Slide 10: Preparation. Amen. Read the Board Materials and come prepared!

What is the purpose of this deck? I understand the frustrations of dealing with "professional" investors.

There is a underlying current at TheFunded of this immature glee at bashing venture capitalists. Some honestly hope and pray for the entire VC industry to collapse. That is all well and good, but some of our business cannot be bootstrapped or could only get so far, so fast self-financed. Hoping venture funding disappears smacks of a needlessly self-destructive over-reaction.

The unfortunate reality is that our companies often need capital. Traditional banks and debt financing only works under very narrow circumstances. Angel investors are an interesting route, but the conventional wisdom around here is that it is time consuming and not an overly productive way to raise capital.

Sure there are plenty of bad ones out there. Heck, I am about to write a review of one right now. I've had investors be late to meetings, cancel at the last minute, sit on their blackberry the whole time and out right lie to me. I've also met VC who listened attentively to previous hair brained ideas, provided sage and informed feedback and who have gone out of their way to open doors to customers, partners, investors with no obvious gain to themselves.

TheFunded is an excellent forum to level the information asymmetry that exists in the venture industry. Let's not let this place dissolve to useless and counter-productive VC bashing.

If the VC's were wise they would have money to invest in seed or series companies now. They do not have money because they have a herd mentality and invested too much money in too many deals that looked the same. It is safe to invest in a look alike deal if the guy down the street invested in a similar company. No one is bashing the VC's. People are stating the current reality. The VC's blew it. They spent their money and can't liquidate their investments. No IPO's. No M&A's. Perhaps if they had been so greedy and screwed over the little investors with disasters like Ariba there would still be a market for IPO's. No one is praying for the VC industry to collapse. Companies are praying for some WISE people to run the VC firms. Not reactionary fools. I call them fools because they can't find a chair and the music has stopped. They are not the sage and wise individuals that they would have us believe during boom times. Rather they are opportunistic and clueless. The VC math is broken because they have to make huge bets to be successful to cover the bad bets they make most of the time. The math is broken because they want people with track records. They want these people so no one can shoot them when the company goes under. The VC can say that the management had a track record. If they are only investing in people with track records then the Nocye's, Moore's, Grove's, and Jobs of this world will continue to toil in a cube or worse sit at home collecting unemployment because their jobs have been shipped to Shanghai and Banglore and Hyderbad. The USA is in a world of hurt because no one is willing to look in the mirror and ask the hard question: how did we get in this mess. The VC's are doing the same thing that the govt is doing. Keeping failing businesses alive in the hopes that they will some how recover their money. The VC's did not invest in any semi companies to speak of ast year.

I'm for more VC bashing..

I remember reading about all these other startups back in the day where VCs were there to help seed early stage businesses, and became actively involved as part of the team, similar to another co-founder, to ramp and grow the business. To make this interaction meaningful, it would be a requirement for a VC to have previously founded a successful business, to have real understanding of what it takes and all the challenges down the road.

These days, all I hear from VCs is whine whine whine, telling everyone to come back when they have lots of revenue or traffic, the standard rejection for anyone trying to do something new. While the founder in a seed stage environment is mortgaging their house, running up cc's to the limit, working like a dog, and they turn around and have to deal with these lazy investors that only want some perfect deal to land in their lap is ridiculous. Maybe there's too many business people in the business that have limited experience or real world advice & support to help the business move forward so they're unable to really do anything even if they had the inspiration. Any VC that makes an investment and then just sits on their hands watching it & pointing out the obvious, without actually getting their hands dirty, is probably getting what they deserve right now, reap what you sew..

sense of humor guys

how did you critique lawyer jokes

I agree that V.C.'s are like lawyers when it comes to good humor. They are a necessary evil in this world, there are only a few really good ones, and their industries deserve the bashing because so few actually create value. Most just transfer wealth from others to themselves. But, like looking down on a plumber's smile while the guy is fixing your toilet, it's unpleasant, but you're happy to have them when you need them.

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/06/self-...

I guess I've been lucky. My view is more with kinflip.