Whose Lifestyle, Exactly? Mr. Dash has gone and written something rather wonderful about the “lifestyle business” euphemism.
Used by venture capitalists to describe businesses that provide a comfortable income to their founders without huge additional profits to hand back to outside investors, it’s often shorthand in the VC community for businesses they take a pass on.
And for good reason. In those scenarios there’s typically no space for outside investors to make a big play. But because VCs have broad influence, the term has taken on a wholesale negative tilt. And that’s unfortunate. Because what’s good for the VC goose is not always what’s good for the startup gander.