You know who else has a horrible website? Berkshire Hathaway <a href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/</a> . Lets think about this for a minute. Do VC firms want people to go to their website and email them about a cool investment? How do people actually interact with VC firms is that its usually a one on one with the company that they are trying to invest in. Therefore, they don't really need a expensive website to be successful.
The Lightspeed Venture graphic is the best, looks like they were aiming for the Peter Jackson tricks of perspective to make the front row guys look like hobbits. Maybe looking to corner the hot Shire startup scene?
I did the new version of Kleiner Perkin's site (<a href="http://www.kpcb.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.kpcb.com</a>) and the first thing I did was to review the other VC sites out there. It is amazing how many VC websites look like they were coded up by an intern in a weekend.
I cringe whenever I see team photos of them where they've been put in aggressive postures or awkward poses.<p>My favorite though is First Round's where they make everyone the same height: <a href="http://firstround.com/team/" rel="nofollow">http://firstround.com/team/</a>
I'm not so sure there's much of a correlation between successful investing and having a nice site ... <a href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/</a><p>That said, I suppose it's fair to expect that companies funding web technology have passable sites.
It's certainly reasonable to say that VCs shouldn't be great at building web sites. But I want my investors to give a damn. One of my favorited tweets (by Alexis Ohanian):<p>"Give a damn. Give so many damns. As a startup/small shop, it's the only competitive advantage you have against incumbents."<p>I think their website can be a reflection of how much they give a damn. Maybe they are an incumbent and they don't have to. But if I have the choice to raise money from someone who still gives a damn, I will.
use search on Polaris Ventures website for: '<p>Error Type:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (0x80040E14)
Unclosed quotation mark before the character string ' and IsPortfolio=1 order by CompanyName'.
/Search.asp, line 72<p>-- feels like 2003 again :)
Totally agree. However, I grew up with a family in the film business, and my parents always said you could tell who was in charge because they were usually wearing jeans. The pages/errand boys were the ones in suits.<p>I also wish their website would be a bit nicer, but they have probably realized it doesn't matter, they are on top and anyone whose worth one's salt already knows it.
CrunchFund has no website at all. Google ventures has an awesome new site. Isn't a big deal to the established firms as people will flock if they have one or not. In fact the big firms almost wholly rely on recommendations and introductions from current investments so don't want people to easily be able to cold contact them through their site.
This article is funny that it points out the fact that the websites for the venture capital firms are lacking and quite horrible. You would think they would want a better looking site but then again, they are the ones who are being sought out so why care?
I don't know about VC, but people says you can judge how successful a contractor is by its website; successful one usually has crappy/nonexistent website.