Steve Lisson Austin TX Stephen N. Lisson Austin Texas
Steve Lisson Austin TX Stephen N. Lisson Austin Texas
2014
VALLEY TALK
Behind the VC Music
FORTUNE
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
By Mark Gimein
Stephen Lisson is not a conventionally likable guy. On more
than one occasion, he's implied that I'm the single stupidest
reporter he's ever talked to. He has kept me on the phone for
hours at a time listening to the most arcane statistics, until I've
slammed down the phone in frustration. He calls people who
disagree with him "lickspittles." He dismisses many of the
visitors to his Website as "parasites."
And yet over the past few months I have repeatedly gone back to
Lisson and his new Website, InsiderVC.com, because Lisson has
the best data out there about venture capital, and often the most
interesting things to say about it.
Venture capitalists are the rock stars du jour of the financial
world, a species of money managers who are believed capable of
superhuman wisdom. Business magazines tend to assume that
the richer you are, the smarter you must be, and the Internet
boom has lavished untold riches on the venture capitalists who
invested early.
"Untold" is a key word here, because hardly anyone knows
exactly how great these riches are. In this way, venture-capital
funds are very different from, say, mutual funds. Venture
capitalists talk vaguely about "triple-digit returns," but even
successful funds tend to keep their returns a closely guarded
secret. And even when they do reveal numbers, they can be hard
to understand.
This is where Austin, Texas, entrepreneur and venture-capital
gadfly Stephen Lisson comes in. Through years of research and,
apparently, a lot of cooperation from a network of sources
willing to send him copies of the reports that venture-capital
firms send out to their investors, Lisson has gathered an
immense database of information about venture-capital firms'
investments and profits.
Lisson doesn't make all his data public--much of his information
is limited to subscribers, and he can be picky even about whom
he allows to subscribe. But what he's already revealed in the
public sections (for example, see: Database Example) of
InsiderVC.com is fascinating. Some of his data shows exactly
what you might expect. Benchmark Capital Partners' 1995 fund-the
fund that famously invested in eBay--has already returned to
its investors 38 times the money they put in. Investors who put
money into the fund that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,
Silicon Valley's best-known venture-capital firm, raised in 1996,
have already made a similarly spectacular return of over 1,000%.
But you'll also find that the 1997 fund raised by Hummer
Winblad, another venture-capital firm that has traditionally
received a lot of attention from the press, has so far returned
only 42% of its investors' money. That might be a decent
showing in any other era, but in the middle of the biggest
technology boom or bubble in history, it's not great, and not
nearly as good as some of Hummer Winblad's peers. (Typically,
venture funds distribute cash or stocks as the companies in their
portfolio are sold or go public. In theory, that means they can
continue paying out money to investors for a very long time, but
in practice, almost all of their profits are made in the first six
years of the fund.)
Even more interesting are the data that Lisson has gathered on
how venture capitalists value their investments. Venture
capitalists measure their own performance by an "internal rate of
return"--an annualized rate of increase in the value of their
investments. Often that'll be a number in the high double digits,
sometimes in the triple digits. Sounds pretty good when you
compare it with the typical mutual fund. But if you look at the
InsiderVC.com database, you'll find that funds claiming
immense annual returns sometimes pay out a lot less money to
investors than you'd imagine.
As of March 2000, Benchmark claimed an annualized return of
an amazing 279% for Benchmark III, the fund that the firm
raised in 1998. But wait a second! Lisson's data also show that
Benchmark III hadn't actually distributed any cash or stock to its
investors. That 279% return was based on a guesstimate of the
value of the companies Benchmark has invested in--companies
that, since they hadn't gone public, are notoriously hard to value.
One of those companies, Living.com, has already gone bankrupt,
reducing the value of Benchmark's investment from an estimated
$74 million to zero. And it's hard to believe that, with the Net
bubble bursting, Benchmark's investment in eBags.com is really
worth the $20 million-plus that Benchmark valued it at in
March.
