Bubbly Summer in Silicon Valley — time to raise money

Summers usually slow in Silicon Valley, but this year doesn’t seem to be easing off much.

The investment pace is so hot it reminds some VCs of the 1998 and 1999 years. For entrepreneurs raising money, now is the time. Israeli angel Shpigler has some great tips for you (see video below).

Earlier this week, we dropped by the offices of venture firm Charles River Ventures, and talked with partners George Zachary, Bill Tai and Saar Gur. This September may be their busiest month on record, they said. And we just got off the phone with Samir Kaul of Khosla Ventures, who says he sees no break this summer: “We’re cranking,” he says, explaining how his firm finds itself with 25 new companies in its clean technology portfolio — spanning water, plastics, fuels, solar, coals and building material. These companies need managing, and the firm keeps investing (stay tuned for another announcement this evening).

Some mediocre Internet business plans not getting funded last year are now getting funded. In part, the action stems from the private equity boom, which is pushing investors at big East Coast buyout firms to prowl for new investments, including among technology start-ups. This all exposes valley companies to boatloads of more money; VCs feel pressured to move quickly to back the best companies.

It’s not just the Web that’s booming. Start-ups building network infrastructure, storage, routers, chips and software are getting funded, and increasingly going public. The WSJ has a story about VCs making more money in telecommunications and data storage than Web companies. Of course, these trends are related: As more people watch video sites like YouTube or bring Internet TV into their home, back-bone content delivery network companies like Limelight do well.

We’ll soon have VC investment data for the second quarter, which presumably will match numbers to these anecdotes.

The bubbly era is reflected in the recent video making the rounds among VCs, and also getting picked up at Techcrunch. It shows a 29-year-old Israeli angel investor, “Shpigler,” giving tips to entrepreneurs about how to raise money. It is Hebrew with English subtitles. His tip #5 is basically that you look your VC in the eyes and tell them confidently, over and over again if necessary, that you want $8 million on a pre-money valuation of $68 million. We’ve pasted the video below.

http://www.5min.com/Players/5minEmbedPlayer.swf