Hi GV, Barry G, re: local economy (part II)
Heard in Silicon Valley... I'm now hearing that VC's are rather eagerly moving forward with their investments these days, because they are trying to get deals and close them before the end of the year.
Apparently, the VC firms in the Valley tend to believe this particular market has suddenly created an opportunity for them. (This is in direct conflict with what SJMN said, but maybe the delta is because there could be a difference in capital levels between old firms and new firms - many of the new vc firms got bit by the dotcoms, according to a vc I know at a traditional vc firm.) Angel channels appear to have slowed down considerably, according to people I know that are on the boards of many early-stage startups who have high visibility in the angel scene. I hear the average VC deals are down to around $5M level (formerly was $16M), though there still are large deals. VCs are mostly interested in a specific percent of a business, the cash-level isn't always the issue with them.
In conclusion, the VC market looks good, Angel market looks bad.
I think that means industry innovation will start slowing down, and if so, this should start to get visible in about a year when one would expect to see new products come out, if the Angel market has indeed slowed up. One personal advantage to this is, our startup has to less to worry about what may be behind us.
The big picture though is, things may be too tight in the Angel channels, which really dictates what gets started in the way of innovation.
Regards,
Amy J |
