If you're worried about Web 2.0 frothing over into full-scale bubble, here's reason for hope. The Great Bubble was based on huge amounts of venture money, which led to companies being taken public, getting insane valuations, and on to the pop. But today, venture capitalists are scrambling for companies to invest in, because it can be done so cheaply - Meebo was founded on $4,000 of credit cards - that entrepreneurs are loathe to take the big money and the business control.

A Times article profiles a few VCs who are learning to play the new game of small ball.

Just last week, Charles River Ventures announced it would offer loans of $250,000 to entrepreneurs as a way to gain access to promising start-ups. Other firms are also giving out small loans, albeit not as a part of any formal program.

For its part, Mohr Davidow Ventures has increased the number of “seed” investments — small sums given to embryonic companies — to about 10 a year from 5. And Union Square Ventures, which was formed in 2003, has made nearly half of its investments at $1 million or less, a departure from its initial plan to make first-round bets of $1 million to $3 million, according to its Web site.

A firm called Y Combinator is comfortable funding very small amounts. Their target investment is $6,000 per employee. For startups that would total up to somewhere between $36,000 and $48,000. Even with today's low startup costs, that's not a hell of a lot of money. The point, cofounder Paul Graham said, is to make it last.

[Y is] not looking for computer science entrepreneurs who want to be pampered: “C.S. grad students at M.I.T. currently get $2,000/month to live on, so this represents three months’ living expenses. Though in fact most groups make it last longer.”