[Posted on January 29, 2008 - 1:50 PM]
E-mail
del.icio.us
Technorati
DiggPalm Desert, Calif--There's debate among investors whether good deals can be sourced at conferences such as Demo. Over the years, there is no doubt that a relatively high percentage of presenting companies at Demo have gone on to successful venture capital fundraisings and then lucrative exits. However, the question is whether all of the attention the startups garner at the event itself drives up their valuations to unhealthy levels. Whatever the answer may be, venture capitalists have shown up at Demo in force. Here's a partial head count:
Allegis Capital's Pete Bodine and Jean-Louis Gassee
Alsop Louie Partners' Stewart Alsop and Gilman Louie
August Capital's Vivek Mehra
Azure Capital Partners' Mike Kwatinetz and Cameron Lester
BV Capital's Thomas Gieselmann
Carmel Ventures' - Avi Zeevi
Centennial Ventures' Neel Sarkar
CMEA Ventures' Faysal Sohail
Diamondhead Ventures' David Lane
Focus Ventures' Kevin McQuillan
Hummer Winblad's Prashant Shah
Idealab!'s Teresa Bridwell
Innovacom Venture Capital's Aymerik Renard
Longworth Venture Partners' Christopher Capra
Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha
Menlo Ventures' Parvin Vazirani
Morgenthaler Ventures' Ken Gullickson and Gary Little
Northbridge Venture Partners' Paul Santinelli
Qualcomm Ventures' Keith Muhart
Scale Venture Partners' Chad Kinzelberg
Steamboat VC's Scott Hilleboe
The Carlyle Group's Nick Sturiale
Trident Capital's Matthew Chagan
Trinity Ventures' Larry Orr
It's an impressive list, no doubt. Some are at Demo to support presenting portfolio companies. Most are here to add to the portfolio. But, noticeable absentees include investors from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital and Accel Capital. I guess the partners at that quartet consider the frequent, but long, flights to Israel, China and India more worthwhile than the one hour hop to Palm Springs. - Joshua Jaffe
Joshua Jaffe is general manager of TechConfidential.com.
