Australian VC

Stuck on a domestic flight I tried meditating with limited success. If there is any noise less compatible with meditating than the Qantas piped messages, I haven’t heard it.

Eventually I occupied myself with the Financial Review, the more readable of the two freely available tabloids on Qantas.

And why, I wonder, do they even offer up the Australian? Apart from it’s questionable content, courtesy of Rupert, when opened it pretty much covers three seats.

Anyway, I was amused to see an article reporting on certain self interested parties calling on the government to mandate that a fraction of our superannuation funds be invested in local venture capital

This rebuttal of the concept by the super industry spokesperson bears repeating:

“Experience has shown [that] people running VC organisations [in Australia] earn more than those who have invested in it”.

In fact, most investors in Australian VC have had a negative IRR. And in total the return to investors in Australian VC has been negative (on capital) over the last 40 years.

None of the new players have articulated a plan that addresses the documented and systematic flaws of Australian VC. See http://issuu.com/ianmax/docs/australian_venture_capital_____can_

Failing in this they do not deserve our attention.

I can’t imagine the lobbying power of the super industry losing this battle, thank God.