For individual investors who don't have a prayer of putting their
money into funds that deal only with tech insiders, large
institutions, and foundations, analyzing exactly how much the
top funds make can certainly seem like an academic exercise. It
can all sound arcane, confusing, and dull, and if you are not an
investor in venture-capital funds, I don't recommend it as a
hobby or a business. But it's important that somebody do it.
First, because venture investment is the engine driving much of
Silicon Valley's technological innovation. And, second, because
it's important for somebody like Lisson to remind investors and
the business press that venture capitalists are not the gods of
finance they are often made out to be, but instead, very well-
trained money managers. Sometimes very smart money
managers, sometimes very lucky money managers, but
nonetheless, financiers who'll often make a lot of money and
sometimes, like the rest of us, flub it.
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NVCA Advocates More Confidentiality on Returns
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NVCA Advocates More Confidentiality on Returns
The Private Equity Analyst WEEKLY Page 6 of 7 NOVEMBER 12, 2001
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
NVCA Advocates More Confidentiality on Returns By Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam
Could it be a coincidence that GPs are getting touchier on the
issue of confidentiality of fund performance data at a time when
private equity returns are plummeting?
The National Venture Capital Association recently distributed
a list of suggestions for GPs to reduce unwanted
disclosure of information included in reports to their LPs,
particularly public pension funds, presumably to spare GPs the
shock of seeing their fund returns posted on a Web site or in a
trade press article.
Many state, municipal and local pension funds have fair
disclosure regulations, which, in the interest of transparency,
may require that the information be made available to the
public. NVCA's suggestions include entering into confidentiality
agreements with LPs and tailoring the data distributed to
minimize the "harmful effects of subsequent public disclosure."
Advocates for keeping performance data confidential
argue that the private equity industry relies on imperfect
information about private companies, which can be too
sensitive to reveal to the public. Also, they say that in the
absence of any standardized method of reporting private equity
returns, performance data presented in the form of IRRs can be
inaccurate and misleading.
President Mark Hessen of the NVCA says his concern is
that individuals (reporters, for example, or retirees whose public
pension program is used to invest in private equity funds) may
not be well-versed in the intricacies of performance data and
thus will get a distorted view of overall fund returns by looking
at quarterly reported returns.
'A quarterly perspective is not representative of the entire
fund,' he says. "We need to educate the public before we can
throw this information out there."
Still, some like Michael Smith, director of research at
Atlanta-based consulting firm Hewitt Investment Group, believe
that transparency is the only way for prospective
Sources of private equity fund performance data
Venture Economics, Newark, N.J.: A division of
Thomson Financial. Provides industry wide private
equity performance benchmarks. Reach the firm at 973-
622-3100.
Cambridge Associates, Boston: Provides private
equity performance benchmarks and consulting services.
Reach the firm at 617-457-7500.
InsiderVC.com. Austin, Texas: Provides performance
data on individual venture capital firms. Its Web
site is at www.insidervc.com.
investors to separate "the wheat from the chaff.
"This is a market that two years ago did not need new
quality institutional investors," he says. "Clearly that is different
now-if (VCs) want to broaden their appeal, the way to do it is by
making it more transparent."
NVCA's suggestions come at a time when GPs are still
smarting from California Public Employees' Retirement
System's decision earlier this year to post fund performance
data on its website. Calpers posted the IRRs of the 163
partnerships it had invested in since 1990, and had downgraded
some firms as "not performing up to expectations." (See Private
Equity Analyst Weekly, June 4, page 5.) A few months later,
Calpers yanked the returns data from its Web site, after receiving
complaints from its GPs.
So, how can prospective investors gain access to the
performance data of venture capital and private equity firms?
Some public pension funds do make their quarterly performance
reports available to the public as a matter of course. Others,
like Florida State Board of Administration, make information
available, if the public requests it. And then there are quarterly
benchmark numbers for the whole industry released by Venture
Economics and Cambridge Associates. (See table below.)
One source of fund performance data is the Web site
InsiderVC.com, whose founder, Stephen Lisson, has received
both brickbats and bouquets from venture capitalists for his
analysis of performance data and his provocative commentary.
