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IMterviews - Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Dawntreader Ventures' Ed Sim - The a:c IMterview

Ed Sim is a Managing Director with New York-based Dawntreader Ventures. We first met with him back in 1997 when he was cutting his teeth at the Prospect Street New York City Discovery Fund, a firm with a mandate to invest only within the five boroughs of New York. This was no easy task back in the early days of the Web - when most of the action was in California - but it helped Sim hone his skills as a discerning investor.

Dawntreader is now in its second fund, totaling $270M. The firm focuses on early stage companies. Dawntreader has had a few IPOs and good acquisitions, but has not yet chalked up a smash hit. However, we know Sim to be a capable investor and, if and when the smash hit comes, we want to be able to say that we knew him back when.

The a:c: Hi, Ed. We are wondering
how the New York VC environment
is currently shaping up in contrast to
what is going on out in Silicon Valley?
Ed Sim: I would say that across the
board things are heating up again. The
environment for funding is certainly
better and many of the entrepreneurs
who were on the sidelines for the last
couple of years are starting to
resurface. The New York community, I
would say, is not as hard-core tech as
the Valley so you will not see chip
deals here for example. However, with
the resurgence of the web and corporate
spending, there are many more
interesting companies today versus a
couple of years ago.