article thumbnail

Why The Government is Isn’t a Bigger Version of a Startup

Steve Blank

Indeed, Silicon Valley was born as a center for weapon systems development and its software and silicon helped end the Cold War. As there was no venture capital, these early startups were funded by early sales to weapon systems prime contractors and subcontractors.

article thumbnail

A Venture Capital History Perspective From Jack Tankersley

Feld Thoughts

In January, Jerry Neumann wrote a long and detailed analysis of his view of the VC industry in the 1980’s titled Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980’s. For example, my firm at the time, Continental Illinois Venture Corporation, the wholly owned SBIC of Chicago’s Continental Bank, had many successful investments.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Is Going for Rapid Growth Always Good? Aren’t Startups So Much More?

Both Sides of the Table

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. The constraint between good ideas and growth operates in both directions. And the wrong message is frankly strewn all over Silicon Valley.

article thumbnail

Vietnam venture capital – potential unlocked

VC Cafe

Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has shared a circular (a regulatory document, in Vietnam speak) for improving the legal environment for venture capital investing in the Socialist state. The VCs operating in Vietnam since the early 2000s are: Mekong Capital , IDG Ventures Vietnam, Dragon Capital and DFJ Vina Capital.

Vietnam 60
article thumbnail

How to Get Superior Returns in Venture Capital

David Teten

Most of the other VC firms with a history of picking unicorns have significantly benefited from being based in Silicon Valley, having much larger investment teams, and having multi-decade Tier-1 reputations, which has led to them seeing most of the best deals in the market. – Quantitative investing. – Internal diversity.

article thumbnail

How to Get Superior Returns in Venture Capital

David Teten

Most of the other VC firms with a history of picking unicorns have significantly benefited from being based in Silicon Valley, having much larger investment teams, and having multi-decade Tier-1 reputations, which has led to them seeing most of the best deals in the market. – Quantitative investing. – Internal diversity.

article thumbnail

Venture Capital Funding and the Sexism You Can’t Quite Prove

Up and Running

At the outset, it is worth noting that when it comes to the world of venture funding, I am a bit of an outsider. Until a handful of years ago, I didn’t even know what venture capital was, let alone anything about the complicated process of actually acquiring VC funding. I don’t know how it operates behind closed doors.