His Web site provides performance data of hundreds of venture
capital and private equity funds including those managed by
New Enterprise Associates and Matrix Partners.
In an interview, Mr. Lisson declined to reveal his sources
of information. "The reason people share information with us is
that we are very discreet, and we are very careful about who
sees our information." Indeed, Mr. Lisson carefully screens
applicants before allowing them to subscribe to the performance
data contained in his Web site.
Mr. Lisson stresses that his data is not intended for the general
public. "My data is for insiders to improve their own game. VCs get to
benchmark themselves against their peers-it's a confidence level
thing," Mr. Lisson says. Mr. Lisson acknowledges that the VC
community could benefit from a healthy dose of transparency and
humility. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," he says. But he questions
the value of making public IRRs and interim valuations, which by
nature are based on subjective evaluations. "There should be less
focus on returns and interim valuations, and more focus on building
world class companies."
Copyright 2001 Asset Alternatives, Wellesley, Mass.
Steve Lisson Austin TX Stephen
N. Lisson Austin Texas litigation lawsuit lawsuits suit suits party
parties attorney attorneys lawyer lawyers pro se judge judges court
courts
Steve Lisson Austin TX Stephen N. Lisson Austin Texas
litigation lawsuit lawsuits suit suits party parties attorney attorneys
lawyer lawyers pro se judge judges court courts vexatious litigant
vexatious litigants
Venture Capital Financing Is Further Sapped by Events
STEVE LISSON, STEPHEN N. LISSON, STEVE N. LISSON, STEVE, LISSON, INSIDER, VC, INSIDERVC, INSIDERVC.COM
Wednesday September 26 08:57 AM EDT
Venture Capital Financing Is Further Sapped by Events
By MATT RICHTEL The New York Times
Already suffering from the dot-com bust, venture capital investing is
being further challenged in light of the recent terrorist attacks and
growing signs of recession.
• Search NYTimes.com:
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 Venture capital investing, the high-risk
financing of early-stage companies that has been markedly curtailed in
the last year, is being further challenged in light of the recent
terrorist attacks and growing signs of recession, those investors say.
The venture capitalists assert that the slowing of the economy, coupled
with an uncertainty about the public markets, is affecting all facets
of their industry, including their ability to raise new funds, their
decisions about which and how many companies to invest in, and their
expectations about when their existing investments will become
profitable.
Putting a fine point on the concern, the
National Venture Capital Association issued a statement today saying the
industry "is preparing for an extremely difficult economic environment"
in the next 12 to 18 months.
At the heart of the issue
is a question about how venture capitalists can expect to sell the
investments they make. Typically they take their companies public, or
sell them outright. But those so-called "exit strategies" are sharply
limited, said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital
Association, a trade group based in Arlington, Va., with 400 member
firms.
"We were already in tough times," Mr. Heesen said.
"What Sept. 11 did was make the likelihood of the I.P.O. market opening
in the next four quarters pretty unlikely. A lot of V.C.'s are saying
it might not open until 2003," using the abbreviation for venture
capitalists.
The investors say that as a result, they
must put more money into companies in which they are already invested,
making sure to keep them afloat until an exit strategy emerges. The
numbers on investments made in new companies bear that out: this year,
venture capitalists will invest about $50 billion in start-up companies,
Mr. Heesen said, compared with $105 billion last year.
Still, venture capitalists point out that this market appears to be so
difficult because this year is being compared with the two years
previous, which were anomalies, with exorbitant returns being driven by
the dot-com boom, and the expansion of the public markets.
Steve Lisson, editor and publisher of InsiderVC.com, said recent events
were reminiscent of the time around the gulf war, when the industry had
its last downturn. At that time, the ability to attract capital to
invest in start-ups "fell off dramatically," but he said the industry
bounced back within several years to have the "best period in its
history."
