As part of our series featuring leaders in innovation during Global Entrepreneurship Week, we spoke with Eric Hauck, the Director of Impact Hub in Barcelona, Spain. Impact Hub is a global network of social innovation incubators with 7,000 members in more than 60 cities worldwide. In Barcelona, the Impact Hub is based in the Plaza Real amid the city’s historic gothic quarter, which is the cultural heart of one of the world’s most visited destinations.   (more…)

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, our team at NVCA connected with leaders in innovation ecosystems around the world.  In the first of our series of interviews, we spoke with Nkululeko Mthembu, the founder of the Durban Innovation Hub in Durban, South Africa. Durban, a city of over three million people and home to the country’s largest port, has a diverse economy driven by trade, industry and the presence of multinational corporations. (more…)

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, our team at NVCA connected with leaders in innovation ecosystems around the world.  In the first of our series of interviews, we spoke with Nkululeko Mthembu, the founder of the Durban Innovation Hub in Durban, South Africa. Durban, a city of over three million people and home to the country’s largest port, has a diverse economy driven by trade, industry and the presence of multinational corporations. (more…)

This week, NVCA joins in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week and the people around the world who foster innovation and build ideas into companies. The entrepreneurial spirit is a force for economic development, creativity, increasing efficiencies, job creation and innovation. Across geographies, there are a few traits that can be found in entrepreneurs worldwide – a passion to tackle a challenge they perceive in the world, a desire to build something new and a willingness to take risks to see their vision through.

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The cycle of innovation in the U.S. ecosystem is driven, in part, by the dynamic flow of capital among limited partners, traditional, corporate and growth equity venture capital investors, entrepreneurs, and, in the event of a public offering or acquisition, retail investors and companies. Limited partners (LPs), whose ranks include foundations, endowments and pension funds, invest in venture capital funds to put capital to work growing innovative young companies.

As part of their capital commitment, LPs require audited financial statements that report the fair value of venture capital firms’ portfolio company investments.  Assessing fair value presents a considerable challenge to both auditors and the Chief Financial Officers and Administrative Partners at venture capital firms, who are responsible for the preparation of quarterly and annual financial statements of the funds. More often than not, portfolio companies do not yet have proven business models or technology, making it difficult to precisely state their current fair value using traditional financial metrics. (more…)