Back in Boston, MIT’s top faculty members are gathering with members of the alumni community, including Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti and venture capitalist Fred Wilson, who are both in town for Fred’s inaugural speech, to discuss the “situation”.
Bob’s recent metamorphosis from loving, principled entrepreneur to ruthless investor has taken the MIT community and the broader tech scene off-guard. As one of MIT’s top donors who started his startup on campus, he was particularly loved by the leadership team of the MIT Trust Center for Entrepreneurship who (perhaps prematurely) hailed him as a hero.
Bob was one of theirs, a product of their making and their answer to Silicon Valley –which was ironically shaped by three MIT alumni (Sheldon Roberts, Jay Last and Tom Perkins) who were part of the infamous Treacherous 8 and who went on to found some of the Valley’s most instrumental companies including KPC&B, Sequoia Capital and Fairchild Semiconductor.
Now that Bob’s gone to the dark side, the question that’s on everybody’s lips is what to do with him and his legacy? No one really knows if he is a friend or a foe.