Interview with Roger McNamee

As part of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association’s launch of its new quarterly industry magazine Private Capital, I interviewed celebrated venture capitalist Roger McNamee, a general partner of Elevation Partners. The man who recently sold BioWare/Pandemic Studios to Electronic Arts for $800 million.

Here are some key quotes, and the link to the article (pg. 13):

“I am convinced that venture investors today would have better results if they reduced the number of companies they invest in and were on only four or five boards”

“Thanks to the credit crisis, we can anticipate some kind of shift in the economy and the markets. I believe fewer, bigger bets will work better for everyone at every stage. In venture, I
think diversification is reducing return without reducing risk.”

“I believe the biggest arbitrage that exists today is based on time. The person willing to accept longer illiquidity can get paid handsomely for that. One of the big issues in venture today is that
whether people realize it or not, time horizons have gotten shorter. The big venture firms express that by getting involved later.”

“Canada now has a real community of entrepreneurs who’ve made the bet and succeeded, who can teach everybody else. RIM is one of the three companies that are really today in the industry – Apple and Google are the other two – and CVCA should have meetings with people from RIM as often as possible. The people at RIM could single-handedly transform the VC business in Canada if they wanted to.”

MRM