Venture Capitalists Mentor Their Fledglings More and Better Than They Did During the Boom

As a first-time Silicon Valley chief executive, Jim Fowler needs all the nuts-and-bolts management help he can get. These days, he’s getting a lot of it from an unlikely source: his venture-capital investors.

Mr. Fowler, an ex-U.S. Navy diver, runs Jigsaw Data Corp., a San Mateo, Calif., Internet start-up that allows salespeople to trade business contacts online. He chats with one of his venture-capital backers, Tom Peterson, about operational matters and other issues several times a week. Mr. Peterson also keeps in near-constant touch via email, dropping Mr. Fowler messages about analyst reports and business referrals.

Late last year, Mr. Fowler even attended a 12-hour management-training course organized by Mr. Peterson’s firm, El Dorado Ventures, of Menlo Park, Calif. Mr. Fowler used some of the tidbits he gleaned from the four sessions — mainly about how to better recruit and interview job candidates — to snare a new vice president for engineering, Ed Komo, earlier this year.

By REBECCA BUCKMAN
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal Online

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