The venture capital mating game today is chaotic. Business plans usually flow from entrepreneur to VC. But what if VCs, with their broad view of deal flow, could publish what investments they think are most attractive and have qualified entrepreneurs apply for those categories?
That is the concept behind an article in Business 2.0 where 20 top VCs from Draper to Khosla identify their ideal market niches and even name the amount of money they would be willing to fund.
I was thinking - wouldn't it be neat if we could get CIOs/CTOs to similarly start their own wish list of startup technologies they would endorse. As I wrote in the MAGIC framework, there is a significant chasm between what CIOs need for innovation in their businesses and what start-ups and VCs often dream up.
Rather than entrepreneurs pushing uphill, it would be nice to see likely customer demand and VC deal flow visibility provide much more intelligent and relevant cues to startups. Not to discourage wild new ideas from percolating, but the reality is if customers and VCs are not that excited about funding the idea over the next 2-3 years, the wild idea probably needs to be tamed a bit...
