The desperation of some entrepreneurs is actually quite scary (especially now), and when it's mixed with transparent access to the gatekeepers and power players — it seems only a matter of time before an wantra/entrepreneur takes rejection and/or failure out on someone else.
"Is your family protected? Maybe someone close to you is an entrepreneur ready to burst. Concerned parents should avoid letting kids play in the vicinity of start-ups and other gang related entrepreneurial areas, such as Santa Clara"
How many delusional entrepreneurs have you met? How many have you met that have poured their life savings and dreams into an idea? I've met a quite a few in the few years I've been doing this, and sometimes the stress will make a person break. Entrepreneurs with big exists have been glamorized in the media like rock stars, and therefore startups (and the dream) have become popularized. Maybe John Lennon can write the soundtrack to the entrepreneurs worse nightmare.
While I wish I could agree with your mockery about this, I think you're undermining very real threats that sadly exists in this day and age. It's even scarier when you consider location-aware, real-time social services... It won't surprise me if you see more of this behavior as the economic squeeze unfolds.
Not trying to sound like a CNN report, just saying there are valid reasons for concern and caution.
Sorry man, it wasn't my intention to ridicule a valid concern about people who get stressed out beyond imagination.
I think there is reason for entrepreneurial people to be more open about the negative effects of the emotional roller coaster that starting a business is.
Please stop associating this with Arrington. Arrington was likely the "victim" of someone disgusted with his anti-Europe rhetoric (which makes you wonder why he was back there in the first place). This, on the other hand, could be something far more serious - we will never know.
I notice most of the commenters here assuming, based on the description of the attacker, that it must have been some guy who wanted to sneak into the conference, or something of that matter. As I have a bunch of friends who work in the world of defense contracting, I am lead to a different image in my head; the description closely matches what my friends tell me to watch out for in would-be kidnappers. You see, there's a real industry in high-end kidnappings/murders/etc., and with our crap economy the incentives just become greater with every passing day. You will never hear about it in the news, but kidnappings of high profile people and their family members is rapidly increasing.
We are at the dawn of a new era of organized crime. Be vigilant.
I think we have a rogue entrepreneur running around, driven mad by trying to get his product off the ground.