edit: pets.com evaporated 300 mil in less than a year in 2000, and that's just one example.
I'd be really interested in average 10 year returns on VC from the past 10 years. I.e funds raised from 1990 to 2000. Obviously even more interesting will be how the current funds do.
However, assume for a second we can take different vintage years and say that return(t-20 to t-0) = return(t-20 to t-15)*return(t-15 to t-0).
Then all the money was made from t-15 to t-10 since the t-10 vintage class has basically zero returns and the t-20 returns are approximately the t-15 returns annualized over 20 years instead of 15
"The median net return to VC fund investors has not been positive for any vintage year since 1998."
I'm curious, did you read the article and miss all the talk about vintage years? Or did you only skim it? Or did you only read the comment? Or did I misinterpret your comment?