Silicon Valley VC Confidence Still Strong

The University of San Francisco has just released Q3 results for their Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index. While down slightly from Q1 of 2004, the “Index level of 4.05 in this latest quarter is still very favorable and portends a continued strong Bay Area entrepreneurial environment.”
Previous higher index values were based primarily on optimism about a potential recovery. And while the recovery is not quite as robust as the VCs had hoped for, the relatively high index this quarter is based on hard figures that they seem to really like.
“In the previous two quarters confidence appears to have stemmed mainly come from high expectations of an impending recovery which would include the opening up of IPO markets, better macro economic numbers, increased corporate spending, and the rise of many innovative technologies that were not funded during the previous year. In the current quarter, however, investor confidence appears primarily based on the assessment of real business factors such as strong M&A momentum, low overhead costs, and an increasing number of start-up activities.”
These “real business” factors are much more reliable indicators of actual economic growth.