At a recent presentation at Harvard Business School, Adeo Ressi argued that the VC model is broken. That is nothing new for Ressi, who is the founder of the VC-rating site theFunded. He is kind of like the Nick Denton of the VC world, always saying that the sky is falling. It’s just that at this moment he happens to be right.

The slides from his presentation are embedded below, but really all you need to look at is the one above. It shows that the money going into VC funds is now more than the money coming out of VC funds. That line was crossed last June and there is no going back anytime soon.

The last presentation of the evening was by Scott Heiferman who is the founder of Meetup. He announced the new Meetup Alliance Web site. Meetup Alliance is a way to take groups and align them together to form super groups. Think of Voltron or the Constructicons.

Meetup Alliance allows you to bring in groups from any source - not just Meetup and they offer an API for further development. And it’s free. On Wednesday they will announce the first 50 alliances which from what I could gather on the screen include a large majority of political groups and the International Tech Meetup Alliance.

A couple folks stopped by after the presentation and asked how power would be dealt with. I think this could hurt MA over time. Who decides which meetups come together, who runs the mega meetup page, etc. It is an interesting idea for worldwide collaboration around ideas and themes.

Here is Scott’s video:

Source:CenterNetworks

TheFunded received the most applause of the evening. It seems reviews about VC firms is good business. Basically TheFunded is a "blog-style review site" says founder Adeo Ressi. Judging by the conversations after the presentations ended, Adeo has a hit on his hands. Membership is either free or $100 it seems - not exactly sure.

Wired Magazine has a lengthy overview of the site and how it works. Read it for the details or watch the video demo below - or both

Be a Better VC, Courtesy of TheFunded.com

In May, 2007, TheFunded.com launched an area for CEO’s to post “Open Letters” to the venture community, telling venture capitalists what they feel needs to change about the fundraising process. Four months later, hundred of CEO’s have voted on the letters, and there are five lessons for VC’s from the Members of TheFunded.com.

(1) It’s OK to say “No.”
There are hundreds of posts by frustrated CEO’s who have been strung along by venture firms unwilling to say “yes” and equally unwilling to “no.” Meanwhile, every post where an entrepreneur gets a quick “no” tends to be positive. This should give the venture community a clear message: end the infamous “Soft Maybe” once and for all. As one CEO commented, tell the company what you don’t like or what needs to change, rather than playing an elongated game of wait and see.

— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/858

(2) My materials are confidential, please!
The title says it all. Many frustrated CEO’s from around the world are very upset by personal experiences where they receive plans from competitors or have their plans shared by venture capitalists. Some are calling for NDA’s to be signed before sensitive diligence is sent out to venture capitalists as a practice and looking to “out” funds that have done this on TheFunded.com. Some funds have already been called out on the site for doing this, but some of the CEO Members are concerned about being “black balled” for doing so.

— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/1016

(3) Tell me something, anything!
One of the most common complaints across TheFunded.com is the long time between pitch and follow-up. Seasoned entrepreneurs know that a financing takes months to close, but getting an email or a call follow-up to a pitch meeting should not take months or even weeks. As one Member mentions, just write: “We didn’t forget about you. We’re still discussing your venture.” If it’s going to take a couple weeks for you to get back to entrepreneur, tell them in the meeting.

— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/616

(4) A little manners goes a long way…
There are hundreds of posts about the poor treatment of entrepreneurs in the pitching process, and it’s time to change that. Imagine being on an airplane to meet a fund later that day, and they cancel the meeting and reject your deal in a two line email while you are in the air. Imagine being handed off to a junior associate, going through a pitch, and then the partners that you were supposed to meet with appear in full golf gear and ask you start again from scratch. The stories of poor treatment and lack of manners are too frequent.

— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/1722
— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/456
— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/613
— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/1370

(5) I am not a source of free research!
Numerous of posts complain that CEO’s receive unsolicited calls by associates at venture funds expressing “interest” in their companies and wanting to learn more about the business. In many cases, the CEO’s realize that the fund is considering an investment in a competitor and doing research. In other cases, funds are doing research on a market where they have investments or are considering investments. None of these calls ever lead to a deal, however, and the members agree that this practice needs to stop. If you need to do research, tell the CEO up-front and let them decide if they want to give you information. The false pretenses of an investment need to go.

— http://www.thefunded.com/funds/item/797