Create Viral Content with Little to No Budget with Mike Cessario, Founder and CEO @ Liquid Death

Mike Cessario · Jan 20, 2023

Social media has made brands irrationally afraid of offending anyone, which strips creativity out of advertising

A couple of public complaints on a brand's social page now trigger panic about pulling a commercial, whereas in the 90s Budweiser wouldn't have cared about two people disliking an ad, so brands now aim for something that cannot possibly anger anybody

22:59 20VC: Turning Canned Water into a $700M Media and Health Company, What Makes Truly Great Brands, How Founders Can Build Their Brand From Day 1 Today & How to Create Viral Content with Little to No Budget with Mike Cessario, Founder and CEO @ Liquid Death

Harry Stebbings · Aug 24, 2026

The best brands make you feel something; indifference is the worst outcome for a brand

With Nike or Adidas, Apple or Windows, you feel something either for or against — 'meh' is the worst

74:56 20VC: Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee: Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone and Alfred Lin | How the SpaceX and Citadel Deals Went Down | What Sequoia Specifically Looks for in Founders with Julien Bek

Cyan Banister · Oct 19, 2020

A culture where a hastily written tweet can end someone's career is intolerant and miserable, and it silences people who share these views but fear being fired

Thousands of people message her after each backlash saying they wish they could say it but would be fired; policing thought and language means eventually everyone is condemned

27:58 20VC: Cyan Banister on Her Relationship To Money, Risk, Her Investment Decision-Making Process, Why We Will See A Reckoning in the Early Stage Market, Her Biggest Takeaways from HQ Trivia & The Future of Silicon Valley

Delian Asparouhov · Jul 29, 2024

It is better to say publicly exactly what you think, even when it offends, than to self-censor

It's what he'd say in private anyway; it may frustrate some but it helps others think differently or attracts people who want to work with someone like him

60:08 20VC: Twitter's Most Controversial VC Delian Asparouhov on Inside the Walls of Founders Fund: What the World Does Not See | Why Western Europe Will Be Like the Third World | Why SaaS as an Industry Might Be Dead

Julien Bek · Aug 24, 2026

There is no Sequoia house view on AI — partners publicly hold opposing positions

He can publish that services are the new software while David Cahn writes the $600 billion question and Pat and Sonya argue this is AGI

74:10 20VC: Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee: Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone and Alfred Lin | How the SpaceX and Citadel Deals Went Down | What Sequoia Specifically Looks for in Founders with Julien Bek

Julien Bek · Aug 24, 2026

A venture firm publishing conflicting partner views is a feature, not a bug — you cannot be bland and want people to seek you out for who you are

You want people to seek you out for who you are rather than be inoffensive

74:48 20VC: Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee: Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone and Alfred Lin | How the SpaceX and Citadel Deals Went Down | What Sequoia Specifically Looks for in Founders with Julien Bek

Hussein Kanji · Jan 20, 2025 · hedged

Being seen as too controversial or unpopular does materially hurt an investor, because people prefer to work with those who will cheerlead them

Nobody wants to work with someone too controversial, especially when things are going up and you want cheerleading

35:09 Being controversial or unpopular materially hurts an investor

Julien Bek · Aug 24, 2026

A firm that invests in spiky founders must itself be spiky

You have to be what you're trying to attract

75:05 Firm must embody the spikiness it selects for

Max Altman · Nov 21, 2025

Andreessen Horowitz's loud, splashy, high-visibility firm strategy was right, contrary to his early skepticism that only Sequoia, Founders Fund and Benchmark's model would work

He assumed the established quiet brands would dominate and was proven wrong

72:31 Loud splashy high visibility firm strategy beats quiet prestige

Mike Cessario · Jan 20, 2023

Negative social media comments should be heavily discounted because commenters are self-selecting extremes, not the mainstream observer majority

Most people observe silently without commenting; only fringe voices on either side take the time to comment, so a handful of negative comments against 10,000 likes is a good ratio

24:45 Negative commenters are unrepresentative extremes