5/14/2005

The VC Business Has Changed

"Venture folks are fond of saying that they roll up their sleeves and work with portfolio companies. The reality is that, like most people, they'd rather not. As is superficially rational, they'd prefer to have a fully-formed company -- team, technology, market, and traction -- than have something missing in any of those key pieces.

Fair enough, but here's the problem: Almost everywhere in the U.S., Canada, and Europe other than Silicon Valley (and maybe Boston) that's a pipe dream...

Why? Because the venture business has changed. In most places you can't simply hang out a shingle and hope fully-former venture-fundable teams trip through the door way. And in the few places where that is the case, the amount of capital floating around is such that the investment immediately turns into an auction and the venture guy demonstrates dumbth by being forced to over-pay for the privilege of investing...

Read more in this excellent post from Infectious Greed.