They're not very popular on HN, but there's a great sit-down discussion between Mark Suster and Steve Blank from a while back in which they touch on this topic, among others:
"Let me know the last time (traditional) venture capital led an innovation. [...] As an industry, venture capital is now being disrupted by new entrants rather than the existing players. Everybody from Dave McClure to Andreessen were outsiders who were entrepreneurs themselves." (http://youtu.be/BUD2gxU5LPM - quote is at 49:30)
VCs are fast followers who are all racing to find hot ideas that have already started to take off, but it seems that most of them are no better at foreseeing and driving real innovation than even any of us.
"Let me know the last time (traditional) venture capital led an innovation. [...] As an industry, venture capital is now being disrupted by new entrants rather than the existing players. Everybody from Dave McClure to Andreessen were outsiders who were entrepreneurs themselves." (http://youtu.be/BUD2gxU5LPM - quote is at 49:30)
VCs are fast followers who are all racing to find hot ideas that have already started to take off, but it seems that most of them are no better at foreseeing and driving real innovation than even any of us.