I mostly agree with this article from the Podcast NYC blog - killing podcasting one VC dollar at a time. I'll admit that I have a pretty strong hard-off for Odeo, because I'm still bugged at all the fawning "Oh, here comes Evan to save podcasting" bullshit with folks talking about how wonderful they were as a company months before they released anything. Even now, a year and a half later, I don't see that they have brought that much to the table.

My stand on VC money in any startup comes from years of firsthand experience. I worked for Web 1.0 companies whose primary business turned out to be getting VC capital, and the nominal business of the company turned out to be a sideline. I think after years of seeing VC money flow in, and zero positive outcomes from any company I have been closely associated with, I can boil this down to a sound bite:

VC money is to a business what chemotherapy is to a patient. You only use it when the recipient would die otherwise, and you have to be prepared that the treatment will wreak terrible changes and possibly be as bad as the disease.