At its heart, the business of venture capital is the financing of dreams. Like the job of literary agents or Hollywood producers, the fundamental challenge for VCs is to sort through thousands of ideas each year to find -- and fund -- the ones with the potential to be big hits. And because venture capital is a hyper-competitive industry, those who make their living at it face tremendous pressure to grab a piece of a promising business plan before a rival does. Most top-tier VC firms get somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 business plans sent to them each year, yet fund only a tiny fraction of those, perhaps a dozen or more. That ratio means the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs ... [ Read more ]