The Silicon Valley Undertaker of Angel Investments

Sherwood Partners in Palo Alto, long known to industry insiders as “the undertaker” because its primary role is to efficiently shutter companies, in this case start-up companies.

Some snippets:

"An ever-smaller group of companies is attracting all the financing, including through the IPO market, and once a company gets such a huge concentration of cash, those without as much begin drifting away."

"We’re starting to close down social networks, startups in video distribution, clean tech companies. We’re also closing down a retail site. For companies selling merchandise, it’s a pretty volatile market, and this company couldn’t get traction. Also, with retail sites, you have to hold inventory. You need a variety of sizes and widths and colors, because if you don’t have the right merchandise, you lose the customer, yet if you have too much merchandise, you have to discount it. Most people don’t understand retail. They understand the concept. But it’s a very complicated business."

http://www.pehub.com/115158/silicon-valley%e2%80%99s-undertaker-%e2%80%98we%e2%80%99re-anticipating-a-major-fallout%e2%80%99/