Well said. This is exactly what I'm feeling. The defintion of Angel/VC capital seems to have radically changed to the point where there is no capital doled out unless there is virtually no risk.

To # 1, Livu

Actually, it seems to be a natural progression. Immigrants to a country work real hard, their children go to high school and get good jobs, their grandchildren get into universities.

Soldier to merchant to artist, in three generations.

VC to mezzanine investor to participating lender, in two evolutions.

So .... assuming it is natural, it is incumbent upon us to know the process.

We all went to the Angels, starting 10 years ago, when VCs matured into third level investors.

Now the Angels have evolved into mid level investors.

That means it is time for a new layer to emerge and appear.

It will be some sort of small fund, expertise laden, start up specialist.

And that is where we go.

For those of you who have not gone to the Founding Members presentation on how he is leading one such charge ...

let me highly recommend it.

Inventive approach, dedication to the art and very flexible in its methodology. Adeo has some really good ideas.

I am not saying he has all the answers. BUT he has a good set of them, which are internally consistent in and among themselves.

After you see his preso, you can decide whether some or all of his ideas are "your cup of tea".

But as innovators, we have to be thoughtful as well as action oriented.

Since a large portion of TheFunded is in the Valley, some thought should be given to

a) setting up a series of presentations in the Valley - invites to TF members only
b) video taping all of them
c) making the videos available as downloads for us to go through on our own time (and place, if we are located in the Maldives).

best wishes

It's interesting that venture investing has become a sort of specialist-driven, high risk form of technology picking. A core problem was the move in the early '80's away from have venture partners who had strong experience actually building good companies - operational experience. SO today many VC's have no actual operating experience and really aren't positioned to provide relevant advice. So they are now simply playing the odds rather than trying to actively drive growth and development of strong businesses. Experience has shown that having real entrepreneurs spend time helping entrepreneurs build their companies results in a higher percentage of wins in a VC portfolio. The question is when/if the investor class will begin to demand that VC's have that experience of having to meet payroll... IF they do then I think that you will see a real restructuring at the early stages of venture investing.

To: carlwimm
Where can the "Founding Members Presentation" be found? And is there more from Adeo?

Thank you

to woodsmit

All questions to Adeo should be posted as such:

Dear FoundingMember (Lord of the Valley, Protector of the Poor, Defender of the Faith) ....... I humbly submit my question.

Adeo is very good about answering such questions directly. As he runs the Entrepreneur Workshops and Program, this is a subject very close to his heart.

best wishes.

Carlwimm, part of my pessimism (which is quite contrary to my nature) is due to the fact that I'm located in a region (upstate NY) which consistently lags the rest of the nation in supplying the various fuels that encourage entrepreneurial endeavors. So while I can appreciate and agree with the cyclical nature of what you're suggesting, I have to temper my eternally optimism with the reality of our geography.
This is by no means an isolated situation, but the somewhat glacial pace of change remains quite frustrating. As a hometown guy that wants to be a part of a rust belt town resurgence by growing a sustainable business, I always lament the lack of local progression within the local business community that either holds us back or forces us to take our ventures elsewhere.
(Scuse my rant, trying to post coherently while doing my best to manage a beckoning bottle of Merlot)

To Livu

These days, as long as you have broadband, less than 2,000 dollars of equipment keeps in touch with everything you need to do.

From anywhere. I reach people in 7 countries on a regular basis, working on a number of projects. I even spend the winter in a country with no tech entrepreneurial spine at all.

It no longer matters. The right people can be found worldwide for whatever you need.

The more interesting question is what is going to happen to places like the Valley when innovation can come from anywhere at any time.

best wishes.

I agree new models will emerge. My collegues and I have been working on a few.