Shifting the Risk

On the topic of lower valuations attached to venture-backed biotech companies at the time of their initial public offering, one VC, Lowell Sears of Sears Capital Management, came up with one of quotes of the year: "IPO's are no longer liquidity events, they are financing events." Can this be another sign that the VC industry is reverting to the mean in terms of both the amount of work that goes into a company's development and the money made on exit, even if that latter mean has moved up on the scale? The IPO is simply another financing round in a long-term business strategy, not the end-game in the world of small business development seems to be the point.