DST and Y Combinator: A (VC) Industry in Transition
This week’s debate over AngelList(background: link, link), and how VC deals are sourced and evaluated, is just further emphasis that the Venture Capital Industry is in transition. The fundamental forces driving this transition have been playing out for a while now: Lean Startups[11.“Cheap revolution,” open source stacks, RoR, etc.], Super Angels, a legit secondary market for private company shares, huge late-stage valuations, and readily available monetization systems[22.Pervasive internet adoption, Google AdSense, Apple App Store.] leading to very high “capital efficiency” and short cycles from founding to break-even.
An event illustrative of this transition is the announcement that financial firm Digital Sky Technologies (DST) will, automatically and on extremely generous terms, invest $150,000 in every seed-stage company that Y Combinator backs. Y Combinator itself, ambiguously understood by the VC community ((Is it an angel investor?…