“Like Moths to the Flame” — VCs Tell Another Institution They’re Feeling Confident About 2010

Do you sometimes feel like you can’t get enough of surveys suggesting that VCs are feeling newly confident about their line of work? Well, have I got good news for you.

A new study by University of San Francisco Business School professor Mark Cannice says that Bay Area VCs are modestly more confident than they were the fourth quarter of last year, and way more confident than they were a year ago. (You can see the graph here. Charted out as it is, you can see that VCs’ confidence levels began to resemble a double black diamond right around December 2008.)

Among the 33 VCs interviewed was Bruce MacNaughton of Crosslink Capital, who told Cannice that “we’re seeing more promising startups than we’ve seen in quite awhile.” Savinay Barry of Granite Ventures said, “Planning and budgeting visibility for enterprises is much better than it was last year, when the future looked opaque.” Victor Hwang of T2 Venture Capital chimed in, saying, “the macroeconomic situation has stabilized, and big companies will be tight on cash in coming years, creating more space for entrepreneurs to innovate.”  Added Venky Ganesan of Globespan Capital Partners, in one of the study’s more colorful quotes, “Like moths to the flame when the exits start happening in 2010, the venture money and the entrepreneurs are going to be back (and I am afraid so will the tourists).”

You can download the study here, or view it below:

Cannice VC Index 2009 Q4 JAN 2010