I wonder if there isn't another force in play here, given the aggressiveness of acqui-hires a VC firm can make book by spraying a lot of 100 - 200K investments around, maybe a 1M and then harvesting the acquihire dollars when the team works out. They are essentially glorified head hunters with a bigger contract bounty but they put together teams instead of just individuals. So putting in a million $ to get a couple of young stars to recruit 5 or 6 of the best programmers they know, and organize them into a team that can build a project. Then scare them with the "Series A crunch" and sell them off to BigCo for a million dollars a head.
I know, I know, too cynical. But looking at the exits that way skews the numbers.
I know, I know, too cynical. But looking at the exits that way skews the numbers.