StartupNorth - Latest Comments in VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Bryson — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:27:00 -0000

I work in the VC industry in the USA and know the team at Ventures West. It is well known that VW has had their share of problems, like many funds in the USA and Canada. However, it is clear to myself and likely all LPs that VW is making a huge mistake. The senior partners want to continue collecting their lucrative management fee ( 2% of fund) and have released the junior partners. There is no way any LP is going to back the senior team that approved the deals in the last several portfolios; unfortunately, this is the end of VW. The senior partners will collect as much money as possible until the fund dies. Personally, I believe the LPs are correct and market forces need to allocate funding to teams that have a track record or the potential to achieve superior returns. I have talked with several LPs and I am paraphrasing their reaction. I'm afraid that several, if not most of the senior partners should have looked at their personal track record and retired long ago. This would have given the new partners a chance to prove themselves and save the fund. Too late now, greed is a destructive force. The same dynamic occurs in USA funds over and over again. The sad part is that Canada has very few VC funds and every loss cuts deeply.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Denis Sanson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:23:14 -0000

Well, the chickens have come home to roost. This is what you get when you have a VC industry that has no idea what the word "venture" means, doesn't embrace risk and innovation and demands terms that throttle entrepreneurs. Let's face it, Canada doesn't have a venture capital industry. We should all be ashamed but not surprised by this outcome. Next up: JL Albright? There would be many applause and high fives in the tech sector if Rick Segal and his smug mug was forced to post his CV on Monster.ca. They don't call him Rick the Prick for nothin' you know.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Michael Cayley — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:22:07 -0000

This is bad news for Ontario.

My take here:

http://socialcapitalvaluead...

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

David Gratton — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:40:38 -0000

David Mcintyre left quite awhile ago. He's been working at DTS.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Paul Marshall — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:09:14 -0000

Interesting piece on the continued VC downturn I thought was germane to this conversation.(http://www.dangletech.com/t...

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Ted Terak — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:38:15 -0000

They also deleted Paul Kedrosky's name from their "team" page.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Jevon MacDonald — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:56:36 -0000

I agree, everyone I have met from VW has been great.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Sandy Ward — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:46:24 -0000

David McIntyre is a great guy as well... he left VW a while ago but had a really good outlook and was very supportive on us founders.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

John Philip Green — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:17:31 -0000

Damn! I liked those guys. Robin bought be a beer at the first Founder's & Funders dinner.

Re: VenturesWest shuttering offices, several people gone

Paul Marshall — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:09:25 -0000

Really interested to find out more on this one. Why? What does this mean? Are VW investments performing worse than other VC's causing them unique problems (highly doubt it). More questions than answers from this one.