OK, it's certainly premature to open the bubbly at this point.  But given all that we see, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to get one of those bottles chilling for later.

Across our portfolio and with conversations with our colleagues in other venture funds, there is a steady, rising drumbeat of, "Hey, things are feeling better...in some cases much better!"  We're seeing increased customer activity across our companies. Budgets that were frozen in late 2008 and stayed that way in 2009 are starting to loosen up.  A couple of our companies are actually ahead of plan for the year so far (unheard of in 2008 & 2009).

In the last six months, we've seen the return of investment bankers on our calendar (for the past few years we've thought of them as unicorns, cute but imaginary beasts).  They see a recovery in the economy, bulging corporate balance sheets, and investor cash on the sidelines all pointing to a release of pent up demand for products, companies, and public stock offerings.  Are they right?  Are we right?  Time will tell...but as of this time, it feels SO much better than it did even three months ago that we have to believe better times are not just ahead, but with us already.

 The data below point to how hard and fast the fall was in the second half of 2008, and it appears a sustainable upslope forming now.

What the facts are not: VC's want a bailout?

Sometimes, rarely, one has to dispense with the pleasantries that keep us all feeling like we are polite ladies and gentlemen.  Anne Field's blog post above is such a total crock that it deserves such a response.

Nowhere, I repeat nowhere, has there been any plea from any responsible or representative member of the venture capital community looking for a bailout from the US government.  The fact that the NVCA periodically does a study to assess the positive impact of venture capital investments on the economy does not mean we, as an industry, have our collective hands out.  It means that the NVCA, as our primary voice in Washington, wants to make sure the government doesn't forget what we do, and why it matters, and in one of their fits of "fixing" something have them inadvertently hurt what already works.

Over the past several weeks there have been some blogosphere debates about the “Seattle Startup Index” and the “Future of Internet Investing.” I’d like to summarize my thoughts on these topics, but first I’d like to set some personal context. Back in the 70’s I was a computer science faculty member working on the ARPANet when there were a few thousand people in the world with access to networked email. Later when I was VP of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computer in the early 90’s, my organization helped fund the development of the Mosaic browser at NCSA that made the Internet accessible to casual users. I recall that one of my Labs launched www.apple.com on a local Internet-connected Mac as an experiment in sharing research information with others on the emerging Web (within six months Corporate Communications at Apple said “thank you very much, we’ll take it from here!”). So, I’ve been on the ARPANet/Internet/Web from the beginning, and have seen how it has fundamentally transformed business and society.