I often get asked by my clients about how the various venture capital players stack up against each other. It is a difficult question to answer as so many of my clients have differing needs, personalities, and subjective lenses through which they see the startup world. Luckily, the web has provided a solution through social networking and snarkiness. In early 2007, Adeo Ressi took the HotOrNot lens to VC’s, by providing entrepreneurs the opportunity rate and often rant about their particular VC experience on TheFunded.com.
That in itself is threatening to VC’s, which are a selective and secretive lot. In a recent move, registered entrepreneurs can post and share VC term sheets for an added dimension of being in the know. As any entrepreneur familiar with VC’s knows, the term sheet is the ultimate forensic tool for piecing together the scene of a deal.
As one can imagine, the VC’s have been subject to all manner of perceived libel and are probably not thrilled at the prospect of being ranked or scrutinized. The site’s goal of ranking VC’s is a bit of role reversal, but in the end, with proper discipline among its membership it can prove to be a very valuable tool. In his Wired interview, Ressi claims his site is designed to properly channel VC’s into: “backing savvy entrepreneurs to move the fundamental technologies of humanity forward.” Well, Adeo if the site simply provides a real forum for open discourse on the subject, then I think I will be happy with that.
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