There are big, overarching top-down trends, and there are little-bitty baby trends that have a way of growing into bigger ones. A big trend right now, for example, centers on certain firms that passed out enormous checks to startup founders in recent years and drove valuations sky high in the process. It turns out this strategy doesn’t work as well as they’d anticipated, and some of these same firms are now splitting up with some of their partners and asking their own investors for a lot less capital.
Another big trend? Venture firms that are more aggressively investing in publicly traded companies given that many have seen their share prices hammered in the downturn. (We began seeing this trend back in January and the WSJ notes that it is only picking up steam.)
Now here’s a new baby trend that’s interesting: new firms that are so niche that, at first glance, it’s easy to laugh off their focus.
A venture firm focused solely dedicated to oral care and not something, um, a little broader? A firm that’s focused on tech that can help detect and contain wildfires? (No way.) How about a venture firm that’s dedic …
