Investors and Entrepreneurs video series begins

Today I started a new series of interviews on my Vpype channel, Investors and Entrepreneurs, where we will be exploring, anecdotally, where venture investment is going as we come out of our recession.  We started with Piers Cooper, a partner at Point Bonita Partners, and a founder of a new type of venture capital organization called Nano Holdings.  We talked about where venture capital and innovation has been in the past couple of years (Piers called it "nuclear winter" ) and where it is going in the next couple of years (he says going up and steady).  Piers has been involved in early stage startup investment for some time and has made a good living at it, so he has something to say.  The first video is the interview, that got cut off before we could wrap up, the second video is my wrap up of what we missed.

Watch video live on Vpype Live Broadcaster

Watch video live on Vpype Live Broadcaster

Reminder on courage

A few months ago I did a post on having courage in down economies.  Today, an essay popped up in CNN on the same subject.  It was a good reminder.

Anyone who starts a business in this time is a hero.  

Anyone who funds one of these businesses is a hero.  

It doesn't even matter if the idea for the business is a brilliant one or a mediocre one.  What matters is that someone is making an effort to overcome fear.

There were too many companies that should never have been funded in the 1990s.  That's a given.  There are too few companies being funded and founded now.  And it's all based on fear.  

We really need a few heros right now.