There’s a lot of talk these days—well, always, really—about the state of venture capital in New England. A lot of it centers on comparisons with Silicon Valley VCs, and most of it isn’t good. Some common complaints or accusations:
—New England venture capitalists don’t take risks.
—They don’t invest in early stage ventures.
—They are hardly investing at all these days.
—They are increasingly investing outside New England.
Sorting out all the truths and fictions associated with such ideas would take some time, and a lot of data. So to get my hands on at least a little data, I’ve been speaking with Michael Greeley, general partner with Boston’s Flybridge Capital Partners and chairman of the New England Venture Capital Association. He shared some interesting stats from queries he ran on a database of the NEVCA’s 137 member firms that get at some of these issues. His team also passed along data from an Ernst & Young report on the venture industry that had some regional data.
To see how far perceptions have or haven’t diverged from reality, I’ve boiled all that data down to five questions—which I offer here in the form of a quiz for you to take. The questions don’t necessarily get directly at the charges and complaints above, but the answers definitely shed light on them—and, I think, the venture industry as a whole. So take your best guesses, and tomorrow we’ll publish the correct answers, with some context and commentary.
Again, the answers and some discussion will come tomorrow. I stress that this is meant as a fun little quiz and I’m well aware that these few data points alone don’t say a whole lot about the health of the venture investment system. But I’d love your comments on what you think it all means, as well as ideas for other and better questions to ask.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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