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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: Business Week ebiz | |||||||||||||||||
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Venture-Capital Sites Come of Age No longer just ads for offline operations, VC sites are morphing fast into potent resources for online deals between investors and startups Congratulations! You have the idea that will change everything, a plan for a $500,000 widget to replace some conglomerate's $50 million version or a business model that will E-lectrify some staid business where your dad once made a living. But as surely as the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, the road from an idea to Net Nirvana is paved with cash. That means venture capital to pay for everything while you march your upstart army right onto the map of world commerce. But how do you figure out where to look for the money? And how do you know what the folks with the cash are thinking and what they're doing with plans like yours? Venture money is a cornerstone of the New Economy, and, as with all things about the Internet, the resources to let you get a grip on venture capital online are changing fast. Top sites devoted to VC are redefining -- and extending -- their mission and their audience. Sites like Venture One (www.ventureone.com) and PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree (www.pwcmoneytree.com) have long doled out the data -- and still do. Newer sites like Garage.com and Venture Capital Online (www.vcapital.com) are springing up to do the rest. LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES. The caliber of VC information online is improving fast, and the ability to find investors and make deals through contacts made in cyberspace is emerging. Like the rest of the Net, a group of sites that began as advertising for offline services mixed with increasingly useful content is morphing fast into a set of resources that blend the Web's three C's: content, community, and commerce. I've looked at the VC part of life from both sides now. As a journalist, I've relied mostly on data sites like MoneyTree and Venture One, which offer some limited news and how-to content. With some reservations, they're great for what I need as a journalist.
Among the established sites, which work best as ways to get basic information on what VCs are backing, MoneyTree has the choicer fruit. Its online information is deeper than Venture One's, not because Venture One has any less intelligence but because PricewaterhouseCoopers lets you see more of the goodies for free. Regional economists and state business officials, for example, can determine with just a few clicks what is going on in their area or neighboring states. MoneyTree also gives much more information about specific companies and the venture firms that invest in them. If your interest in VC is more than academic, Garage and Venture Capital Online offer a promising beginning on venture-capital news, how-to content, and community. They even offer the promise of some E-commerce: Business Week's Mike McNamee recently reported about small businesses that found investors through each site. Some have closed deals; others are negotiating (see BW 7/19/99, "Click Here for Cash" [subscribers only, available until July 29]).
Garage.com is similar, but maybe a little more fun than VCapital.com. Wannabes can take heart from the site's profiles of famous garages where companies like Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard were hatched. There's a standard business-plan template to help keep entrepreneurs from going on tangents and expert advice on banking, law, and accounting. A news feed is also here, but it's drawn from more sources and has more how-to articles about the startup process than VCapital's does. There's also a community of potential investors (a considerably harder-hitting list than VCapital's) who use the site to peruse investments. All four of these sites mark a substantial start toward turning online venture-capital communities from point-and-click brochures into a real marketplace. The tiny size and micro-mini track records of the community/commerce sites keep me from saying they're changing the VC world. But together with MoneyTree and VentureOne, they offer encouraging signs of a more liquid, transparent venture market to come. If I had only known about them in 1997, then -- surprise! -- I still would have flopped. But that's another story, for another time. Mullaney is Business Week's E-Business editor. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
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 WEB POINTERS Read our review, then try the sites: Venture One MoneyTree Venture Capital Online Garage.com | ||||||||||||
