OVP's Gerry Langeler: Venture capital's 'lost decade' is over |
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OVP's Gerry Langeler: Venture capital's 'lost decade' is over
Langeler
Perhaps it's a little bit of wishful thinking. But at the OVP Venture Partners Technology Summit earlier this week Gerry Langeler, a partner at the 27-year-old Kirkland firm, officially declared that the "lost decade" of venture capital is over. Langeler, of course, was referring to the pain that many venture capitalists have experienced over the past 10 years, a decade in which he said the industry has lost money in the aggregate. And even though IPOs dried up to "zero" and most corporate buyers pulled "in their horns," Langeler (like most optimistic VCs) sees good times ahead.
One anecdotal piece of evidence driving the new found optimism is that investment bankers are once again showing up at the firm's doorstep. "We, for awhile thought of investment bankers as unicorns -- they are cute, mythical beasts," quipped Langeler. "But they are back."
And part of the reason that they are back is that there's been some positive momentum around IPOs, with Langeler telling the crowd that one of the firm's portfolio companies recently engaged investment bankers to take it public. Langeler didn't say which company, which led me to peruse the firm's portfolio list. (In the Seattle area, I'd guess that Talyst is probably the only company big enough to consider an IPO).
But he did joke that it has been so long since the firm has had a company go public that the partners had forgotten some of the rules associated with quiet period. "It has been 10 years, we forgot," said Langeler.
Nonetheless, he said, "it looks to us like things are coming back." In terms of new deals, Langeler pointed out that there's been "terrific deal flow" for companies on their second and third rounds of financing.
"We've been through the wars -- now in our 27th year," Langeler concluded. "We've seen now two complete cycles of boom and bust, and we're ready for the third boom at this point."
Langeler also discussed deal activity in Portland; competition in the venture capital market in the Pacific Northwest and what's hot right now in the OVP portfolio.
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