Well, not really, but with the stream of breakfast meetings, it sure feels that way!
I think I’m spending too much time with venture guys.
As I’ve written before, the venture business is struggling. There’s still too much money, funds are too big, there are too many professionals, etc. Big, name-brand funds have a hard time participating in the smaller, more capital-efficient projects (which is where the action is, at least in software). Things are getting a little better, but long-term nature of venture funds will cause the correction to happen in slow-motion.
I’m realizing I’m spending a lot of time talking to venture friends about projects that they (a) can put a lot of capital into (that may not necessarily need it), (b) incubator/hatchery/Y-Combinator type programs, (c) new seed-stage funds, etc. Some ideas are interesting, but I’m realizing these discussions are more about solving their problems.
Now, I’m not anti-VC at all. For the right project, venture definitely has a place. But I need to take my own advice: less time with venture folks, more time being entrepreneurial.
Really? They have too much money in their funds? I’m not experiencing that much in my area of the world haha.
When you state that these discussions are more about solving [their] problems … who is being referred? Fellow investors or the entrepreneurs they’ve partnered with?
Because if a fellow investor is seeking your advice for some issue the entrepreneur should have solved, then there’s a serious deficiency in rational insight and/or common sense among not only the investor but their promising stars as well.
Conversely, there could be a fundamental problem in their investment that dominates the conversation … as would any immediate matter someone is concerned with. On that note, you may be declaring a wary environment for the investment community; an environment that is becoming increasing more difficult to succeed in as more complex issues stem from the progress of the venture. I hope that’s not what you meant. I hope it was because your colleagues are not as shrewd as you. That would then spot a shadow of shame on entrepreneurs like myself who believe [anything] can be solved (for at the absolute least all that is related to what we are willing to pursue).
amen