How is this score calculated? Would it look anything remotely like a chart of growth in total valuation of the portfolio? Without knowing more about the metrics, this chart is meaningless. In particulary, if we have a dozen different growth scores, which are all being weighted equally, averaged across all the companies in a portfolio regardless of current size or current valuation of VC stakes, these scores are almost absolutely meaningless.
That is an interesting technique. I noted Steamboat Ventures is at -88 and yet with the GoPro launch I expect they probably are going to have a good aggregate internal ROR. Would be interesting to try different slices against this, like rate of return vs growth. Back in the dot com days a lot of companies grew really fast, burning money, and then went 'poof!'. So from a growth metric they looked great, but from an ROI investment they were poor.
This is a really important insight as you read this study. We are starting to collect unrealized and realized IRR data from funds, and I hope we will be able to provide a more performance-based index ranking soon.
Which, if you've read dmor's other stuff is exactly why she does what she does. Taking open sources and evaluating VC performance to understand who are 'crushing it' and who really isn't.
