I tend not to believe in coincidences. Something different seems to be in the air, so to speak. I'm not sure why now.
I've noticed in the past couple of days blogicles that address the advantages but mainly the disadvantages of taking investments from VCs. Don Dodge's posting is one example. Paul Graham's Venture Capital Squeeze article is another. Graham's article should be required reading for entrepreneurs. Snippets:
Largely because of Sarbanes-Oxley, few startups go public now. For all practical purposes, succeeding now equals getting bought. Which means VCs are now in the business of finding promising little 2-3 man startups and pumping them up into companies that cost $100 million to acquire. They didn't mean to be in this business; it's just what their business has evolved into.
...[T]he acquirers have begun to realize they can buy wholesale. Why should they wait for VCs to make the startups they want more expensive? Most of what the VCs add, acquirers don't want anyway. The acquirers already have brand recognition and HR departments. What they really want is the software and the developers, and that's what the startup is in the early phase: concentrated software and developers.
