At the last count there were seven bloggers from a venture capital background typing away and sharing their interests with the rest of the world. Theres Marc Goldberg from Occam Capital (http://mgoldberg.typepad.com); Régis Saleur from Galileo Partners and his blog about flying (http:// saleur.blogs.com); Pascal Mercier, a GP and cofounder of corporate finance boutique Aelios Finance (http://pascal.blogs.com); Chausson Finance has blog for the entire firm (http://chaussonfinance.blogs.com); Julien Codorniou, who used to be a VC with ETF and now an auditor with E&Y; Entrepreneurs with a focus on VC-backed companies (50% geek, 50% financial auditor with EY is how he describes himself) and spends some of his time writing about venture on his site (http://codor.blogs.com/); theres also Frédéric Humbert, (http://www.humbert.be), a GP with Innovacom (the blog is about rugby though, not his business) and then there is Rodrigo A. Sepulveda Schulz, a co-founder and CEO of RISC Partners (http://www.sepulveda.net).
Schulz started his personal site on April 5, 2004, and by mid March 2005 had had 38,321 visitors, which averages at 264 a day. RISC Partners is a Paris-based corporate advisory boutique in the private equity market. Schulz gives a number of reasons as to why he is doing it: I use my blog as an archive for some of my thoughts, findings, good pointers, relevant articles. You can consider it like a scrapbook where I store my information. I use a Google feature to search through all my data.
An initial response from many web-users to blogs is not just why, but why bother. Who cares what someone they have probably never met thinks about the world? Well, I enjoy the comments feature of blogs, says Schulz. I can test ideas out, ask for advice, ask for information I dont remember. Very often I get a reply back from my readers, helping to sort through matters. The side effects of blogging are like any networking tool. I have met a number of very interesting people both online, and offline (dinners, lunches, drinks), that I would not have met otherwise. Maintaining a continuous flow of posts on my site helps maintain interest from other people, and in the end creates a virtual bond. Some have become either good friends, or very good professional contacts. Finally, my blog helps establish both my reputation and raise awareness on what we [RISC Partners] do on the market: its an efficient PR tool, at a very modest price.
Pascal Mercier, who began his site in the latter half of 2003, is of a similar opinion: Its a really good networking approach, and is a very good way if I want to know more about a subject I can post a question on my blog and I could get a dozen people respond. For one post I had 55 responses, from Sweden to Korea.
Chausson Finances blog began in September last year. Chausson is a corporate finance boutique set up by Christophe Chausson in 1992, which focuses on venture capital fund raising for companies, mainly in the information technology and life science fields. Its mostly as part of our corporate communication strategy, says associate Thibault Lougnon, explaining the reason for the blog, to which the whole team at the firm contribute. It aims to provide visitors with some information about venture capital and the latest innovations as well as to give us a better visibility. Five years ago, we launched the Chausson Finance Index [a twice-yearly survey of French venture investments] for the same reasons. I believe the blog gives us a very good image. Its the first corporate blog within our industry and Im pretty surprised our colleagues dont do the same. The bad part is, as a corporate blog, people dont leave that many comments and the dialog with visitors is harder than through a personal blog.
VC bloggers differ slightly from other types of blogs, which generally tend to be about politics or culture or are little more than on-line diaries. VC bloggers, as well as encompassing some of these aspects, also use their blog to build contacts and perhaps even generate some deals. Mercier says: I get entrepreneurs looking for a service I provide, I get VCs who are asking what Im up to, and I also get the press because journalists want sources of information as in France we dont have venture capital portals.
Its a similar situation for Schulz, who says: I get a qualified deal flow through blogging as readers sense my interests easily. Discussions with other entrepreneurs and professionals tend to be easier as well. Ive also found that private placement specialists read all my posts. Its very amusing.
On paper at least, there can appear to be some risks associated with venture blogging. Do LPs really want their fund managers talking about their investments or potential investments? There was a case in the US where a venture partner at Ignition Partners wrote about a company he liked only for a rival firm to put in an offer to the company. Theres also the added risk that entrepreneurs may be reluctant to speak to a VC if they think their idea, and perhaps even the VCs opinion, is going to be posted on the Internet the next day. Lougnon rejects the notion that a blog can have a negative effect: I think maintaining a corporate blog can only be a plus. It shows the market youre active and that you know what you are talking about. Regarding personal VC blogs, I dont think LPs and portfolio companies care that much about it. Mercier, however, recognises such concerns: Its not easy for VCs to blog about their work. If it is your personal blog you shouldnt really talk about your business too much.
An unusual characteristic about the authors of these sites is their nationality: most of them are French. Lougnon takes a patriotic line when explaining this: French are early adopters! Didnt you know that?! A more probable answer is given by Schulz: My guess is that blogging in France is very closely associated with the product Typepad, from a company called SixApart. Loic Le Meur, a Frenchman, who has done an outstanding job to evangelize the French market, manages it. He is now working heavily on the German, Spanish, UK, Finnish, etc. markets as well.
Perhaps this will see British VCs and other nationalities start blogging, or maybe not. As one British VC said recently: We dont have time to sit around typing our thoughts onto a website. Some of us have work to do.
Some of the top US VC-related bloggers*
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/
Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures and Flatiron Partners
http://www.feld.com/blog/index.php
Brad Feld, Managing Partner, Mobius Venture Capital
http://www.theludwigs.com/
John Ludwig, Ignition Partners
http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/
Jeff Nolan, Venture Capitalist, SAP Ventures
http://nwvc.blogs.com/northwest_vc/
Steve Hall, Vulcan Capital
http://softtechvc.blogs.com/software_only/
Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC, a venture consulting firm
http://www.ventureblog.com/
Five contributors including; Andrew Anker is executive vice president, corporate development for blog platform developer Six Apart.
Previously, he was a general partner at August Capital, David Hornick, an investor at August Capital, Kevin Laws, an investor at PacRim Venture Partners, Naval Ravikant, partner at DotEdu Ventures and Martin Tobias, venture partners at Inigition Partners.
http://www.j-lp.com/blog/
Jean-Luc Park, Calvert Group of Mutual Funds Private Equity Group
http://jurvetson.blogspot.com/
Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
*Many of these bloggers also list their favourite blog reads, which include further US VC bloggers