

Choosing Co-Investors: Friends Without Benefits - jkuria
http://www.economist.com/node/21557730

======
asanwal
Surprised The Economist published this misguided puff piece. And even more
surprised these researchers haven't seemed to grasp the idea of correlation
not equaling causation.

"If one investor of a pair has a degree from a leading university, this adds
9% to the possibility of their selected firms reaching an IPO; if the second
does too, that adds a further 11%." Really?

Generally, the article seems to imply that VCs are the sole drivers of
success/failure of a company.

There is a great deal of opacity around VC and Pvt Equity performance so data-
driven research and insights would be great, but unfortunately, the research
fails to deliver any meaningful insight to push the conversation forward.

Shameless plug - our firm has been studying co-investment relationships
between firms as part of some new tools we're developing and recently looked
at Sequoia, Accel and Kleiner Perkins co-investment relationships. Might be of
interest to those who read this article.

[http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/investment-
sy...](http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/investment-syndicate-
coinvestment-relationships)

