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Week of December 31, 2007 - January 6, 2008 |
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Venture Capital Predictions for 2008
Where is the venture capital industry headed
in 2008? The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) recently asked
its members to muse on this question and offer their own predictions for
2008. In general, venture capitalists (VCs) still remain fairly bullish
on their prospects next year. In particular, the cleantech sector will
remain very hot. VCs also expect the initial-public-offering (IPO)
market to remain steady, but they also predict a shake-out among VC
firms. As a result, fewer, but stronger, firms will remain in the
market. While VCs feel pretty good about their industry, they’re less
rosy when asked to comment on overall economic trends. Sixty percent of
surveyed VCs expect US economic performance to decline in 2008. |
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A New Plan for American Competitiveness Earlier this month,
the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America (ASTRA)
released a new fourteen-point plan to increase spending on scientific
research and to strengthen America’s global competitive position. The
report’s fourteen recommendations fall into three broad categories:
increasing funding for Federal R&D, especially in leading edge sectors
like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and high-performance computing;
improving the quality of science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) education at all levels of the US educational system;
and creating a business environment that is supportive of innovation and
competitiveness. |
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A new policy briefing from Britain’s
National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts (NESTA) takes a
look how to “make innovative places.” The briefing summarizes the
findings of several larger studies that examine how to promote
innovation in both urban and rural settings. The studies note that two
factors help drive local innovative capacity in cities: the presence of
scale and choice, and local links with specialized innovation networks.
Many of these assets don’t exist in rural areas, so these communities
need to consider specialized approaches and also consider building
closer linkages to urban areas. The studies also suggest that regional
actors need to actively take part in a “regional innovation journey”
that allows a region to create major change through a series of small
achievable steps that build local innovation capacity. The report
reviews the typical steps of this journey and also offers helpful
suggestions for responding to the inevitable challenges that will arise
in the process. |
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The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship is an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving entrepreneurship around the world. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. |
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National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
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stories © 2007 The Public Forum Institute
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