If we change venture capital, can we create a better economy?

I’ve been saying for a year or more now that venture capitalists and other funders of start-up companies have developed such extreme tunnel vision about what kinds of enterprises are good to invest in that, these days, they’re looking at the future through a  pinhole. 

In my post of June 16, I focused on the me-too narrow-mindedness of Ohio and particularly Northeast Ohio, where government money, venture capital and incubator services are available only to entrepreneurs who want to develop and manufacture biomedical and computer technologies – and mostly in large amounts that funders hope will beget enormous returns in very short order.

So I was pretty elated to read yesterday’s New York Times story about venture-capital investments being way too big and too often going to the same kinds of companies. Maybe if the money-people start realizing that many worthwhile start-ups of all kinds can be successfully and profitably nurtured with smaller investments and longer, more organic development processes, they’ll get more creative and we’ll start seeing communities gain the business diversification and full use of human capital that are the keys to sustainable economies of all sizes.

After all, farmers know it’s vital to diversify their crops. Why don’t venture capitalists get it?