"A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/technology/22venture.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

by jaydub • 18 years ago

44 9 18 years ago

rantfoil• 18 years ago

This is precisely the exact kind of trend and evolution entrepreneurs need. Rather than hands-off dumb money at crazy valuations and major dilution, young web firms need smart VC's who act more like angels than ever before.

fallentimes2• 18 years ago

And everything is so cheap. By the end of the summer, most of the YC companies still had seed money left. Bootstrapping is much more doable now than it was three or four years ago.

If I owned a VC firm that didn't do seed investments, I'd be worried.

hugh• 18 years ago

No you wouldn't. You'd just be focusing less on internet-based software businesses and more on biotech, cleantech, nanotech, and other hardware-type businesses.

skinner696• 18 years ago

I spoke to these guys a couple months ago and was very impressed. We aren't ready to take funding yet but they gave us some very good advice, asked excellent questions, and were generally nice people. I'm not surprised they are getting some good pub.

fallentimes2• 18 years ago

What's sad is how much money many of these VCs want you to take even if you don't need it. They do this, in part, to secure their ~2% admin/management fee, which they only receive for deployed capital.

amrithk• 18 years ago

Its impressive how they manage to juggle between nurturing entrepreneurs while still meeting their responsibilities to investors. Its a tough balancing act and a model worth studying more.

joshu• 18 years ago

Long term, VCs who do not nurture entrepreneurs will not find the good ones coming to them -- word gets around.

(And I'm speaking as one who has been through this with the mentioned firm. I like them a lot.)

steveplace• 18 years ago

Here's Fred Wilson's blog. He's a partner at USV, the featured company.

http://www.avc.com/

"A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms"

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