‘Cash Is King’ As VC Spigot Slows
Recently, I came across a bit of good news that has brightened my day …. Venture capital has slowed!! Here’s a link to an article in a publication that I have come to view as very, very reliable (i.e., balanced and objective) source for news about the state of venture capital and private equity in general:
I’ve worked in both Silicon Valley (during the dot.com craze) and in the startup sector in Colorado, and, in my opinion, venture capital, as it has been first practiced in the United States and then spread around the world like a disease, has resulted in the ruination of our economy and in the displacement of true innovation. It used to be that only the most noteworthy ideas received funding; now, however, if whatever it is, as long as it can be scaled and sold to an increasingly dummied-down populace, it receives gobs and gobs of money. If it can be scaled and sold, it’ll get funded.
And, the battle against real innovation doesn’t end there. When a few brave souls actually do birth an idea that’s worthy of support, and then have the intelligence, maturity and tenacity to see their idea through and have it come to life in the form of intellectual property, the venture capital industry and its spawn (principally the big tech companies) attack it in an attempt to have the PTAB invalidate the patent protecting the idea. And, the folks in Congress who should be protecting these precious few innovators, instead turn their backs on them caving to the craven demands of the large companies that line these politicians’ pockets at election time.
So anytime venture capital and the nitwitery that supports it or that benefits from its largese, suffers, we should rejoice.
Ray Burrasca
Managing Partner