Why VC Bloat is Bad for Everyone
In the March/April issue of Technology Review magazine, writer James Surowiecki - who produces the brilliant “Financial Page” column for the New Yorker week after week -- tackles the question of what’s wrong with venture capital. Much of the piece is a rehash of points with which this audience is well-acquainted. Surowiecki persuasively argues, for example, that the still-overfunded industry’s woes are structural, not cyclical -- a matter with which both big venture firms and small ones are aware and likely to agree. (The big firms, of course, argue that overall, far fewer firms should exist -- and look just like they do. Meanwhile, small firms say the big firms are too fat and inefficient, given the ever-falling costs of runnng startups.) Yet Surowiecki makes an interesting newer observation, too. He suggests there are reasons for people outside the industry to care about how much money is sloshing around on the inside.
