A post from Auren Hoffman, angel investor and CEO of e-mail reputation management system Rapleaf Inc., reminds us how insular the Web 2.0 world can be. Hoffman applauds Mohr Davidow Ventures for its investment in international social networking site Hi5 Networks, which he considers a stellar company and a good investment. We're with him so far. But then he concludes that the deal will raise the VC firm's profile among young entrepreneurs: "This helps put Mohr Davidow on the map as a VC to talk to for consumer Internet companies."

Tech Confidential would like to remind readers — and Hoffman — of MDV's investments in PBwiki Inc., Big Tent Design Inc. and Fliqz Inc. Hoffman contends that MDV's investments aren't familiar names: "You'll be hard pressed to recognize more than three of the companies." He may be right, but an inability to recognize MDV portfolio companies Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Rambus Inc., Nanosolar Inc. and Agile Software Corp. likely points to a lack of research — as well as years — on behalf of the entrepreneur rather than an indication of the firm's success as an investor.

The post highlights a failure of imagination by some Web 2.0 denizens who tend to think that the world stops beyond their atypically spelled businesses and consumer-oriented companies. VCs with successful track records tend to invest based on their history with an entrepreneur and their belief that the investment will make the firm a boatload of money.  So if MDV hasn't invested much in Web 2.0, perhaps it's time for entrepreneurs in the space to scrutinize their own business plans rather than congratulate a VC for finally "getting it," when they make an investment in a profitable, and growing Web 2.0 company. —Stacey Higginbotham

See Aug. 4 post from Summation
See July 24 post from TheDeal.com

Tags: vc, venture+capital, web 2.0