I'll be speaking later this morning on a venture capital panel, chatting about the market and about what's happening to startups. There's certainly a lot of doom and gloom out there, with the IPO window closed tight and valuations dropping like a stone in water.
But I am a little perplexed on where things stand at the moment. Yes, it's true that venture capital investments plummeted in the state last quarter, as evidenced by these two reports. (VC investments were down 75 percent in the state compared to the first quarter of last year, according to the MoneyTree report.)
But more recently, I've picked up on another interesting trend. Nearly every day for the past two weeks, I've covered a new angel or venture capital financing. (ExtraHop, Adapx, Foodista and FlowPlay are just a few, with the full list here.)
"Things are still happening. Deals are still getting gone," Madrona's Greg Gottesman told me last week.
One other interesting tidbit I failed to mention last week was the ranking of Washington versus other states in terms of venture capital invesments. According to Dow Jones VentureSource, Washington ranked 7th last quarter. That compares to 5th for the same period last year. (Washington ranked fifth in deals last quarter, down from fourth in Q1 2008.)
Obviously, that's not a positive trend, but the latest surge in deal volume could paint a brighter picture.
The topic of our panel this morning -- which includes Len Jordan of Frazier Technology Ventures, Linden Rhoads of the UW and Gottesman-- is "Who's Getting Funded, Who's Investing and Why?"
Good questions for sure. What are you seeing out there?
READ MORE and COMMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment