VC's: a dying breed?

Another scary tidbit from our friends at the WSJ. We're losing not only partners at firms but firms themselves. And in what I consdier pretty large numbers: "The number of venture capital principals dropped more than 15% since 2007, while the number of active venture firms fell 13%."

This doesn't bode well for the startup world. We all hope that a new model will emerge for VC and angel financing, but we have yet to see what that really is.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/06/05/the-daily-start-up-the-revolving-vc-door/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

June 5, 2009, 10:22 AM ET
The Daily Start-Up: The Revolving VC Door

By Scott Austin

Timothy Draper, a founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is one of the most optimistic venture capitalists you’ll ever meet. He proved that on Thursday at the International Business Forum venture capital conference in San Francisco where, according to The New York Times, he said: “Very few of us actually know it, but the next eight to ten years are going to be the greatest venture capital years in the history of the world.” Pouring more Sunny-D into his half-full glass, Draper said he believes that in five years there will actually be more venture capitalists than there are today….

Perhaps Draper should read the story today in The Wall Street Journal, which chronicles just how bad the turnover is in the venture capital industry. The number of venture capital principals dropped more than 15% since 2007, while the number of active venture firms fell 13%, according to the National Venture Capital Association. The shakeout should only get worse over the coming years as firms fail to deliver the returns asked by their investors. We’ll have more details on the industry shrinkage later on this blog….