The venture capital circle is sick: do more, brag less.

Recently, I don't really like the culture in the venture capital circle: it lacks a down-to-earth attitude and is overly eager for instant success.

I find many things rather superficial, yet they take up a huge amount of our attention for a long time.

For example, Manus has been extremely popular recently. The company boasts strong product competitiveness and great development potential. But in terms of corporate culture, I don't appreciate its way of doing things, as I think it is overly keen on hype.

Let me talk about a few incidents.

The first one is that it recently launched new products, Manus 2.0 and an intelligent agent application called Cue, which have gained enormous popularity.

This popularity is rather strange. A product that is not even launched in the Chinese mainland is being promoted so vigorously here. What is the purpose behind it?

No matter how well you promote it, you can barely gain many new customers. So what are you aiming for? Are you trying to hook a top-tier buyer? Do you hope that the next Meta will acquire your company, or are you trying to attract another investor to inject capital into you?

Official release of Manus 2.0 Source: Manus's official X account

Let's talk about another incident. In September, there were rumors that Manus planned to raise 500 million US dollars in financing.

I think this kind of news can be released, but it should be kept within appropriate limits.

If your financing is successfully closed, it will be a very positive investment signal that can inspire readers; but if the deal is not yet done, shouldn't you keep a low profile?

You can list all your potential investors in one Excel sheet, so why bother coming out to attract public attention?

The rise of Manus is also quite interesting: it is said that its test code was once speculated to sell for as high as 100,000 yuan.

Do you believe that? I certainly don't.

If making money is that easy, you could just sell the test codes professionally. With 100,000 test codes, your revenue would reach 10 billion yuan. This business has far lower risks than selling the company to META.

What's the point of promoting this kind of news that has a high price but no actual real demand?

At that time, the whole industry could see that the Manus team kept forwarding and recommending its product in various venture capital communities one after another, which was essentially typical cold start marketing and hype creation.

Later came the news that Manus was sold to Meta. I think the company could also be more down-to-earth.

The acquisition agreement was signed, but before regulatory reviews and other procedures were completed, overwhelming hype campaigns were launched. In the end, the deal was vetoed, the transaction was completely cancelled, and the whole thing ended in an awkward situation — why not avoid making overstated claims and focus more on practical work?

Of course, what I said above is not targeting Manus.

Objectively speaking, Manus is a pretty excellent company. More than half of my friends on WeChat Moments admire it, and recognize its strong product capability and innovation capacity.

Cue, the personal intelligent agent application launched by Manus Source: Manus Official

In addition, the "eagerness for quick success culture" in the venture capital circle is also reflected in many other aspects.

Take the robotics industry as an example — the problem of order fraud. It is no different from the fake transaction brushing practices of Taobao stores in the past.

The two parties make an agreement: you buy my product A, and I buy your product B, so that both of our revenues double at the same time.

In fact, this does no good to economic development, technological breakthroughs or market application. On the contrary, it pollutes the innovation culture and makes people think there are shortcuts to starting a business.

Structure of winning robotics bids in the first half of 2026 Source: Sorted from publicly disclosed bid-winning data

1.7 billion yuan of orders in the robotics industry vs 90 billion yuan of financing (a gap of more than 52 times)

Now 99% of industries are extremely short of capital. Only 1% of industries have abundant capital. Instead of using these funds to make breakthroughs in high-precision cutting-edge technologies and benefit the whole industry and society, people are keen on engaging in capital operations.

I think this kind of culture will not lead to a good ending.

It is of course great if the company luckily succeeds, but if it fails, it will be held accountable afterwards and have to bear the bad consequences.

I am actually very confused — what I am talking about today are all common sense principles that most people understand.

Since everyone understands that, why are so many people willing to join these game rules and become their accomplices?

I think when any market is overheated, some dissenting voices are needed.

When I was in primary school, there were four big characters hanging on the classroom blackboard: seeking truth from facts.

I feel that these four words are exactly what the venture capital circle needs most at the moment.

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This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), authored by Pencil News, and authorized for release by 36Kr.