A recent story in The Sunday Oregonian described how the venture capital industry is drying up in Oregon, down either 38 percent or 14 percent, depending on the source cited ("Recession tightens spigot on flow of venture capital," Jan. 24). Those of us in the startup world have seen this happening, so it's no big surprise. It's not that Oregon has inferior entrepreneurs or startups. Quite the contrary, actually. There's a much more important factor at work: the almost complete lack of early investment in startups, called seed capital.
Seed-stage capital is one of the most critical ingredients in the success of high-growth businesses. Providing seed investment capital allows entrepreneurs to quit their job and begin to build their ideas. Without seed capital, great business concepts may go elsewhere -- or worse, go nowhere at all.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Getting Portland on the map as a hub for startups | The Stump - OregonLive.com
Author: Josh Friedman
