风险资本在硅谷高科技术发展中的作用(编辑修改稿)

风险资本在硅谷高科技术发展中的作用(编辑修改稿)内容摘要：

n Apple, Intel and some others led to decisions to establish branch offices in the San Francisco area which in turn led to the formation of new venture capital partnerships as others follow and as some of original partners split off to form new firms. Success breeds success and as venture capital firms boast of average annual returns of 25 to 35%, more funds bee available to make these investments and more groups are formed to manage the invested capital and funds. It is not unusual today for established venture capital firms to manage one billion dollars or more. Venture capital is invested in early stage, privately held panies in hopes of gaining a windfall profit when such pany bees publicly listed or is merged with another pany whereby the acquiring pany pays handsomely for their equity stake. It is very important to keep in mind that venture capital investments depend on clearcut route to being able to liquidate their investments. Most high tech startups, as 14 many as 4 out of 5, fail and the investment is written off. However, a successful venture capitalist will manage to make at least one investment that brings a return to more than make up for the losses. Because of the risky nature of these investments, venture capitalists rarely make investments in profitable but slow growing businesses. Such businesses take a long time to go public and do not offer a big enough potential return. Rather, venture capitalists look for panies with the potential of outstanding return on investment. In Silicon Valley, this potential is often referred to as having an anticipated revenue stream of a hockey stick. Companies engaged in developing high tech breakthroughs are more likely to experience the hockey stick phenomenon than say a chain of fast food restaurants. This is why venture capital goes to where high tech breakthroughs are being made. While the need to make huge return on investments explains the attraction of venture capital to the high tech industries, it does not explain why Silicon Valley can attract such a disproportionate share of the venture capital. To understand that, it is necessary to examine the culture and other characteristics of Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley culture and infrastructure In many ways, Silicon Valley is unique even within the . No other place is as diverse as Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has room for people from all over the world and they all e, attracted by the pleasant weather and the diversity of people. Diversity is crucial in high technology because diversity automatically ensures many different ways of thinking and looking at problems leading to a host of solutions. Only in this manner can the best solution be synthesized out of contending 15 ideas and emerge as the mercial winner. In a way, high tech innovation is similar to Darwinian survival of the species. Namely, endangered species bordering on extinction suffer from narrow gene pools while healthy species enjoy wide and diverse gene pools. In Silicon Valley today, as one indication of its inclusive diversity, over 30% of the panies are founded or managed by immigrants from China, Taiwan and India. The best and brightest are attracted to Silicon Valley not only because of the inclusive nature of this placecertainly overt discrimination because of someone’s skin color and other differentiation has largely disappeared. The other reason is that entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley can readily find others of like mind to band together and approach venture capital investors with business plans and proposals. In Silicon Valley, venture capitalists do not refuse to invest on someone just because the particular entrepreneur es from a failed venture. Since most ventures do fail, the investor gives the entrepreneur credit for having gained valuable experience even if the previous venture failed. This tolerance for failure is crucial in encouraging entrepreneurs to take risks and start panies. The importance cannot be over emphasized. In Silicon Valley, “it is OK to fail.” No other place has quite the same openminded attitude. With the success of high tech industries and the growth of venture capital in Silicon Valley, the economic infrastructure also expanded and became part of the environment. Infrastructure needed to support high tech panies include law firms and accounting firms to help them form proper legal structure and organized to meet Securities Exchange regulations with proper stock ownership incentive programs for not just 16 the founders but also for employees joining the high tech enterprise. The legal and accounting firms also help the venture capital firms structure their investments and keep track of their gains and losses. Other parts of the total infrastructure include public relations and advertising firms that serve the marketing and munication needs of high tech panies. Investment banks help the panies with initial public offering and followon secondary offerings in the equity market and propose mergers. Specialized mercial banks and leasing firms were established just to serve the high tech panies that more traditional banks dare not touch because the latter did not understand the nature of high tech panies and were frightened by its high mortality rate. An entire profession emerged that called themselves “free lance technical writers.” These writers contract their services to high tech panies to help them write user’s manuals, technical brochures and a host of documents to help the panies convey what they have developed to the public. Human capital firms helped high tech panies set employee hiring policies and help locate and recruit people with the needed skill sets. Successful entrepreneurs often retired from active management and。