Jeff Brown Discusses Venture Capital Exits With The Indiana Lawyer

In “‘Forecast is a little bit cloudy’: Venture capital exits hit their lowest in 2023, but rebound could be coming,” corporate senior counsel Jeff Brown spoke to The Indiana Lawyer about the market and venture capital exits being determined by interest rates.

“The only thing that’s going to lead to a strong exit market is going to be lower interest rates and a better (initial public offering, or IPO) environment,” Brown said. “I don’t think that’s any different in Indiana than anywhere else.”

“I think if the company is really successful, there are going to be buyers from all over the country who want to buy it, and if it’s a fire sale, there’s going to be the same market for it in Indiana or outside of Indiana,” Brown continued. “I don’t think that geography affects exits nearly as much as I do think it affects the initial investing environment.”

Brown also noted that the stock market was up in 2023, but that alone doesn’t translate to a better venture capital environment. “You can’t look at the stock market as a predictor of where the venture capital market’s going to go. Other than that, hopefully, it frees up the IPO market a little bit and makes it easier for venture capital companies to exit through an IPO,” he continued. “In some ways, a very good public market is almost in competition with the venture capital markets because it just means that private equity has to do that much better to compete with the public markets.”

Brown added that Indiana has strong private companies that are venture-funded and are growing at a stage that, when the market does free up, will see exits. “I think we’ll see some really good successful exits from Indiana companies, and we just need to have the right market environment for that to happen,” he concluded.

The full article is available for The Indiana Lawyer subscribers.