Howard Anderson at Technology Review: Good-Bye to Venture Capital. Howard, who was one of my professors at Sloan and who cofounded YankeeTek Ventures and Battery Ventures, says he’s getting out of the VC business because “technology supply is bloated” (i.e. there’s more technology available than people can buy); “the hype machine is broken” (i.e. executives are no longer spending money on tech like their hair was on fire); and “the financial markets for technology companies are no longer exuberantly irrational.” So Howard is getting out of the business and won’t be raising any more funds.
Part of this, I know, is Howard being Howard—controversial and blunt-spoken. But how much of his analysis is on? Is there really no way to make the big returns any more? Or, as an anonymous colleague of mine puts it, is he taking his marbles and going home because it didn’t work out for him?
(Update: the comments on this BusinessWeek article and from A VC and Brad Feld suggest that it might be the latter.)