Lawrence Aragon

Year in review in February? Let me explain. We considered doing a special section in the December issue just like all the newsstand magazines. But we decided against it because we didn’t have final year-end fund-raising and disbursement numbers from Venture Economics. Those figures weren’t available until Jan. 23. Knowing that the vast majority of […]

I’ve invested in many early stage life sciences companies during my 19-year career as a venture capitalist. Following are 10 lessons that I have gleaned from my experiences that might be useful to someone embarking on a career in venture capital. 1. Generate deal flow. You can’t invest in companies you don’t see. Having a […]

Some limited partners believe that a major challenge for emerging manager firms is the recruitment of top quality talent to their investment ranks. Because of smaller fund size and the lack of overlapping multiple funds, emerging manager firms are sometimes seen at a disadvantage when competing with larger more established firms with $30 million or […]

Good idea. Bad timing. That appears to be the case with so-called “emerging manager” programs. Several large pension funds have created initiatives to invest in these small, first-time venture funds, but big losses in both private and public equity have visibly slowed commitments. Although the programs are just beginning to take shape, it seems that […]

The venture capital industry is at a crossroads. Valuations continue to plummet, sizes of financing rounds continue to shrink and exits appear fewer and farther away. Aware of these trends, limited partners have forced venture managers to reduce the size of their latest funds in an attempt to bridge supply and demand in the market. […]

Walking through the crisp offices of Accel Partners, it would be easy to confuse Managing Partner Jim Breyer with a college intern. The 41-year-old seems to have inherited the Dick Clark gene, but the boyish-looking venture capitalist has compiled a track record that is nothing short of astonishing: He’s created […]

John Delaney and Jay Rand aren’t venture capitalists, but both are keenly aware of the issues facing VCs today. They are attorneys, and, lately, VCs have been spending a lot more time sitting across the table from legal counsel-whether it’s because of a potential clawback, the threat of having their private equity data made public […]

Art Marks, who retired from New Enterprise Associates in June 2001, came out of self-imposed stealth mode in April to announce that he had joined forces with two other industry vets to start a new venture firm – Valhalla Partners. Marks, 57, has been thinking about the effort for months and even went so far […]