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VALLEY TALK
Behind the VC Music
FORTUNE
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
By Mark Gimein
Stephen Lisson is not a conventionally likable guy. On more
than one occasion, he's implied that I'm the single stupidest
reporter he's ever talked to. He has kept me on the phone for
hours at a time listening to the most arcane statistics, until I've
slammed down the phone in frustration. He calls people who
disagree with him "lickspittles." He dismisses many of the
visitors to his Website as "parasites."
And yet over the past few months I have repeatedly gone back to
Lisson and his new Website, InsiderVC.com, because Lisson has
the best data out there about venture capital, and often the most
interesting things to say about it.
Venture capitalists are the rock stars du jour of the financial
world, a species of money managers who are believed capable of
superhuman wisdom. Business magazines tend to assume that
the richer you are, the smarter you must be, and the Internet
boom has lavished untold riches on the venture capitalists who
invested early.
"Untold" is a key word here, because hardly anyone knows
exactly how great these riches are. In this way, venture-capital
funds are very different from, say, mutual funds. Venture
capitalists talk vaguely about "triple-digit returns," but even
successful funds tend to keep their returns a closely guarded
secret. And even when they do reveal numbers, they can be hard
to understand.
This is where Austin, Texas, entrepreneur and venture-capital
gadfly Stephen Lisson comes in. Through years of research and,
apparently, a lot of cooperation from a network of sources
willing to send him copies of the reports that venture-capital
firms send out to their investors, Lisson has gathered an
immense database of information about venture-capital firms'
investments and profits.
Lisson doesn't make all his data public--much of his information
is limited to subscribers, and he can be picky even about whom
he allows to subscribe. But what he's already revealed in the
public sections (for example, see: Database Example) of
InsiderVC.com is fascinating. Some of his data shows exactly
what you might expect. Benchmark Capital Partners' 1995 fund-the
fund that famously invested in eBay--has already returned to
its investors 38 times the money they put in. Investors who put
money into the fund that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,
Silicon Valley's best-known venture-capital firm, raised in 1996,
have already made a similarly spectacular return of over 1,000%.
But you'll also find that the 1997 fund raised by Hummer
Winblad, another venture-capital firm that has traditionally
received a lot of attention from the press, has so far returned
only 42% of its investors' money. That might be a decent
showing in any other era, but in the middle of the biggest
technology boom or bubble in history, it's not great, and not
nearly as good as some of Hummer Winblad's peers. (Typically,
venture funds distribute cash or stocks as the companies in their
portfolio are sold or go public. In theory, that means they can
continue paying out money to investors for a very long time, but
in practice, almost all of their profits are made in the first six
years of the fund.)
Even more interesting are the data that Lisson has gathered on
how venture capitalists value their investments. Venture
capitalists measure their own performance by an "internal rate of
return"--an annualized rate of increase in the value of their
investments. Often that'll be a number in the high double digits,
sometimes in the triple digits. Sounds pretty good when you
compare it with the typical mutual fund. But if you look at the
InsiderVC.com database, you'll find that funds claiming
immense annual returns sometimes pay out a lot less money to
investors than you'd imagine.
As of March 2000, Benchmark claimed an annualized return of
an amazing 279% for Benchmark III, the fund that the firm
raised in 1998. But wait a second! Lisson's data also show that
Benchmark III hadn't actually distributed any cash or stock to its
investors. That 279% return was based on a guesstimate of the
value of the companies Benchmark has invested in--companies
that, since they hadn't gone public, are notoriously hard to value.
One of those companies, Living.com, has already gone bankrupt,
reducing the value of Benchmark's investment from an estimated
$74 million to zero. And it's hard to believe that, with the Net
bubble bursting, Benchmark's investment in eBags.com is really
worth the $20 million-plus that Benchmark valued it at in
March.
For individual investors who don't have a prayer of putting their
money into funds that deal only with tech insiders, large
institutions, and foundations, analyzing exactly how much the
top funds make can certainly seem like an academic exercise. It
can all sound arcane, confusing, and dull, and if you are not an
investor in venture-capital funds, I don't recommend it as a
hobby or a business. But it's important that somebody do it.
