Fantastic Tool: Google News Timeline - Analysis of VC Industry Crisis
Another great tool from Google: Google News Timeline.
Google News Timeline - Venture Capital results from 2001
All the news that you search can be displayed in a timeline! You can see the news in a more coherent way. It is much easier to build stories and check for historical patterns.
I’ll discuss Internet Burst news and the current crisis shortly.
First, guess when these headlines were written:
Venture Capital Firms Face Stricter Regulations
Venture capital harder to find for companies in search of funding sources
Venture capital investments plunge 23%
Boston-Area Venture Capital Firm Slashes Investment Fund by 63 Percent
Attempts to Find Capital Frustrates Toledo, Ohio, Wireless Internet Founders
Venture Capital: Cautious VCs again looking at incubation
Second-Quarter Chill Continues for Venture Capital
Venture capital downturn worsens
All these headlines are from 2002! Now take a look at some written in 2008:
Venture capital slashed $476 million in quarter
Is Venture Capital in Trouble?
Venture capital performance among worst in a decade
College Endowments Deserting Venture Capital
Bleak outlook for venture capital as Silicon Valley tries hand at self-funding
National Venture Capital Association predicts investment slowdown into 2009
Venture capital industry squeezed
Venture capital-backed IPOs hit 30-year low in 2008
Venture Funding in First Quarter Drops 50 Percent
As you can see, the headlines are very similar, between 2002 and 2009. Who knows if we may have a downturn period similar to the one that occured in 2002.
Internet Boom Burst
The bad news started to pop up from April 2002: Venture capital harder to find for companies in search of funding sources, until February 2004: Technology Venture Capital Fund-Raising Accelerates.
2 years of VC industry downturn.
Current Crisis
It started in October 2008: The Tech Sector’s Venture Capital Is Drying Up, and it continues today: Venture Funding in First Quarter Drops 50 Percent.
Seven months of VC industry downturn.
If this pattern happens again, we may have to wait 17 months before any good big news! It will be the time of my MBA graduation.