Barbie turns 50 tomorrow. Here are a couple of videos we did on the famous doll:
Business of Barbie
History of Barbie
Barbie’s Biography
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WatchMojo NewsletterDid Venture Capitalists mess up Silicon Valley (and startups in general) as much as financial institutions destroyed Wall Street (and big companies)?Think about it:
Silicon Valley unemployment is almost at 10%. Tech giants are proving to be as vulnerable to the downturn as any other firms, and laying people off, too.
While everyone seems to agree that startups should be a part of the solution, most will have an ever harder time raising money as VCs are hit with:
a) a lack of liquidity for their portfolio investments,
b) largely devalued portfolio companies,
c) limited partners unable to meet capital requirements,
And today we read about the reality that most VC funds are powerless to actually do the one single thing they’re responsible for doing: investing other people’s money. From TheFunded:
If you are pitching a venture fund, there are two critical pieces of information that you need to know before wasting time with meetings, diligence, and faux terms:
- First, has the fund made an investment in a company that was not already in the portfolio in 2009, and, if so, which company?
- Second, has the fund completed a successful capital call in 2009?
Is the answer is ‘no’ to either of these questions or the fund is uncomfortable discussing these matters, then don’t bother pitching them and move on. Why? Between the dismal exit history, defecting LPs, worthless secondary markets, and massive position devaluations, venture firms are facing an apocalypse right now. The whole concept of ‘venture capital’ as an asset class is being re-evaluated by accountants worldwide, and the outcome of that work does not look good for venture capitalists.
When the geniuses who screwed Wall Street and then moved to DC suggested the Troubled Asset Relief Program, I thought it was a sham and another chapter in the Decline of the American Empire. The result was predictable with anyone with a brain (banks would pocket the money, and not remit it to lenders in new loans), and to highlight why, ask yourself the following:
Imagine if the government took taxpayer money and gave it to VCs as to remove their troubled (crappy) investments, do you think that VCs would suddenly turn around and start making new investments? Nope. They’d simply try to camouflage the diapers they’re carrying under their kimonos.
