The Next 10 Years Will Be Great For Both Founders And VCs
William Quigley – May 8, 2011
Reprinted from Tech Crunch
Earlier this week I issued a report about the positive changes that have recently taken place in the venture capital industry. These changes are profound and will have a lasting effect on both the venture capital asset class as well as today’s start-ups.
Much has been written about the so-called “golden age” of venture capital in the late 1990s dot-com era, when the likes of Netscape, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay were created.
Yes, those certainly were great times for founders and early stage investors, but I will let you in on a little secret: for all of the brilliance, ambition and hard work that went into building these iconic companies, the vast majority of the capital appreciation in these businesses took place only after they went public.
To put it another way, the rewards for building a truly great business – say, the world’s biggest etailer or the largest online auction site – accrued mainly to the public shareholders. That’s right. The ones who went through all the hard work of logging into their E*Trade accounts and clicking the “Buy” button. They participated in over 99% (literally) of the value created from these brilliant entrepreneurs and their wonderful companies.
Now understand, I don’t…