The venture ecosystem went from cottage industry outsider to institutional insider – from a nascent practice to a consensus component of institutional portfolios. The result has been the industrialization–and bankerization–of venture. Firms that make dozens or even hundreds of investments per year, relentlessly focused on assets under management, u... See more

So if not for the structure, what caused venture’s shift towards such risk-averse investing? As fund sizes grew dramatically and a tech boom spurred a startup surge, the industry's emphasis shifted from discerning selection towards a more diversified 'spray and pray' approach, diluting the value of traditional tasteful investing. When the game of b... See more