At its annual meeting, the National Venture Capital Association was expected to announce Wednesday, April 29, an initiative designed to help reinvigorate the exit market amidst the most challenging environment VCs have faced in years.
Exits are the number one concern for venture capitalists, NVCA president Mark Heesen tells The Deal in Part 1 of our Behind the Money video conversation. Only seven venture-backed companies have gone public in the last five quarters, according to Heesen.
"At the end of the day, venture capital is all about returns," says
Heesen. "VCs haven't been able to deliver returns to their LPs."
The latest numbers coming from the NVCA show that the closed IPO market wreaked havoc on VC performance in the fourth quarter of last year, when returns declined across most time horizons. The trade group's data on the first quarter has also been disappointing: VC investment plunged to a 12-year low, and fewer VC funds were raised in the quarter than in any quarter over the last five-plus years.
More details on the NVCA's strategy for helping open up the IPO process were expected at a press conference April 29.
In Part 2 of the video conversation, Heesen talks about the regulatory environment under President Obama and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Watch the video for Part 1 below or download it on iTunes. - Mary Kathleen Flynn
Also see:
Why Laurel Touby really started mediabistro.com
Spark's Bijan Sabet on co-investing
Tumblr's David Karp on raising Series B
Iminlikewithyou's Charles Forman on selling virtual goods
Boxee's Avner Ronen on raising VC, competition, new features
For comments or suggestions about Deal Video, please contact
mwoehr@thedeal.com. Use the following embed code to run this video on
your Web site:
<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/Af3QCwA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="330" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
Search