First, because venture investment is the engine driving much of
Silicon Valley's technological innovation. And, second, because
it's important for somebody like Lisson to remind investors and
the business press that venture capitalists are not the gods of
finance they are often made out to be, but instead, very well-
trained money managers. Sometimes very smart money
managers, sometimes very lucky money managers, but
nonetheless, financiers who'll often make a lot of money and
sometimes, like the rest of us, flub it.
HOME | COMPANY PROFILES | INVESTING | CAREERS | SMALL BUSINESS | TECHN
© Copyright 2013 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission
Privacy Policy Terms of Use Disclaimer Contact Fortune
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Sitemap
Venture Capital Financing Is Further Sapped by Events
Steve
Lisson, STEVE LISSON, AUSTIN, TX, STEPHEN N. LISSON, TRAVIS COUNTY,
TEXAS, LISSON STEPHEN N., STEVE N. LISSON, STEVE, LISSON, INSIDER, VC,
INSIDERVC, INSIDERVC.COM
|
|
Steve Lisson Austin TX Stephen Lisson Austin Texas
|
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Selected Buzz Descending in Chronological Order
Selected Buzz Descending in
Chronological Order
-
| "You
are getting more exposure than you ever expected and I think you
are using it wisely. |
| Keep
it up!" - from the founder & managing partner
of a major East Coast venture capital firm |
|
|
| "You're
not overexposed, just listened to."
- from a West Coast counterpart |
-
|
|
Waltham's Matrix leading
venture pack on both coasts: Firm credits
discipline, insistence on lead role for stunning '90s returns
There are dozens of other fine firms
with great returns. But only one can be the best. People who run
endowments and foundations corroborate Matrix's reputation. The recipe
has paid off handsomely for entrepreneurs, too. |
|
Death Valley
The Bay Area is coming to terms with the
end of an era. |
|
|
The Un-Wild Bunch
The hottest VC firm you've never heard
of. |
|
Behind the VC Music
Venture capitalists are the rock stars
du jour of the financial world, but a new Website reveals that some
funds pay out a lot less money to investors than you'd imagine. For
individual investors who don't have a prayer of putting their money
into funds that deal only with tech insiders, large institutions, and
foundations, analyzing exactly how much the top funds make can
certainly seem like an academic exercise. But it's important
that somebody do it. |
|
|
The inside scoop on VCs
For those who measure their worth by
their investments and their stock holdings - pretty much all of
Silicon Valley - there's a new Web site that looks to be rivaling F**kedcompany.com
for sly, subversive attention. |
|
Day of E-tonement
Ouch. Investors feel the pain. This
market is a bear, and it could get meaner. Much was made earlier this
year of those triple-digit internal rates of return. |
|
|
The House of Pain
(Barron's Cover Story)
Ever since the IPO rocketship crashed
to earth, the pros have been asking themselves when, or whether, the
new-issue game will revive. If bad ventures henceforth go unfunded,
all the agony may have been worthwhile. |
|
|
Rumors of Benchmark's Demise
Greatly Exaggerated
For weeks, rumors have been
circulating in the VC community that Benchmark Capital's third fund,
Benchmark III, was in trouble, hit hard by losses in e-commerce
companies like 1-800-Flowers.com. The rumors reflect a
misunderstanding of how venture funds operate. |
|
|
From Y2K to dot-com bombs: The
year that was
Best-performing Sand Hill Road VC fund
award; Worst-performing Sand Hill Road VC fund award. |
|
|
Early-stage deals take center
stage as exit strategies blur: The advent of good times for
early-stage VCs and entrepreneurs as well
(Corrected)
The quality of many early-stage deals
and the size of the financings may actually increase. With valuations
down, the VC party is only just beginning. It's just that many VCs
don't want to admit it.
|
|
|
Bonehead Safari
Who's the Dumbest VC? One
reporter's quest to lavish this ignominious award. I doubted her
investors were laughing. |
|
V.C. Battle: East vs. West
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and
Matrix Partners are considered the cream of the crop among venture
capital firms, the kind of VCs that limited partners are fortunate to
be able to invest their money with. So compliments paid, we set
out to find out which was better. |
|
|
CalPERS tightens its grip on
VC
Observers were surprised by the move,
questioning why a venture firm would want to let one of its limited
partners play a more significant role, or to share its profits with
yet another partner. |
|
The thrill of defeat
TA Associates' Kevin Landry is in the venture business because it's
fun, he says. And to make money for the firm's investors and partners.
