"FIGHTING TO GET IN ON THE NEXT LITTLE THING".... DEALS HEATING UP IN THE VALLEY

The NY Times has an entertaining article on the increased activity and competition in Silicon Valley. I guess it's a good time to be an entrepreneur that's interested in funding from venture capitalists.

Four months to six months. Only a year or two ago, that was how long start-up companies generally had to cajole, fret and act nonchalant while waiting for venture capitalists to part with money--if they proved willing to write a check at all.

Even during robust times, the period between a first pitch meeting with a venture capitalist and financing typically spans three months. So imagine the surprise of those behind a start-up called XenSource when they started shopping for cash this summer on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif.--the venture capital equivalent of Wall Street--and had seven firm offers within three weeks.

XenSource, which has developed software that runs several operating systems simultaneously on a single computer chip, is 18 months old. It has yet to book a dime in revenues. But so different is the current venture climate when compared with just 18 months ago that the company was able to raise $17 million. "If we had gone up and down Sand Hill, we could have had 25 offers," said Nick Sturiale, a partner at Sevin Rosen Funds. "There was that much interest in the company."(full article)