Every once in a while “we” come across a piece that is worth passing along. Even less than every once in while we come across a piece that we MUST pass along. The latter happened to me today.
I just read Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980s, a blog post by Jerry Neumann (long time VC). It is fantastic and traces VC investing mentality from 1970s to today. The best line is at the end “the only thing VCs can control that will improve their outcomes is having enough guts to bet on markets that don’t yet exist. Everything else is noise.”
Enjoy!
ithaca VC 
great piece – thanks for sharing Zach.
Question – could you provide a good resource for me to read if I was interested in getting started in the VC business? I mean… is it first having a lot of money on hand to invest?
thanks again Zach
There is not an easy answer to this one. Investors (limited partners) are not going to plop $$ in your lap without understanding your investing experience (if you have any) or operating experience that might make you a good VC investor. I will say that without investors you have no fund. So getting investors is obviously key. Brad Feld’s book called Venture Deals is a good book to read about VC investing, but it won’t tell you how to raise $$.
Thanks for the reply Zach! And I’ll definitely check out Venture Deals… again, love reading your updates.
On a side note, I’m going to email you an app idea I have to see what you think!
thanks again