VC: what is the status? and what is your next cool idea, Mr. Tech?

Interesting reading. I strongly suggest having a look at it.

"5-year VC returns through 2008 were 6 percent compared to 48 percent in 2000"

"VC funds shrank 39 percent to $4.3 billion in the first quarter, from $7.1 billion in the same quarter a year ago"

"But the simple fact remains that unless engineers can come up with new technologies that will spur a new wave of business reinvention, there will be little of real value in which VCs can invest their dwindling capital resources. The few IPOs of VC-backed companies in this decade have been related to consumer technologies that only support one or two companies, rather than an entire business ecosystem."

"Without such a wave of new companies, it will be difficult to support the kind of IPO boom that makes VC pay off for its investors. And without an IPO market, at $11.4 trillion in national debt, the U.S. is just the world's biggest debtor -- and that's not a prescription for economic growth."