This was a lecture to the MBA Entrepreneurial Finance Course at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business.
Here’s what happened to the Venture Capital industry:
- Intel, Microsoft and Cisco aren’t making money for their shareholders
- Or, more importantly, for their employees
- That’s part of the reason the best and brightest are now working in startups
- Big companies have lost their ability to innovate
- Their strategy is now to acquire innovative, entrepreneurial companies
- Google’s sweet spot for acquisitions is $20 million and 20 people
- Surprisingly, Google prefers to acquire companies that are “pre-revenue”
- Big companies are now the biggest competitors to Venture Capital funds
- How angel investors are different from VCs
- Companies are less successful when angels and VCs co-invest
- An easy test to determine whether a company needs Venture Capital
- How many companies a year actually need Venture Capital?
- Eventhough Venture Capital has collapsed, there’s still too much VC money
- The good news is that entrepreneurs have ample capital available