Perusing the web for venture capital firms and randomly clicking links, I’m disappointed at the static and outdated content out there.
1. CMEA Capital
Website screenshot of CMEA Capital
The company claims to “partner with extraordinary people” — so where are they? What are their names and what do they look like? Buried in the site navigation are team members’ faces, bios, and contact information. Why aren’t faces out front to draw potential clients in?
No offense to the company, but how come the news hasn’t been updated since March? No new clients? Can I help? Contact me today!
2. Enterprise Partners
Website screenshot of Enterprise Partners
EPVC should be congratulated, compared to CMEA, for displaying their news top and center–and updated. (Though, if I visited the site last week, it would be old news. Still, the company adds news items several times a month.)
Is two years of news necessary on the front page, though? How about displaying the most recent story in full, having links to the past few months’ worth, and hiding older content in the top navigational bar?
Touch base with designer Joe Baz at Above the Fold if you’d like some assistance.
3. Insight Venture Partners
Website screenshot of Insight Ventures
The site layout is very clean–and the center belt of flashy rotating images is boldly reminiscent of Utah.gov. This isn’t surprising since the corporate description is they represent the “internet industry.” Where are the social networking channels, though?
Glossing over the latest news from June, I like this design the best yet.
4. Union Square Ventures
Website screenshot of Union Square Ventures
Scrolling below these huge empty boxes, I see a blog-like feel and displays of both RSS icons and links to business blogs. Why the emptiness?
Considering principal Fred Wilson is a prolific blogger, I had greater hopes for this VC site.
5. Bessemer Venture Partners
Website screenshot of BVP
I like minimalism. White space sells online. Adam Pieniazek’s blog is a great example of this. I don’t think BVP’s website works as well as it could. A simple avenue is to bring forward their list of investors’ blogs to the front page.
On second thought, when you consider VC principal Dave Cowan’s blog is the most recent with a July 13 post, perhaps the BVP blog page should stay where it is. Dave’s blog name is appropriately titled, “Who Has Time For This?” Touche.
I’ve never worked in the VC world–and have only met a few venture capitalists over the years. I know many more by name and reputation–or in Fred Wilson’s case, subscribing to his blog.
I don’t know if the VC industry needs snazzy websites, but when you consider both Fred and Dave are blogging and twittering, why shouldn’t equal interactive attention be paid where most customers see the firm first?
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Thanks for the shout-out Ari. Very much agree that white space is crucial for readability. White space allows users to focus on the content, and makes it apparent what the content is.
The Union Square Ventures site is really odd, not sure why they didn’t put something in those boxes. White space is great, but those boxes are just confusing…
I would’ve imagined that most VC firms would have excellent sites, especially tech related firms.
.-= New from Adam Pieniazek: How to Add Google Ad Section Targeting in Thesis =-.
The first website – CMEA Capital is a really cool design for a private equity site. It is totally different and gives a good feel. I think private equity sites are more for disclosure reasons.
Jeffrey Revell Reade recently wrote Charity – World Vision
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