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	<title>Victor Cheng &#187; vc</title>
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		<title>TheFunded.com &#8211; The Balance of Power Has Shifted</title>
		<link>http://www.victorcheng.com/thefunded</link>
		<comments>http://www.victorcheng.com/thefunded#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:37:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Victor Cheng</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Victor Cheng Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[thefunded.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture capital]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.victorcheng.com/blog/?p=17</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Last night, I attended a launch event of sorts for TheFunded.com</p>
<p>Actually, <a  rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.thefunded.com/">TheFunded.com</a> has been online for over a year, but up until now, it&#039;s founder has chosen to remain anonymous.</p>
<p><a  href="http://www.victorcheng.com/thefunded" class="more-link">More on TheFunded.com &#8211; The Balance of Power Has Shifted</a></p>


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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last night, I attended a launch event of sorts for TheFunded.com</p>
<p>Actually, <a  rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.thefunded.com/">TheFunded.com</a> has been online for over a year, but up until now, it&#039;s founder has chosen to remain anonymous.</p>
<p>TheFunded.com is a Web 2.0 &#034;Consumer Reports&#034; type site where CEOs of Venture-Backed companies anonymously rate the investors they&#039;ve worked with and presented to.</p>
<p>All of the major VCs on TheFunded.com have ratings and reviews &#8212; just like books on Amazon.com.</p>
<p>The &#034;great reveal&#034; was quite interesting for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>First, it turns out TheFunded.com has been quietly operated by just one person &#8212; serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi.  Adeo seems to be on a genuine mission to level the balance of power between Entrepreneurs are the Venture Investor.  I say he seems genuine, because anyone who has manually reviewed 6,000+ applications to become members of TheFunded.com must either be passionate, crazy, or crave carpal tunnel-causing adminstrative work.  My bet is he&#039;s passionate.</p>
<p>Second, there was drama in the room.  There were a number of less-than-pleased Venture Capitalists in the room. I presume they or their firms were not rated well on TheFunded.com, because they were pitching Adeo Ressi on changing certain features on the site (e.g., get rid of the anonyminity).  I hope I wasn&#039;t the only one who noticed the irony of a venture capitalist giving an elevator pitch to an entrepreneur.  Looks to me the site is already leveling the playing field between CEO and investor.</p>
<p>I couldn&#039;t help but notice the social dynamics at play in the room.</p>
<p>In the early part of the evening, it was clear the room was composed of primarily two types of people: 1) those looking for money; and 2) those with money.</p>
<p>As you might expect, those looking for money were busy getting face time with those with the money.  Those looking for money were antsy &#8212; busy planning on who to talk to, in what order.  In contrast, those with the money seemed calm, relaxed, and, at some level, were enjoying the attention.</p>
<p>By the end of the evening, it was clear from Adeo&#039;s remarks that CEO entrepreneurs have a lot of pent-up angst when it comes to dealing with certain VCs.  While the evening could have very easily become a VC-bashing event, it did not &#8212; though many people seemed to be thinking about it.  This was evident when many of the people in the room would preface their comments during cocktails with, &#034;Wait&#8230; are you an investor?&#034;</p>
<p>Clearly, the entrpreneurs did not want to offend prospective investors.  Yet, they certainly had a lot on their minds.  I suppose that&#039;s why TheFunded.com has grown so quickly via word-of-mouth and is the subject of many conversations in the venture community.</p>
<p>Actually, there was a subtle tension in the room most of the evening.  CEOs were either schmoozing with the investors or double-checking to see if someone was an investor so that could talk more openly about their experiences wtih VCs.  If ever there was an &#034;us&#034; vs. &#034;them&#034; situation going on, this would be it.</p>
<p>So, my parting thought to Adeo was, &#034;The guy&#039;s got some guts.&#034;  My parting comment was, &#034;I hope you get used to wearing a bulls-eye on your back.&#034;</p>


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