Well, the VC business just isn’t what it was. Blame Sarbanes-Oxley for making IPO exits harder. Blame the popularity of VC (and private equity funding) which is now attracting ever-larger tranches of financing. Blame the difficult economy for making acquisition-exits harder. And, I guess, blame an industry that is heading into maturity.
I thought the round up offered by Knowledge At Wharton on the topic was pretty good.
What does an economy without a vibrant VC market hold in store? Well, for one thing, far fewer big payouts to risk-taking entrepreneurs and the financiers who support them. And possibly a decline in the competitiveness of economies that had come to take entrepreneurial startup growth for granted.
Definitely a challenge to taken for granted assumptions about the workings of an entrepreneur-friendly economy.