http://www.ales..._stage_founding

My question is pretty simple but don’t have an easy answer: is the Silicon Valley loosing his “fashion” even for investor ?

What about Europe ? Can have a chance to reduce the gap ? …or more?

We’re in the process of raising VC money in France. It’s a lil tougher than expected (people are still not really comfortable with video games there) but we should still be able to close the round end of Q1.

An investor wouldn’t put their money in stocks right now, because the volatility, which whilst good for short term buying/selling is no good for someone who wants to buy and hold.

Property is relatively better except the rental returns will not be any good for a while and the market hasn’t bottomed out yet.

Interest rates at UK banks are around 1% if you’ve got a million. Much less if you don’t. In most cases if your bank goes bust (which they seemingly do on an weekly basis nowadays) you’re only guaranteed to get a portion of your million.

Gold and metal prices are going down because of less demand. There may be an opportunity there, however we don’t know when global demand will pick up enough to drive decent returns.

The retreating waters have also exposed the Madoff and Stanford scams with probably many others to be found.

In all, there are a lot of wealthy people who are really worried about where they can put their money right now. There are safe places to put your money but right now most of them require an investor to be trading literally on a daily basis just so they don’t lose money, never mind making a profit.

Blue Chip VC funds normally mature on a 7 year cycle whilst normally outperforming the S&P500/FTSE/Dow Jones and other western Indices.

Given all that Sarah if you had $10 million where would you put it? (Please don’t mention Apple or Google stock)

Does this safe approach make us a failure or a safe haven compared to the Valley?

ha! just goes to prove that there are liars, damn liars, and VCs.

yes I am sure they had no problems raising this fund, given how liquid the latest fund’s portfolio is.

Will this credit crisis turn innovation back to Europe?

We will only know the change of powers of this economic crisis in a few years time.

from my experience running a London-based hub where (security) start-ups and investors meet, I can also attest that venture funding in Europe has not dried up. Given the more conservative nature of European VCs (compared to SV), there are many funds in continental Europe flush with money, who I predict will be taking advantage of the lower valuations now.