State of the Market –

Every now and then it’s good to take a step back, survey the landscape and get a good perspective on the venture capital market.

If you’re a veteran venture capitalist, you prospered greatly during the market’s boom time. However, you probably didn’t fare as well as you would have liked during the subsequent bust. From your perspective, the sky hasn’t fallen, it’s just gotten closer. You may be working harder, having less fun and pulling no punches with waning investments, but you’re sure to emerge stronger and wiser when the market rebounds.

If you’re a relative newcomer to the VC industry, you also prospered greatly during the boom. But when the bust came, you suffered the most. In your perspective, the sky has pretty much fallen. And you’ll be lucky to emerge at all when the market comes back.

In this month’s cover story, the editors of VCJ take a look at the state of the VC market from fund raising to investments to exit opportunities.

What we found is that the bar has been raised across the board, power has shifted – from the brash entrepreneurs back to VCs and from VCs to LPs – and some aspects of the market have yet to hit bottom. All of which provides for a cautious time – and a hazy future.

Amid these unsure times in the venture market, there’s one VC who is looking to make a career change by becoming the next governor of Virginia.

Associate Editor Charles Fellers recently spent some time with Mark Warner – both at his VC firm, Columbia Capital, and at campaign headquarters. It seems that running a political campaign isn’t much different from the venture business. Lots of 16-hour days, high risk and lots of time on the road. But like the VC industry, the reward at the end can make all the toil worth it.