Comments on: Oak raises record venture capital fund, despite mediocre performance

By: 红孩子的美国祖师爷Babystyle，正式宣布破产 | Startup

红孩子的美国祖师爷Babystyle，正式宣布破产 | Startup — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:25:32 +0000

[...] to raise more money, because they earn fees based on the size of the fund. So then, having raised a whopping, record sized $2.56 billion venture capital fund (also, see coverage here), Oak was forced to put that money to work — even as it was more [...]

By: Babystyle, the baby retailer, files for bankruptcy — victim of misguided investors? » VentureBeat

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:44:03 +0000

[...] raise more money, because they earn fees based on the size of the fund. So then, having raised a whopping, record sized $2.56 billion venture capital fund (also, see coverage here), Oak was forced to put that money to work — even as it was more [...]

By: Fund Raising

Fund Raising — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 06:58:12 +0000

Fund Raising

Raise funds by collecting empty printer cartridges, selling inkjet cartridges or through our internet At the …

By: John the entrepreneur

John the entrepreneur — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:51:17 +0000

Like J Peter, I think brand is important and the LPs are doing their homework by talking to entrepreneurs. The brand is not just derived from marketing oneself and being in the industry for a long time. It is partially built by the value and “smartness” VCs bring to the table. As an entrepreneur, the couple of guys that I have met at Oak, Bandel Carano and David Walrod, are pretty knowledgeable and have good insight. I value that. (Just for the record, Oak has never invested in any of my ventures nor am I affiliated with Oak) However, there are a bunch of other VCs, Mobius and Crescendo come to my mind, that are just clueless and have no idea what they are doing. Both of them, not surprisingly, are struggling raising their next fund. I think the LP community is not as clueless as one thinks. They are able to distinguish the above avg from the bottom quartile.

By: Tim the VC

Tim the VC — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:50:33 +0000

Speaking as a VC, three things are going on:

1) Oak is going to later stage, so it is arguing, with some success, that its early-stage record — to which you allude above — is not relevant

2) GPs are brand-happy right now, and Oak has a brand.

3) Mezz investing is a hot asset class right now, and there are relatively few strong brands.

By: H. Peter

H. Peter — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:11:05 +0000

Thanks for tracking those cases. It seems otherwise a topic that noone dares to mention. SiliconBeat is the only blog I could find so far that takes this on. Obviously people are in fear to end up on a black list or so I assume. And if you rely as a startup on VC funding you better don’t criticize them.
Now what puzzles me even more than the fact that underperforming VCs can raise such huge amounts is the following: Back in 2000 I forecasted that we will see a VC bubble burst as well. Interestingly, and to me not fully understandable, is the fact that while consolidation went on in the startup scene it had -in total terms- no real impact on the VC community. We still have -even more- VCs around than back in 2000 I think. For sure none of the dotcom like bubble burst happened. Why is that? Are VCs only demanding tough decissions from their invested startups but face themself no performance related evaluation from their investors? It raises my eyebrowes and obviously we have a case where certain control mechanism are out of order!