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3 Takeaways from the TiE-Boston VC Outlook Dinner
Wednesday Feb 2, 2011 by Eric Trickett - Strategist, VentureFizz
A favorite “must attend” annual networking event of mine is TiE-Boston's Annual VC Outlook Dinner. Not only do they serve fantastic Indian food, but they consistently produce a very high quality event in terms of the panelists, moderators, and attendees. Each year, it provides a great opportunity to learn about the current state of the VC industry in Boston and what lies ahead for VC’s covering technology, energy, and biotech in 2011.
This year’s line up consisted of:
Moderator: Mike Grandinetti, Managing Director, Southboro Capital
Panelists:
- Edward T. Anderson, Managing Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners
- Gerry Brunk, Managing Director, Lumira Capital
- Dennis R. Costello, Managing Partner, Braemar Energy Ventures
- Paul Margolis, Partner, Longworth Venture Partners
- Deepak Sindwani, Principal, Bain Capital Ventures
Here are three themes that consumed most of the panel discussion
1. The venture capital industry has become considerably smaller.
No surprise here, with LP’s being quite discouraged by the rate of their returns (or lack thereof) over the last 10 years, it has become much more difficult to raise funds. The capital efficiency of internet-based technology ventures has made it much more difficult for the VC’s to put lots of money to work. Entrepreneurs need less money to get their ventures off the ground, and VC’s are having trouble finding companies to make sizeable investments in. Hence, the emerging trend of the micro-VC firms. You will likely be seeing more plentiful smaller bets being placed in 2011 and beyond.
2. It’s a great time to invest.
Ed Anderson of North Bridge seems determined to create some world-renowned public companies here in MA. In fact, if you’re an entrepreneur that is not looking for an IPO as an exit strategy in MA, then don’t bother talking to Ed. He’s looking for big ideas to create big powerful companies. His tone certainly conveyed renewed optimism as if we are currently at the bottom of a sizeable boom over the coming years ahead. “Economic data in our industry is similar to 1995. I feel it’s a great time to invest.”
3. Will privacy legislation stop the online and mobile advertising party before it really gets started?
The FTC is talking tough on the industry not doing enough to self regulate. If the FTC or Congress take a much harder line regulating behavioral targeting – this could be extremely detrimental to online and mobile technology ventures and put US based companies at a competitive disadvantage.
Just yesterday, in an effort to avoid government oversight and regulation, the Direct Marketing Association announced that it will enforce mandatory compliance with what had been voluntary privacy guidelines for all its members of the Digital Advertising Alliance. We’ll see if this will be enough to appease government’s watchful eye. This is certainly a critical issue to keep an eye on over the course of the year.
And lastly, no VC panel discussion would be complete without some East Coast / West Coast banter. Hopefully, more Boston-based VC’s like Ed Anderson can put this conversation to rest.
A huge thank you to Vanita Shastri, Executive Director of TiE-Boston, and the entire TiE-Boston organization for throwing (yet again) a great event.
Eric Trickett is a Strategist for VentureFizz and a Principal with Dissero. You can follow Eric on Twitter (@beantowntech) by clicking here.
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