Interesting survey results from Foley & Lardner on startup companies--things we knew but sometimes forget.

Who was surveyed: "The survey, measuring the attitudes and perspectives of top executives, advisors, outside consultants and investors in the emerging technology industry."

Here are my takeaway points:

-There is a lot of capital wanting to invest in startups but there is a lack of good managers.

-60 per cent said quality of management is single most important factor for success: "Overall market dynamics (18 percent), access to funding (10 percent) and quality of the business plan (eight percent) were distant choices."

-Only 3 per cent said intellectual property was the most important aspect of founding a startup.

My take: This means a good, even great idea for a startup is not enough, you need a great team. If all you have is a great idea you don't really have anything of much value. Many startups I meet won't talk about their "great idea" beyond a certain point but you should be free to talk about your great idea because only you can execute on it. Otherwise, anybody can run with it.

-More than 75 per cent said M&A is most likely exit strategy in next few years.

-IPO is unattractive because of high costs in being a public company and all the other related issues.

-It is very difficult to find directors for startups. "A majority (64 percent) cited “management” as the most important factor—over cash compensation (36 percent) and equity incentives (32 percent) —for attracting qualified directors."

My Take: This is exactly why I have been saying that the next generation of emerging companies, the new rules enterprise/venture will be private. Being private also means your competitors cannot benchmark themselves against you.

And, my favorite quote from one of those surveyed:

“VCs should take more V and act less like a bank.”

My take: Too true. In fact, I meet more ex-VCs these days, using their venture knowledge to run their own companies. It is a knowledge capital world now, uppercase V and lowercase c, is how the Vcs should present themselves, and the better ones do. imho.

More here: http://www.foley.com/ecsurvey