Newest Industry

Lots of inward-looking thoughts from some of the VC blogs that I read.

Jeff Nolan flames alarm:clock for claiming that VCs are greedy, soulless vampires [my paraphrasing].

A VC and Brad Feld comment on Paul Graham’s Essay, “A Unified Theory of VC Suckage”.

I wonder why so much attention is now being focused on the VC community? I kinda like them, as they have provided me with two very solid companies to work for over the last 6 years.

My opinion, not backed up by any facts or knowledge, is that there is a new bubble occurring, and people are already looking for someone to lay the blame on when it bursts.

The VC community, on the other hand, has learned a lot over the intervening years. To claim that they are going to let the madness that occurred 1995-2000 to occur again is highly unlikely. The bubble is occurring because there are smart companies driving smart ideas to people who are now ready to use them.

Now, whether the VCs will drive this bubble like they drove the last one remains to be seen. I think that the caution and conservatism (if that word can be applied to the VC community) that arose from the flame-out in 2000-2001 will see more firms driving their own success through the methods seen in Paul Graham’s other essay, “How to Start a Startup”.