(c) copyright, View from Silicon Valley, 2008.  All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Among the freebies on View from Silicon Valley is Venture Capital (VC) spending here in Silicon Valley (http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id112.html).  Since VC money is widely cited as the source of high housing prices, it is critical to understand if ever-bullish headlines about local VC spending are actually true.

 

VentureOne freely provided this info since 2004, enabling us to share it with our readers.

 

Unfortunately, following up on our "First, Let's Kill All the Data," March 17, 2008, (http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id399.html) another source of data is now cut-off.

 

It's not like we were stealing this data.  VentureOne freely provided it, based on exchanges such as:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 2:06 PM
To: Corporate Communications
Subject: VC funding statistics

 

Hello:

 

I read your web site statistics on VC funding with great interest.  I especially enjoy reading the history data.

 

Do you also have a breakdown by company location?  I am especially interested to learn the percentages of companies located in, or not located in, the Silicon Valley area who are being funded.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: XXX @ventureone.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 2:09 PM
Subject: RE: VC funding statistics

 

Hello:

 

What I have is the breakdown of investments for Bay Area/Silicon Valley companies. Then you can use that to compare it to the national and figure out what percentage the Bay Area represents of the national numbers.

 

I prepared this yesterday for another reporter. Perhaps this helps.

 

* * * * *

Lest someone think this was an isolated case or some kind of rogue employee, identical exchanges took place:

Wednesday, March 09, 2005 10:51 AM

Monday, June 06, 2005 11:23 AM

Saturday, April 22, 2006 9:41 AM

Monday, January 01, 2007 3:58 PM
Thursday, August 02, 2007 8:39 PM

Sunday, November 11, 2007 11:18 AM

 

In fact, these dates were all in a single e-mail thread. Unfortunately, the last exchange went as follows:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 9:40 PM
To: 'Corporate Communications (V1)'
Subject: RE: VC funding statistics- latest?

Hello:

May I please have a copy of your latest VC funding stats?  I'm particularly interested in the Silicon Valley figures.

 

Thanks! 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: xxx @dowjones.com  (<===notice the change in e-mail? New ownership??)
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 9:37 AM
Subject: VentureSource Financial information

Hello:

My name is XXX and I am the account rep. for the corporate vertical including Sbcglobal and I understand that you have an interest in VentureSource. The information you are requesting is a service we can provide for you. Let me know of a good time to reach out to you and discuss VentureSource.

Regards,
XXX
Account Executive-Private Markets
Dow Jones & Co.

 

Editor' note:  What is it with "reach out to you."  Is this the mafia?  Are we some kind of floundering idiots in need of saving?  Helpless fools expected to be grateful for assistance handed down from on high?

 

Rising above the choice of words, we tried to explain the request more clearly:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:00 AM
From: xxx @dowjones.com

Attached is an example of the data I am seeking.  (it was essentially the data you see at: http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id112.html)

In the past, this information has been supplied free of charge. ("All you have to do is ask," was the reply on more than one occasion.)  Has that policy changed?

 

-----Original Message----- (empahsis added)
From: xxx @dowjones.com
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:08 AM
Subject: RE: VentureSource Financial information

Unfortunately that is not supposed to be given out free of charge as it is part of the VentureSource database. (Ah, baloney!  This data wasn't sent out seven or eight times by accident.  You guys changed policy and now want to charge fees for previously-free data.)  If that is the information you are seeking then yes VentureSource can provide that for you and much more from an aggregate stand point as well as specific company profiles both startups and investment firms.

VentureSource is a high end search engine that currently holds information on over 38,000 companies and close to 14,000 investment firms.

The standard license agreement is 5,000 reports for $23,500. We have lower report licenses as well as higher ones too. 

I would be more than happy to discuss this further with you and if this is viewed as good fit for your company I will provide you with a free demo and trial.

The demo is approximately 60 minutes and the trial is for one week.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 2:26 PM
To: xxx @dowjones.com

If I understand correctly, you advocate going from one free spreadsheet per quarter, ...to 5,000 reports a year for $23,500? ...

-----Original Message-----
From: xxx @dowjones.com
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 2:43 PM
Subject: RE: VentureSource Financial information

The information you have been receiving is a fraction of the information in our database. ...

There are currently 20 researchers in our office plus we have researchers in London, NY and Shanghai, all using the same methodology. ...

$23,500 is our standard license for 1 year (5000 reports) ... There is a lot more to say here, that is why I suggest that you sit through a demo and take a trial if you think that this is a product you could use and have a budget in place for.
...
Regards,
XXX
 * * * * * * * *

Conclusion:  At this point it is clear the guy will not deterred from closing what he thinks should be a big sale. Unfortunately, our budget is we send an e-mail, they send a spreadsheet.

Since this exchange, we even received a couple SPAM solicitations from the guy! 

Chalk up another category of dead data.  (Since the Silicon Valley VC total for last quarter (4Q07) did leak out, a simplified version of the page is now published at http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id112.html...)

For those keeping track, Silicon Valley's 4Q07 VC spend was -4% from 3Q07.  History suggests DowJones/VentureOne's change means Silicon Valley VC spending continues to decline-- probably declining more rapidly than last quarter.