VSP Capital is falling apart

An update to the VSP Capital item we posted yesterday:

The “departing” partners we mentioned in our original story, Matt Crisp and Vince Vanelli, have disappeared from VSP Capital’s web site. That leaves only Joanna Rees-Gallanter and John Hamm as full partners. We’re told that Crisp is a so-called “key man,” i.e, that if he leaves, limited partners have the right to withdraw their money. We’re told Duke isn’t the only one upset by all this, but haven’t confirmed much yet.

Some people have asked us why this is happening, especially since CEOs who have worked with Gallanter support her (see comments in the first entry), including the two we quoted in our original story and several others we have talked with. We agree it is unfortunate because so few women lead their own venture firms. Gallanter is the only one we know of in Silicon Valley.

Well, we’ve been told one reason why, but we’re reluctant to write it here because of its personal nature. Suffice it to say, it’s reason enough for partners to choose to leave. We confronted Gallanter with it before publishing our story Sunday, and she didn’t deny it. Nuf said for now.

UPDATE: PE Week has just followed up, too, here. It has lots of details that we didn’t get into, and is worth reading. We’re told Dana Settles, though, is not a full general partner in the fund, but a “venture” partner.