| Hi all, it's Eric. Venture capital is one of the world's most networked industries. But with the Bay Area on lockdown, many of tech's biggest investors are now physically isolated and sheltering in place, or in more rural locales. Isolation hasn't kept them from Twitter, though, where VCs have been variously quite alarmed or counterintuitively calm. Back when America was still wrapping its head around the coronavirus, angel investor Balaji Srinivasan sounded the alarm on Twitter, criticizing the city of San Francisco for its plans to host a Chinese New Year parade. Srinivasan got some blowback for his stance then, as well as his bristling at a reporter's straightforward request for comment. But now, similarly minded investors feel a sense of vindication. Managing partner of Bedrock Capital Geoff Lewis wrote that many people had come around to his decision to leave New York City during the outbreak, tweeting the evolution of his conversations: "Yesterday: 'Why did you leave New York?' Today: 'Where did you go and is there room for me?'" Lewis, who has been in "prepper mode for two months," said that while he was out driving, he swerved to avoid a deer: "Life flashed before my eyes, but no injuries. Life is fragile. Can't prep for everything." On the other end of the spectrum, there are the some who think the nationwide lockdown is overkill. "Am starting to worry as much damage is being done via social distancing destroying people's livelihood as actual virus impact," tweeted investor Elad Gil. Similarly, David Sacks, an investor at Craft Ventures remarked that "A panic is a fear bubble. We are in the middle of one." Twitter isn't VCs' only platform though. A meet-up on Zoom with reporter Casey Newton and venture capitalist Hunter Walk got trolled with obscene videos until they had to shut it down. Besides optimizing for their survival, most investors say they're focused on helping the companies they've already invested in stay afloat. "Anyone who has a portfolio right now is spending time on calls with their portfolio companies trying to figure out what this means for them," said Nikhil Basu Trivedi, a managing director at Shasta Ventures. "It makes it naturally hard to focus on new investing. Human reality is we're all worried about our own health—our own families." Long-time venture capitalists are leaning into their experience with previous crashes. "For people who've been through these cycles before, the financial crisis or the dot-bust, they're focused and excited," said Hemant Teneja, a long-time venture capitalist at General Catalyst. "For folks who haven't experienced cycles like this, there may be kinda a sense of underlying panic. Remember, many of the investors in our industry have only experienced the bull markets of the past decade." Benchmark's Bill Gurley wrote in a message: "This will be my third contraction as a VC. So I have seen it before." His firm's investment in WeWork has already faced trouble. SoftBank Group Corp. threatened to back out of its commitment to buy early shares. Gurley tweeted cryptically, "Reputations are built in hard times, not the easy times. If you shake a hand, sign your name—stand strong, or your word is no good. Otherwise you are a transient that only wanted the easy take. And you should move on." Now, for better or worse, we'll get a sense for how a lot of investors and entrepreneurs handle crises. Depending on who you listen to, there may be plenty of hard times to come. —Eric Newcomer | 
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