6 ms·

Mass. drops to third in venture capital cash for first time

30 points by ahalan 15y ago

test159 15y ago
hehe
jbellis 15y ago
The full report is here: http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/quarterly-venture-capital-report-q3-2011 http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/quarterly-ven...
suking 15y ago
Good - Boston VCs need a serious kick in the pants with how they treat entrepreneurs. I don't think this will be ego-busting enough to do it though.
jleyank 15y ago
I thought one of the big problems in MA is that the courts favor the employer re: non-compete clauses. If I'm remembering correctly, this would be a real damper on the ability of talent to pursue opportunity.
- nknight 15y ago
  They do that in pretty much every state. As far as I know, California's treatment of non-competes remains unique. Everywhere else, they're fully enforceable with rare exceptions, even on grunt-level code monkeys. Debates surface every once in a while as to just how important California law has been to the development of Silicon Valley. It's obviously had some impact, but it's impossible to strictly quantify, and muddying the waters is that it's definitely not the only place with a notable tech concentration, even if it is perhaps the biggest and highest-profile.
  - hga 15y ago
    Hmmm, for me it's sufficient to note that California's policy and Silicon Valley's success are both unique (I think you vastly understate its success when you say "perhaps the biggest and highest-profile"). I think it's hard to argue that having the nation's most liquid market for talent was not significant. There are probably a few other things that in combination were or are unique, I'm thinking good weather in the vicinity of 2 of the world's best EE and CS departments (Stanford and UC Berkeley). Other things like a culture more accepting of failure may have followed, though.
wanorris 15y ago
Can anyone speak to why New York has become such a good locale for venture capital? I live in Seattle, and haven't really kept up with the state of things in New York. Is it simply that the firehose of capital available there is being turned in a new direction, or are there other structural reasons why NYC is a great place to start a business?
- bh42222 15y ago
  I'm guessing it's the combination of firehose of capital and huge, densely packed population. And due to the computing needs of wallstreet there are quite a few skilled programmers around. Basically $ + hackers.
  - mdda 15y ago
    In the past, people have cited the presence of Wall Street being the thing that prevented the 'pure tech' startup scene from developing - since Wall St paid developers too well. The real eye-opener for me was how crowded and positive the Startup Weekend events have been in NYC : And the number of Meetups is staggering. It seems to me that some kind of critical mass has been achieved, and New York no longer feels like a staging area before moving to the Valley.
- maratd 15y ago
  Over the last few decades, NYC has seen significant gentrification and urban revival, particularly in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. This, with other factors, made it a very attractive place to live. This brought people. Talented people. The more talented people you have in a concentrated area, the more things 'happen' on a regular basis. It is a culmination of a multitude of factors that is only now bearing fruit. It isn't so much that new venture capital sources are fueling new business creation in NYC. More along the lines of new business creation attracting existing venture capital sources to NYC.
refurb 15y ago
Meh... I don't think this is really big news. "Massachusetts firms experienced a year-over-year decline in the number of VC deals in the third quarter" This is looking only at this quarter vs. the same quarter a year ago. Take a look at VC funding over a year and it's not a smooth cash flow. You get peaks and valleys and it's often a few really big investments that drive those variations. If, at the end of this year Boston is raising less cash than NYC (comparing all of 2011 to all of 2010) and then I might concede something is happening.

30 points by ahalan 15y ago

hehe

The full report is here: http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/quarterly-venture-capital-report-q3-2011 http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/quarterly-ven...

suking 15y ago

Good - Boston VCs need a serious kick in the pants with how they treat entrepreneurs. I don't think this will be ego-busting enough to do it though.

jleyank 15y ago

I thought one of the big problems in MA is that the courts favor the employer re: non-compete clauses. If I'm remembering correctly, this would be a real damper on the ability of talent to pursue opportunity.

nknight 15y ago
They do that in pretty much every state. As far as I know, California's treatment of non-competes remains unique. Everywhere else, they're fully enforceable with rare exceptions, even on grunt-level code monkeys. Debates surface every once in a while as to just how important California law has been to the development of Silicon Valley. It's obviously had some impact, but it's impossible to strictly quantify, and muddying the waters is that it's definitely not the only place with a notable tech concentration, even if it is perhaps the biggest and highest-profile.
- hga 15y ago
  Hmmm, for me it's sufficient to note that California's policy and Silicon Valley's success are both unique (I think you vastly understate its success when you say "perhaps the biggest and highest-profile"). I think it's hard to argue that having the nation's most liquid market for talent was not significant. There are probably a few other things that in combination were or are unique, I'm thinking good weather in the vicinity of 2 of the world's best EE and CS departments (Stanford and UC Berkeley). Other things like a culture more accepting of failure may have followed, though.

wanorris 15y ago

Can anyone speak to why New York has become such a good locale for venture capital? I live in Seattle, and haven't really kept up with the state of things in New York. Is it simply that the firehose of capital available there is being turned in a new direction, or are there other structural reasons why NYC is a great place to start a business?

bh42222 15y ago
I'm guessing it's the combination of firehose of capital and huge, densely packed population. And due to the computing needs of wallstreet there are quite a few skilled programmers around. Basically $ + hackers.
- mdda 15y ago
  In the past, people have cited the presence of Wall Street being the thing that prevented the 'pure tech' startup scene from developing - since Wall St paid developers too well. The real eye-opener for me was how crowded and positive the Startup Weekend events have been in NYC : And the number of Meetups is staggering. It seems to me that some kind of critical mass has been achieved, and New York no longer feels like a staging area before moving to the Valley.
maratd 15y ago
Over the last few decades, NYC has seen significant gentrification and urban revival, particularly in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. This, with other factors, made it a very attractive place to live. This brought people. Talented people. The more talented people you have in a concentrated area, the more things 'happen' on a regular basis. It is a culmination of a multitude of factors that is only now bearing fruit. It isn't so much that new venture capital sources are fueling new business creation in NYC. More along the lines of new business creation attracting existing venture capital sources to NYC.

refurb 15y ago

Meh... I don't think this is really big news. "Massachusetts firms experienced a year-over-year decline in the number of VC deals in the third quarter" This is looking only at this quarter vs. the same quarter a year ago. Take a look at VC funding over a year and it's not a smooth cash flow. You get peaks and valleys and it's often a few really big investments that drive those variations. If, at the end of this year Boston is raising less cash than NYC (comparing all of 2011 to all of 2010) and then I might concede something is happening.