War and Optimism

I'm writing this early in the morning before a trip to Portland for a board meeting. We are less than 24 hours away from Bush's deadline for war. Yet as I survey the morning headlines, I find mostly optimism for a short war and a stronger stock market. The first two days of trading this week have been two of the better days we've seen in awhile.

Over the last two months, we've noticed a big uptick in new, early stage deals coming through our doors. We've gotten a strong sense that the entrepreneurial community is back in business which is clearly refreshing after a long couple of years of what felt much more like "structured finance" than start-up investing. The Valley is not through the end of its tough times as these cycles always take longer to move back up than they did coming down. But it would be nice to believe that once the uncertainty of war is removed, the confidence that we're starting to see in entrepreneurs will spread through the rest of the Valley economy.