Venture Capitalists . . .

are professional money managers who provide risk capital to businesses. Venture capitalists come in many forms and specialize in different ways, but all share the common trait of making investments in privately held companies that have the potential to provide them a very high rate of return on their investment.

Venture capitalists include thousands of private funds, companies funded by public offerings of their securities, bank and corporate subsidiaries charged with investing budgeted funds, and private individuals, who are often called "adventure capitalists" or "angels." Venture firms can be highly leveraged companies, such as SBIC’s and SSBIC’s, or completely unleveraged.

Some good sources for identifying venture capitalists interested in a given industry are:

• The National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC), 666 11^th Street, N.W., Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, or by calling (202) 628-5055. Their web site can be found at www.nasbic.org .
  

• The National Venture Capital Association, 1655 North Fort Myer Drive, Suite 850, Arlington, Virginia 22209 or by calling (703) 524-2549. Their web site can be found at www.nvca.com .

• The Corporate Finance Sourcebook (National Register Publishing Company, annual editions).
  

• Pratt’s Guide to Venture Capital Sources edited by Stanley, E. Pratt (Venture Economics annual editions).

See: Adventure Capitalists, Angels, BDCs (Business Development Corporations), CDCs (Community Development Corporations), Corporate Venture Capital, SSBICs (Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Companies), Pools, SBICs (Small Business Investment Companies), Specialty Funds, Venture Capital Deal Structures, Venture Books, Vulture Capitalists.