"A Star is Born"

Astonishment spread through the Israeli venture capital community last week. A well known and respected Israeli newspaper, which hosts this column every week, published a bold study ranking the local venture capital funds and even gave them grades. The results of this study are sensational. They point at the leading funds and even name the winning investors. Yes sir, right here, in Israel, we have our TV show “A Star is Born”, we also have “Born to Dance“, in addition we have a “Survivor” and from now on we also have the “Top Quality Fund” and the “Most Appreciated VC Partner”!

I have a few reflections on this dramatic survey, especially in light of the fact that nobody requested us, the venture people, permission to conduct the survey. It seems as though there is a sort of aspiration to modern militant journalism, uniting the Israeli journalists, and causing them at times, to go on unnecessary crusades. Between us, if journalists allow themselves to publish accusations against our pure and honest leaders and even against our diligent and brave soccer players, then is it a wonder that they would conduct such a survey against our High-Tech leaders?

My greatest surprise is that it even crossed somebody’s mind to treat venture capitalists just like regular people. We all know that we are talking about a special species, distinguished and different than the rest of humanity. Drivers of fancy jeeps, dressed in the best of fashion with meticulous nonchalant elegance, we eat caviar and drink champagne in the company of the world’s leaders and spend our time in business lounges all over the globe, in fancy hotels and expensive restaurants. And of course, we are experts in our profession, brilliant businessmen, witty and sharp minded, with an amazing talent for identifying market trends, analyzing them shrewdly and coldly, and leveraging fruitful and successful investments out of each and every one of them.

And the reporters of this newspaper, which name we will not mention here, dared to choose us of all people, to compare us against each other, to rank us and to give us grades. And the many entrepreneurs, to whom for years we have taken the trouble to be kind and polite, joined forces with the newspaper’s reporters, behind our backs, and violated our unwritten alliance.

Well, it is so obvious to any reader that a well organized plot has been hatched here between the investigative journalists and the entrepreneurs who were polled for this article. It was all done under heavy curtains of secrecy. Each entrepreneur was required to fill out a questionnaire behind a screen while being hooked up to a lie detector. The forms were collected and transported in armored cars to a secret location and placed in a sealed and well secured bunker. Three different super-computers processed the information and an in-depth mathematical analysis was performed on the results by the stern doctor with the thick-rimmed glasses, who scares us every four years during the election night broadcasts. The sensational results were placed in a star decorated blue envelope, and the citizens of the country received the survey in the newspaper, whose name is withheld by the editorial staff.

And a few words about the parameters that were chosen as a basis for evaluating our quality, us the investors. The question that sticks out the most, amongst the questions which the entrepreneurs were asked, is the one that asked them to rank us, the VC’s, according to our integrity and our will to build a real partnership with the entrepreneurs. This question clearly shows a complete misunderstanding of the very basics of our important profession. If we add to that the unnecessary questions about the capability of the funds to help the entrepreneurs and our willingness to assist, we can, once more, clearly see the picture of journalists searching for prey: We? Assist? The entrepreneurs? And the last nail in this coffin of questions was pounded in by the question about the VC's inter-personal skills. Oh, really, come on.

And one last comment about the results. Being acquainted with the winning funds - and with the others too, and being familiar with the winning investors - and with those who did not win as well, I would like to remind our readers of the very basic rule: all VC’s are always top tier, and all the investing partners are always decent, talented, experienced and have a very successful proven track record, even if some survey or another try to claim otherwise.
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(Published by "Globes" - 25 May 2008)