Money Talks, Options Walk –

If, just a short time ago, someone had said that more than one week after the presidential election, the country would be left with a President Non-Elect, or if that same person dared say that start-ups would have to pay higher salaries in lieu of stock options, you would have thought they were crazy.

Well, welcome to reality. Failed and/or flailing start-ups are being added to the so-called dotcom death count with each passing day. As start-up companies lay off staff or just shut down altogether, the pool of unemployed executives gets deeper, and those very executives are a little gun-shy when it comes to taking a job with another risky enterprise. As a result, start-ups and the venture capitalists that back them are scrambling to find executives with the “right stuff” to run their portfolio companies.

In this month’s cover story, Associate Editor Alistair Christopher takes a look at what some VC firms are doing to incorporate recruitment as one of their many value-added services. Because these days it takes a lot more than venture capital to build a successful enterprise, it takes human capital. And while there may be a plethora of venture capital, there’s a shortage of human capital.

Also in this month’s issue, we take a look at the VC markets in St. Louis and Los Angeles.

With tax breaks and the resources of its universities, Missouri is betting that St. Louis and life sciences are going to be as synonymous as Silicon Valley and technology. While in Los Angeles, even amid a dotcom downturn, VCs are finding themselves with something more pleasing than a tan – an active, vibrant deal culture.