Will West Coast VCs Be Shut Out of Stimulus Opportunity?
On Tuesday, President Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package. The question now is whether venture capital firms without existing ties to Washington are already too late to capitalize on its passage. Although the bill includes enormous pots of money that venture-backed startups can pursue -- including in the fields of education and clean tech, where “smart grid” investments and electric car battery R&D are in line to receive billions of dollars -- it’s “the VCs who haven’t traditionally seen government as a black box that will be able to get in and get a piece of the action very quickly,” says National Venture Capital Association president Mark Heesen. An astonishing 177 venture capitalists joined an NVCA-organized conference call on Tuesday, to discuss the package and the opportunities it may present their portfolio companies. Pretty impressive, considering that many firms were holding partnership meetings that day, due to the
