Monthly Archives: December 2009

Performance Of 2009’s VC-Backed IPOs Boosting Investor Optimism

Unless you haven’t been paying attention, there is definitely a change in sentiment in the tech community:

Going into next year, venture capitalists are feeling more optimistic about the chances of exiting their portfolio companies. Much of this optimism comes from the successful, albeit few, public offerings of venture-backed companies this year.

via Performance Of 2009’s VC-Backed IPOs Boosting Investor Optimism – Venture Capital Dispatch – WSJ.

Revamping the venture capital model – Crain’s New York Business

Typical criticism heard of smaller funds

Still, the Founder Collective’s strategy is not without risks. Most important, according to Mr. Greeley, are its inherent limitations. Because they're committed to making only small investments, it’s unlikely the partners will be able to invest in potentially lucrative startups in such cash-intensive industries as clean technology. “There’s a risk in not being able to include companies that require more capital,” he says.

via Revamping the venture capital model – Crain’s New York Business.

The Challenge to Search will come in the form of a Status Update #SEO #SEM #SM

I enjoy reading positions such as these.  It sounds like a big statement but is it really that far from what our expectations should be?  Not if you look at the digital analogs that exist today.  Finding information is important, but is that what will drive value online ten years from now?

Search will continue to exist, but we can and should build a smarter system to get collective knowledge from the web than that.

via The Challenge to Search will come in the form of a Status Update #SEO #SEM #SM.

Binary Pricing « Five Years Too Late

via Binary Pricing « Five Years Too Late.

A very excellent post on how the risks have changed in the online venture game, and how the economics of venture capital have adjusted accordingly.  The entire post is written generally but ends with a justification for RRE’s investment in hot potato, and some insight into the pricing of that deal.

In my view, the best possible deals from a pricing perspective are deals like the one we just did with Justin Shaffer called Hot Potato. We funded Justin at a seed round price because we believed in Justin and thought that traction would occur. But the price reflected the lack of traction (and even a launched product) at that point.