Claiming stakes

Worthy of note:

Growthology reports on an NVCA study that

"claims that VC-backed companies accounted for ten percent of employment in 2006 and some large share of recent job growth. Yet when you scroll down to the data tables, you see that they take year 2000 employment of a company that once received venture capital (e.g. Intel), then year 2006 employment in that company, and attribute the change to the fact that company once received venture capital. Voila! Are you telling me that the VC investors in Intel played a role in the company's job growth between 2000 and 2006".

NVCA has a penchant for staking claims on all the good that has ever been done by anyone once affiliated with a company that at some point in its life cycle had permitted itself to take some funding from an organization that at least had some association with a relative of someone who once walked in front of a building that was in part owned by a future or former venture capitalist.

Look! Let's make this clear: good ideas become innovations. Good businesses are built on the foundation of those innovations. Researchers and entrepreneurs provide the ideas that become those foundations. At best, venture capitalists provide some funding, insight, marketing, and business sense to contribute to the success of a venture based on the good ideas that emanate from a researcher or entrepreneur. It is possible for a symbiotic relationship to accrue, whereby a mutual respect permits innovators and VCs to collaborate on building great businesses. But it is in no way a foregone conclusion that a good idea requires VC funding to become a great business, nor is it in any way assured that the receipt of VC funding will positively impact such a company's potential success.

Period! Full stop!