Few complaints there. |
|
|
For VCs the show is also over
(English text version)
When it's about return on investment
VCs tend to be vague and not afraid of 'window dressing', making
things look better then they are.
|
|
|
KKR's 2.8 Percent
Returns Hinder Raising New Fund
(Update3)
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is
taking a beating in the leveraged buyout business it all but created
and dominated the past 15 years. |
|
|
High tech's bloom has
faded for Paul Allen
It is unlikely that all of Vulcan's
Internet companies will be able to raise more money in the
future. That's not bad for Vulcan. |
|
|
Rivals? Not when they
see a good deal
It's common lore in Boston venture
circles: Where Matrix goes, North Bridge isn't far behind. |
|
|
Balance of Power
Shifts To VCs, LPs
However, just as the most sought-after
start-ups still command some power, top venture firms will still set
the agenda. The result of the new venture environment will be a
widening divide between the top VCs and start-ups and everyone else,
conditions that could hasten a shakeout in the industry. |
|
|
Venture Firms Seek
Protection From Price Declines on New Stakes
Liquidity preferences have been around
for 20 years and typically gain wider use in periods of declining
returns. |
|
|
COVER STORY: Venture
Capital - Climbing the Capital Hill
Falling
valuations are a double-edged sword for venture capitalists. Venture
firms can only maintain overvalued companies on their books for so
long. At some point, you either have to toss more cash at the
money-losing enterprise or take the loss. For the right VCs, however,
all the gloom and doom may actually turn out to be a blessing. |
|
Benchmark Rumors
Persist
Now the rumor is that the firm's
latest fund, Benchmark IV, is the one that's in trouble. No doubt
Benchmark is holding its share of losing investments from the Internet
craze. But so are a lot of other name firms. |
|
|
Financial investors?
Us? InsiderVC.com pierces the VC industry's verbal fog
Managing partners gossip endlessly
about the industry. |
|
|
As Start-Ups Fail,
Venture Investors Back Out in Droves
Financing: The stampede to put money
into tech has reversed direction, with some partners selling out at a
loss. |
|
|
Funds nationwide are
seeing red
Investors in Matrix Partners, a
Waltham venture group that is arguably outperforming everybody else in
the business, aren't complaining about the downturn. Yes, they may
have gotten an astounding 19 times their money back on Fund IV
launched in 1995. But they've also already reaped 12 times their
original capital in the 1998 Fund V. |
|
|
Idealab's Identity
Crisis
With only 40 percent of funds
invested, Fund II could be a hit or a bust, depending on how good its
future investments are. This explains in part why Clearstone wants
distance from Idealab. |
|
How to rate a venture capital
firm
Venture capital is like baseball
without the stats. There are great arguments about who's the best --
and worst -- VC around. But unlike baseball fans, those who follow
venture capital have scant data on which to base their opinions.
Until now.
As part of our annual Red Herring 100, we set out to determine
the top ten VC firms using the best metrics we could come up with. To
our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has come up with a list
based on more than a single metric, such as the internal rate of
return (IRR).
Before we get into each of the ten factors we examined, allow us a
brief explanation as to why we didn't include the most common metric:
IRR. IRR is a number determined by each VC firm, and although it's
bandied about frequently, it can be easily tweaked to make a firm look
like it's doing better than it actually is. It isn't uncommon for a VC
that isn't performing very well to inflate its IRR by counting its own
"carry," the money it makes from investments, into its IRR.
The only real way to know how a VC firm is performing is to look at
its disbursements to its limited partners (LPs). This is the actual
stock or money that VCs get from a liquidity event -- that is, a
portfolio company's IPO or its sale to another company. The only
problem is, VCs don't want to share this information. |
|
Truth in
Numbers
Deciding which VC firms
are great requires determining which measurements really matter.
