Rik G Vandevenne, Director River Cities Capital Funds #smartmoneysv

I interviewed Rik G Vandevenne, Director River Cities Capital Funds from Nth Carolina @NVCA Venturescape. He spoke about River Cities Capital Funds who have about $500m under management & they’re investing in their 5th fund. They invest in growth equity, health care (medical devices, health care services, health care IT) & IT companies (B2B software as a service). His background is in mechanical engineering & strategy consulting & he’s been a vc for a decade. He spoke about his perspectives on the changes that are happening for the venture industry. Innovation happens nationwide & theres great innovation happening in some of the sectors they invest in outside of Boston & Silicon Valley. “The Rise of the Rest!” Great entrepreneurs exist nationwide & the capital has started to shrink in those areas. Venture capital industry has shrunk 50% over the last decade but its more like 80% to 90% in Boston. They see that its a good opportunity to get to know entrepreneurs longer, to track them over time & invest later stage at some of the similar values that you might have when you’re taking a lot more risk & investing in early stage companies. Hopefully that will result in better returns over time & that’s what the overall asset class needs to continue to grow. The pendulum will hopefully start to swing back the other way & people will see good returns & fund back into it.