You probably wouldn’t expect a pro-business tome from the left-leaning Huffington Post. But Eric Hippeau delivers just that in a recent article on why both government and institutions should be pouring more money into the venture capital industry, not less.
Full disclosure: Hippeau is a managing partner at venture capital fund Softbank Capital, and both a board member and investor in The Huffington Post. Nevertheless, Hippeau points out that the U.S. has the best-developed venture capital industry in the world. One that has helped build industry giants such as Compaq, Yahoo, Google, Genentech, eTrade, Home Depot and many others.
Despite these successes, venture capital remains a largely misunderstood part of the financial services industry. Yet Hippeau says most venture capitalists are experienced, responsible professionals with an outstanding track record of successfully growing new companies – exactly what our economy needs now.
Yet due to the sharp drop in their stock portfolios, many pension funds and endowments may be over their allocation limits for venture funds, and thus reluctant to invest. But depriving VC funds of capital now will only slow our economy further. Hippeau urges pension funds, endowments and other potential investors to set aside more capital for these types of long-term investments that can create jobs and successful new businesses.
Comments on this entry are closed.