First of all, in terms of investment in Internet-related developments, venture capitalists - once burned - are now very cautious and are investing in areas that actually make business sense.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Back in the late 1990s, venture capitalists got very excited about the Internet. A whole lot of money was poured into some companies that failed rather spectacularly, and a lot of people lost a lot of money.
So many folks in the venture capital business are sheep that just want to follow the herd. They are momentum investors purchasing highly illiquid investments. That is a recipe for disaster.
I don't think a lot of people have been entrepreneurial about venture capital.
Venture capitalists buy minority positions in young companies they think will grow quickly; buy-out investors buy most or all of companies they think can be turned around by fixing a few basic things.
During dark times, real entrepreneurs come out. They are not competing with 10 look-alike companies for engineering talent, so it's a great time to invest and help build companies.
I think one of the key differentiators I bring to the table as a venture capitalist is a solid understanding of the public markets and how they operate.
One of the things that has been truly incredible to observe though, is the amount of venture investment that has gone into early stage security technology.
Venture capitalists certainly create value for themselves, but they also singularly create value for the rest of the world.
As I became a venture capitalist, it's almost like I went to the dark side for a while.
Venture capitalists are like lemmings jumping on the software bandwagon.