Top 10 Tech Investing Trends For 2011. The Shape of VC Today - Blog | New Atlantic Ventures. The Shape of VC Today From its post-WW II beginnings to the mid ‘90s, small-to-medium size venture funds ($100m-$400m in today’s dollars) dominated U.S. venture capital. They launched much of the tech industry. Angel money was limited, and later stage funds were few. So VC was a bit like a prosperous gentleman: thicker in the middle, thinner at the top. Rich VC returns of the late 90s caused investors to pour in capital, producing the billion-dollar venture fund experiment, which was mostly a bust. Funds scaled down in the early 200X years, tried to get bigger, then were beat down by the 2008 financial crisis, or so I thought. Recently “Super-Angels” blossomed, fed by the Web 2.0 boom: companies can be started cheaply, and the most successful ones can grow value extraordinarily fast.
Surprisingly, in the last year the billion dollar venture fund has returned (more). Participation by selected established/big and small/new funds in hot web 2.0 deals. It’s hard to prove what works in VC. Everything You Know About Silicon Valley Might Be Wrong - Daniel Isenberg. Everyone knows about Silicon Valley. Or do we? The term is tossed about with élan, abused by public leaders, and touted by experts as a model, panacea, or Shangri-La of entrepreneurship. Headlines with catchy titles, such as “Africa’s Silicon Valley to be Unveiled in Nairobi” and “Kazan (Tartarstan) to Set-Up Innovative Ecosystem Similar to Silicon Valley,” are found in every major news source. The Next Silicon Valley, a website, has links to articles from 81 countries: Is it possible that “Silicon Valley-Style Entrepreneurship will help Ease the Greek Debt Crisis?”
But how much do you really know about the real Silicon Valley? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. And now, the answers. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. How did you do?
Marc Andreessen on the Dot-Com 'Bubble' - NYTimes.com. Corporate venture capital is roaring back. (Editor’s note: Robert R. Ackerman, Jr. is the founder and managing director of Allegis Capital. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.) Two years ago, I wrote a column for VentureBeat that warned that America’s innovation engine was running out of gas because American corporations had been slashing long-term research and development for decades and, in more recent years, investments in venture-capital startups. To turn things around, I argued, corporations had to re-invest aggressively in venture capital and rely far more on leading-edge startups for outside R&D.Today it’s a different story.
Last year, corporations invested $1.9 billion in venture capital in America, up 33 percent from $1.35 billion in 2009. Driving the trend is unusually strong balance sheets and a tectonic shift in where innovation now occurs – inside small companies. Startups, of course, are all about innovation and are much more efficient innovators. In addition, in February, EMC Corp. launched EMC Ventures. Progress On The Startup Visa Movement. Yesterday there was solid progress on the Startup Visa Movement – specifically making it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to start their companies in the US. The WSJ had a good summary article titled U.S. to Assist Immigrant Job Creators that discusses two formal communications from the Obama administration.
There are additional guidelines listed in detail at the following links. New guidelines on how entrepreneurs can qualify for an EB-2 green card with National Interest WaiverNew guidelines on how entrepreneurs can satisfy the employer-employee relationship requirement for an H-1B visa (see the second-to-last question about sole owners)Implementation of enhancements to EB-5 immigrant investor program, including premium processingPublic engagement between entrepreneur community and USCIS to inform new training of USCIS adjudicators In parallel, a number of us have been talking to key people in the White House, including the amazing Aneesh Chopra, the White House CTO.
Interactive Map: The United States of Venture Capital - Venture Capital Dispatch.