Among our criteria, disbursements to investors may be the truest
indicator of a firm's success.
|
|
|
U.S. Venture Returns
Slipped In The Fourth Quarter
The
news wasn't all bad. Some top-performing funds that had "negative
returns" not just in the fourth quarter, but for the entire year,
actually distributed quite heavily to limited partners. Much of the
appreciation in such funds had already been factored into the IRRs. |
|
Good news outweighs bad for
Battery
Gone was the euphoria of last year, when
the Wellesley firm announced it was raising a billion-dollar fund. This
year the big money was expressed in paper losses.
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Fallen Idols - High-profile
and respected VCs weren't able to resist the Internet bubble. Now many
are paying the price with troubled funds.
Venture capital firms information about
their funds' performance, especially the current valuation of their
investments, point to a fund in trouble. While any fund raised during
the last few years is enduring tough times now, not every one is in the
same boat. |
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Redpoint struggling to crank out
results - Despite the VC firm's hyped reputation, first fund could be
running into trouble
Redpoint's partners are also still
managing their previous funds at IVP and Brentwood, several of which
were started in 1997 or later. And though these are what made Redpoint's
reputation, some of them are turning out less stellar than originally
thought. |
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Insight Capital raises $740M
software fund
Later stage investing can be far less
risky but also far less lucrative than other types of strategies. |
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Elite VC giants still investing,
if it's a home-run promise
Since the crash, 15 top-tier firms have
raised funds of a billion dollars or more. Many -- including Worldview
Technology Partners, Greylock, Austin Ventures and Oak Investment
Partners -- closed their new funds this year, well after most of the
market damage. The amount of funds raised since the crash goes
against the "drought'' thesis. |
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Matrix Partners raises $1B fund |
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Venture capitalists
lure entrepreneurs on board |
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How `Internet Bubble'
looks at the stock market now
Sequoia Capital |
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VCs left holding
worthless IPO shares |
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Venture firm plots safe
course
Morgenthaler Venture Partners |
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Summit Partners crosses
the pond |
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COVER STORY: Venture
Capital - Back to Basics
Firms that engage in stage creep are
asking for trouble. |
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VCs struggle to stay
fit enough to survive
Annex funds are not new. |
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Rates of return down for Hub VC firms
The reliability of internal rate of
return data is questionable. Moreover, it doesn't say how much
cash and stock a venture capital firm has distributed to its investors.
That is the real number that should be watched. |
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What's a VC to do?
Venture capitalists had better keep
investing. |
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Matrix bets on
wireless: In a weak economy, Managing Partner Paul Ferri's winning
streak is on the line |
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Boom Town: The
Next Tech Season Resumes As Sector Returns From Hiatus
Like the last downturn, some of the same
VCs now repeat their same biggest mistakes from a decade ago. |
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After dot-bombing, SBVC rebuilds
Softbank Venture Capital |
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Venture Capital Financing Is
Further Sapped by Events
. . . recent events were reminiscent of
the time around the Gulf War, when the industry had its last downturn.
At that time, the ability to attract capital to invest in start-ups
"fell off dramatically" but, he said, the industry bounced
back within several years to enjoy the "best period in its
history". |
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NVCA Advocates More
Confidentiality on Returns
(Corrected):
. . . acknowledges
that the VC community could benefit from a healthy dose of transparency
and humility. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," he says.
But he questions the value of making public IRRs and interim valuations,
which by nature are based on subjective evaluations. "There
should be less focus on returns and interim valuations, and more focus
on building world class companies." |
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VC Like Me: Local Firms
May Feel the World Is Against Them, as Investments, and Returns, Dry Up.
But Some Venture Capitalists Say Now's the Perfect Time to Make Money.
The
bigger risk is not that VCs will take on new projects in less lucrative
sectors. It's that they won't abandon the bad investments they might
still be carrying. |
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;)
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