Excluding Sigma

I don't often choose to brag about Sigma Partners, the VC firm at which I work ... but here is one of these times.

Earlier in the month AP ran a story from the National VC Association (NVCA) conference which was in turn picked up by the San Jose Mercury News (here). In it Diana Frazier, a managing director at FLAG Capital Management, is quoted as saying the riches delievered by the VC industry to our investors are actually driven by a few top-tier firms. Apparently "32 firms have accounted for 10 percent of the venture capital raised but produced 56 percent of the total returns", and this "may understate the discrepancy" because Frazier said her data excluded Sigma and a couple of other named firms, all of whose results are not available publicly.

We do like to think we are indeed in that top tier of firms, and historically we have been. However, you are only as good as your most recent deal, or in our case the most recent fund, and the pressure is always on to make the next funds as succesful as the previous ones.

Back to work.