We've talked in the past about how the venture capital industry is data driven and how raising venture capital funds can be very time consuming. But while venture capital funding has down sides, one of the up sides is that a venture capital partner can be very valuable to your company, as Amar Goel points out in his blog.




Goel is specific:

Venture capitalists can generally bring you one or more of the following things: 1) strategic understanding of the market, 2) technical knowledge of the market and how to build a better product, and 3) relationships/Rolodex, and 4) venture capital wisdom (this is the catchall category that represents the wisdom many venture capitalists have after having played the game a hundred times before your company).

A recent example is the Carlyle Group's investment in Shanghai-based NeWorld Education. NeWorld is already the leading provider of Japanese language instruction in China. It wants to use the $20 million in venture capital it just received from the Carlyle Group to expand, create more learning center locations. As part of the venture capital agreement between The Carlyle Group and NeWorld, The Carlyle Group plans to supple personnel who will take on the development of marketing and management strategies for NeWorld - allowing the education firm to use its staff (most of whom, after all, are educators) to focus on improving educational programs.

A good venture capital partner can help you grow in areas that have to do with business and free you and your people up to worry about your product or service.