Venture investing is the answer to the question of what would happen if you staffed a bank’s loan department with adrenaline junkies.

Well, no. When a bank extends a loan, it knows the upper limit on how much money it can make from that loan. It might make less, if the debtor ends up defaulting on the loan; but it can’t make more.

In venture investing, the upside is unbounded. The company might go to zero, but it might become the next Google; and the venture investor gets to own a fraction of that.