In Silicon Valley, business failure is not a disgrace if it isn t intentional or due to hopeless ineptitude. Business failure can even heighten the respect you command, because you learn. Failure can simply be a twist on the road to success. If risks are to succeed, there has to be sufficient risk cap-ital. The venture capital industry illustrates the Silicon Valley way of thinking.
Money chases ideas.
Thanks to venture capi-tal, new Silicon Valley companies are born every day. The number of IPOs jumped 140 percent from 1998 to 1999, largely due to Internet companies. Venture capitalists are still willing to bet on creativity and imagination. The most success-ful VC firms see failure as a learning experience. Venture capital depends on an education system that produces ideas.