Why Corporate VC Funds Are Bad For Those Companies

from the stay-away dept

I've said for a long time that I didn't think that corporate venture capital funds were a good idea. For the most part I believed that they caused too much conflict of interest, and were run by people who didn't have enough experience/knowledge to do the job properly. Now, there's a VC who agrees with me and has much more thought out and, well, better reasons for thinking that corporations should stay out of the VC business. For the most part, they don't work, they increase the risk of lawsuits, they cause a brain drain at the firm, infighting within the firm and distraction from core competence. Instead, as a corporation, you should just go give your money to a guy like (for instance) the one who wrote this article, and continue on your merry way building products. Let the professional VCs squander your money in their own way.