What do VCs spend time on today, what gets you funded and what contribution can venture capital make? A proposal for a session. Please comment.
There are three topics within my proposal:
1. Relevance, communication tools, niche communities, advertising innovation, MMOGs, pure content plays, p2p software, personalization... these are a part of what internet-focused venture capitalists are looking at these days. If you are thinking about founding, knowing what your potential financiers are interested in can help you formulate your idea further. This should be a conversation format: what are VCs missing from your point of view? what do VCs think that you really need to get off the ground?
2. What gets you funded? A few criteria go a really long way... but that still means that many - potentially deserving - companies aren't funded. Do different VCs have different criteria? What helps in getting money, what's a red flag...? Depending on how many venture capitalists reboot has present, this could be a panel.
3. What contribution does VC actually make? Depending on format, this could be a presentation where a VC outlines (1) when taking funding is useful and when it's not, (2) an open discussion about how much you really don't like the money side of the internet <s>business</s> or (3) a panel of entrepreneurs discussing VC.
My reason for proposing this topic is that I feel that venture capital "listens in" at reboot but doesn't actively participate. On the other hand, a lot of the innovation that is being talked about at reboot sounds great but never happens. Part of the cause for that is that there's some social disconnect between the internet visionaries, the potential entrepreneurs and the VCs. I'd like to get us talking, no holds barred, about closer collaboration, even at the idea-generation stage, about our feelings of what should remain non-commercial online, what needs to be a digital commons, how open source can make money etc.
I would be very happy to play any part in this conversation, from providing a presentation to kick off the discussion, to being a member of a panel, to moderating a panel, to seeing my proposal here torn to shreds :p
