The last day of the conference was pretty low-key. We attended one very useful panel entitled Venture Capital Europe on which Judy Gibbons of Accel Partners, George Coelho of Benchmark Capital, Jean-Marc Patouillaud of Partech International, Sasha Galitsky of RT Fund and Bert Markus of Wellington Partners. The roundtable was moderated by the inimitable Alex Vieux. The truth is that I expected a panel of back-scratching in which the moderator offered puffball questions that the VCs would knock out of the park to market their companies. But Alex’s questions were very intelligent and pointed. And whenever a VC offered a superficial response, Alex pushed them to give real answers. He was very aggressive, perhaps even to the point of being slightly antagonistic. But it seems that the VCs were prepared for his approach and took it in good stride. It seems that they knew and respected Alex, so his reproaches were not rebuffed but rather treated as legitimate criticisms that demanded a more appropriate response. And the entrepreneurs in the audience felt that there had an ally on stage that was defending their interests while forcing the VCs to give intelligent and well-thought-out responses. A few of the highlights:

• Everyone acknowledged that there is no comparison between Silicon Valley and Europe. The key will be when the ecosystem here can depend on experienced, serial entrepreneurs.
• Alex noted that the culture in Silicon Valley is one in which the VCs fly private jets and go off to vacation in super-exclusive and expensive hot spots. It seems that the European VCs have not quite adopted such a culture. Relatedy, VCs in Europe seem not to earn quite as much money as VCs in the United States. One question that Alex asked in this regard related to whether VCs make money more from the back-ends of transactions or from management fees. The consensus was that it was illegitimate to make the majority of a funds fees from management fees.
• The Internet is hot right now for the simple reason that investors like the possibility of being able to gain a lot of main with very little investment.
• There is a problem of seed capital in Europe. VCs come too late. I thought this was just a problem in Spain, but it appears that it’s also true throughout the rest of Europe. In the US, by contrast, it’s possible to raise a few million dollars in seed capital in a couple of hours. George Coelho recounted the example of a friend who raised seed capital this way and in such a short time span.
• A lot of VCs are very formula-based. They have to “do the math” to make sure that their institutional investors will be happy, but this might unduly limit the kinds of companies in which they can invest.
• There was some discussion as to whether active VC involvement is a reality, and if it is a reality, whether it’s a good thing. VCs want to invest in the winners within a certain investment class, but who is really willing to do the heavy work to transform an interesting project into a market leader? And what roles are the VCs better at — should they help more in terms of hiring, selling, structuring the company, providing international contacts, etc.? Or should the bulk of the heavy lifting be left to the entrepreneur? (I’m not sure what the right answer is here, though I know what my preference is. In any case, it’s funny to note that in many cases the VCs hire a heavy lifter and push the entrepreneurs to a non-executive role.) Apparently, the founders of SKYPE often state that they’re happy the VCs left them alone to build their project up, because otherwise the result might not have been as successful. It’s an interesting point of view. The consensus seemed to be that the VC should be an active board member, but she should not think that she is an active member of the executive team.
• Entrepreneurs should do due diligence before getting married to a VC. Call their other portfolio companies to see what they’re really like.
• There is no proven, world-class VC in Europe. No company has a sufficient track record to claim bragging rights. There might be 300 star VCs in the US, but unfortunately there are no real stars in Europe.