By Paul Gasparro
Two feet (9.44 cm) of snow fell in Denver over the weekend. I called my contact to ask if we should reschedule our Tuesday meeting. He told me “don’t worry be happy” it will melt before you arrive. By the time I got there the snow was gone and the temperature was 75 F (22 C) and sunny. On Monday the Dow Jones fell 300 points because people thought that the BoA results were too good. On Tuesday it rose over 120 points beause Geitner told Wall Street “don’t worry, be happy” the banks are strong. Things change very fast in the world today. Part of the reason for the change is attitude. Read the Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
Many people are talking about the demise of the Venture Capital industry. In fact, investments in the first quarter($3.9B)in the US were 50% lower than in the first quarter in 2008. However when you look for the silver lining it actually exists. Scott Austin of VentureWire Alert does find it. In the April 21 edition of Venture Dispatch he makes 3 excellent points about the recent quarter. First, the percentage of investment money going into startups has remained relatively constant (39%) since 2002. Second, not all regions of the country have been hit hard. In fact, New England was down only 15%. Finally, the VC’s are flushed with cash having raised $24.7B in 2008, which has to be put to work.
So as the saying goes “don’t worry be happy”. The high tech industry will soon be vibrant again and you will begin to turn on your product development faucet. When that happens, you can be sure that MapleWorks will be ready to support your needs. We have been using this economic slump to build cash reserves and strengthen our staff. We are in a position to turn on as fast as you need us.
(Paul Gasparro is Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development for MapleWorks – the smart choice for on-shore software development.)
