How the venture industry is pivoting, Part 2

Adam Smith of AOL Ventures shares his views at AngelPad Demo Day

I caught up with Adam Smith of AOL Ventures, at AngelPad's Demo Day last week. We talked about the AngelPad class of startups and the frothy prices in the early-stage rounds, and the types of deals AOL Ventures is interested in. He also thinks the quality of entrepeneurs is rising, mainly because of the increased access to entrepreneurs and information online. As one of the largest networks dedicated to helping entrepreneurs connect and learn from one another, Vator hopes it's helping in this process.

Here's his response to my question about what he thinks is the biggest disruption in the venture industry today:

"Investors (limited parnters) put money in venture with the expectation of high returns. To meet these returns, venture capital firms choose high-risk, high-reward opportunities. What we're seeing now is a bunch of interesting new approaches, such as Betaworks, Y Combinator, and AngelPad to remove risks by helping entrprepreneurs early on. Thus, I think we're going to see potentially less risky investments with potentially lower returns. Investors and the venture community need to think about his this affects the old model." 

This interview is part of a series of interviews with venture capitalists that I will be conducting, in preparation of Vator and BullPen's upcoming Venture Pivot conference. Save the date: July 20, 2011 in San Francisco.