Venture Capital, Fundraising, And Sharing Knowledge
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What did VCs do before they became VCs?
Venture Capital is the driving force behind technological evolution since the 60s/70s of the last century.
Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, or Genentech wouldn’t exist without this source of capital.
Venture Capital became more prominent in the last twenty years, making almost all major inventions possible.
Most breakthrough technology needs a longer development time before it hits the market. It is the gap that venture capital bridges.
But, what is the career path of Venture Capitalists?
Are they former startup up founders who turned VC after a successful exit?
Or scientists? Or do they have a finance background?
Answers in this article:
What did VCs do before they became VCs?
Knowledge Sharing — The Role of Management Support
The first time I read about the knowledge economy was back in the 90s.
“Knowledge is a source that increases in value the more people share it,” was one of the beliefs back then.
And still, in the third decade of this century, sharing knowledge doesn’t seem to be the norm in organizations and society.
In my career, I experienced four forms of knowledge hiding:
Fear: due to complicated regulations like CDAs, NDAs, and other “special” terms in various contracts. When not sharing, no risk of breaching a term
Introverts: Not everybody runs around spreading all information
Hierarchy: Almost the same angle as fear. Why should an employee do that when the structure doesn’t incentivize sharing outside the hierarchy?
Lack of appraisal: When an employee experiences that others get the praise after frequent sharing of knowledge, at some point in time they just stop sharing
What can management do to encourage knowledge sharing? Here are some thoughts in this article:
Creating a Culture to Avoid Knowledge Hiding Within an Organization: The Role of Management Support
Venture Capital — Quo Vaids in 2022?
The last 12 months in investing were surprising. I don’t know a better term.
Last year in September, it looked like the party was continuing. The Pandemic seemed to end and many people — me included — expected the world to return to the old normal.
Free global world — free travel — and free trade.
12 months later, the world is nowhere close to that.
Russia and Nato are basically in a proxy war in Ukraine.
Inflation is skyrocketing, and prices don’t seem to stop rising.
Central Banks are raising interest rates, but as long as the root causes of Inflation are not resolved, not much will change. Inflation is mostly driven by soaring energy prices and continued supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Early 2022 famous venture firms like Y-Combinator or Sequoia have issued warning letters to their startup founders:
“The going gets rough, tidy up the ship and stretch the capital reach as long as possible” were the marching orders.
Layoffs were the result in Q2/Q3 2022.
Where is the US VC market heading? How much dry powder is in funds, and will they deploy capital into companies?
Here is the market perspective of Pitchbook:
Q2 2022 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor | PitchBook
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September 28, 04:00 pm CET - Brian Feroldi - Why the Stock Market Always Goes Up
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October 19, 03:00 pm CET - Sebastian Mallaby - The Power Law - A Brief History of Venture Capital
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#86: Tobias Silberzahn - What is the State of Health & Wellbeing in Europe
E97: SPAC updates, public/private market overview, Putin's end game & more
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