A friend of mine is a partner at a large VC firm. He’s an awesome dude and today we got into a debate about this tweet:

.@fcollective is looking fwd to seeding great startups this summer while big VCs are on vacation spending their management fees less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone

I commented and then a few minutes later, my VC friend DM’d:

You don’t think Chris is taking a vacation this year? He has more money than many VCs (including me!). I’m working all summer.

An entire debate ensued between the two of us. Rather than give you the details, I thought I’d step back, abstract it at the high level, and then re-render our conversation as if it was a theoretical discussion between “Product Guy” and a “Marketing Guy,” re-told by the creators of South Park.

MG: Dude, you really need to change how you do shit. Your brand is getting destroyed out there by Other Guy.
PG: Are you fucking kidding me??? Our product has X, Y and Z features that Other Guy wouldn’t even know how to build if they popped out of his asshole and smacked him in the nuts. Our product is vastly superior.
MG: Interesting. So why don’t you say that on your interwebs blog site? I mean, you are an internet company, right?
PG: Dude, I’m so busy working on product, why the fuck would I waste my time on a silly little blog. I’ve got real shit to do!!!
MG: You know, Other Guy is killing you on his blog and raping you on the Twitters. Not that I believe it all, but I’m a total n00b when it comes to your product and despite all those warnings on the box, I actually do kinda believe everything I read on the interwebs. I mean, I’ve got no other good source of info. And Other Guy seems really smart and entertaining.
PG: Pttttfff!! You’re an idiot if you believe Other Guy. What a douche.
MG: Perhaps. But I’m not the only one. Most people don’t really understand your product anyhow, and you’re a dumbass if you actually think that people make decisions based on a rational comparisons of perfect information. The world doesn’t work like that, and if it did, well, I’d never get laid.
PG: I respect you less with every word you say.
MG: Hey dude, I’m just one man. Hate the game, not the player.

My message: If you’re a big VC and you’re tired of getting trashed by Chris Dixon, you should speak up and publicly make your case. If you don’t, you risk looking like you either don’t understand the internet or don’t care about it. Both are bad. So speak up. We’re listening. And we want to hear what you have to say. (Seriously, we’re n00bs and we get all our info from the internet. If you write, we’ll read.)