Here’s hoping we’ll meet now and then

Howard Anderson at Technology Review: Good-Bye to Venture Capital. Howard, who was one of my professors at Sloan and who cofounded YankeeTek Ventures and Battery Ventures, says he’s getting out of the VC business because “technology supply is bloated” (i.e. there’s more technology available than people can buy); “the hype machine is broken” (i.e. executives are no longer spending money on tech like their hair was on fire); and “the financial markets for technology companies are no longer exuberantly irrational.” So Howard is getting out of the business and won’t be raising any more funds.

Part of this, I know, is Howard being Howard—controversial and blunt-spoken. But how much of his analysis is on? Is there really no way to make the big returns any more? Or, as an anonymous colleague of mine puts it, is he taking his marbles and going home because it didn’t work out for him?

(Update: the comments on this BusinessWeek article and from A VC and Brad Feld suggest that it might be the latter.)

Google google google, google google google.

Three Google items:

  1. The new personalized Google interface has arrived, prompting cries of “Oh God, it’s a portal.” Good: the default interface is still clean and uncluttered. Bad: for now.
  2. Google Desktop went out of beta.
  3. Google AdSense for RSS feeds launches (see fellow Sloan class of 2002 grad Shuman Ghosemajumder’s post on the Google Blog for other links). I’m really of a mixed mind on this; on the one hand, bully for all those small publishers whose sites are supported by AdSense revenue, because they just got a way to make their RSS feeds pay for themselves. On the other, AH GOD GET THE ADS OUT OF MY RSS AHHHHH!

Geez. Even writing this post, I’m feeling a little too much like John Cusack. Malkovich malkovich? Google google google.