“Something will turn up,” the eternally optimistic Wilkins Micawber used to say in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.
There’s a little bit of Wilkins Micawber in every venture capitalist today. Although sitting pretty with billions of dollars in funds raised and living off hefty management fees, venture capitalists have generated little in profit for their investors over the last decade. The IPO markets – the traditional exits for most venture investments – are shut tight. And corporate acquisitions, the other major exit strategy, are few and far between. So when asked how they will generate returns in today’s uncertain economy, the answer is a Micawberish “something will turn up.”
Many ....