Early Stage Investing is Back
It's not really news to those of us in the venture business, but the NY Times had a piece this morning on The Return of the Venture Capitalists.
It looks like this article was inspired by the second quarter Money Tree Survey from Price Waterhouse Coopers.
The fact that I find most interesting is the rise of seed and first round financings. Early stage investing is the heart of the venture capital business. So its a good sign that its back.
Does that mean it's too late again, since the media has picked up on this? ;-)
/p
Posted by: Pierre | September 02, 2004 at 01:20 PM
Heh, tough luck for me to miss out again.
Posted by: Jacob Pang | September 03, 2004 at 10:10 AM
I had always thought that the heart of the venture capital business was taking moderately successful technologies and business models and expanding their sales force and infrastructure so that they could go national. That is, taking a company that could grow organically and jumpstarting that growth.
It seems that early stage investing is too much of a crap shoot to really make money for investors. At least in the absence of a market that is hot for IPO stock.
Of course, early stage investing is certainly more exciting.
Posted by: Richard Tibbetts | September 03, 2004 at 07:01 PM
Generating seed finance in the UK remains a real problem for most who try it, with plenty of barriers and dead ends to overcome.
But I also think this is the key indicator not only of the health of the industry, but also to see where things are going.
Investing in tech companies doesn't have to be what it once was - entry points are very cheap, with global-sized returns possible for those that get it right. I wish more investors would take the leap, rather than sitting on the mounds of cash that have remained dormant since late 2000.
Really great to see things have picked up in the US...
c.
Posted by: chris lake | September 06, 2004 at 12:44 PM