Should VCs Write Blogs?

This question seems to come up quite a bit among LPs and GPs: Should a general partner at a VC firm spend time writing a blog, when it appears to be such a time-consuming process?

Why would VCs even consider creating blogs to document thoughts or musings about the industry at large, when there are so many other things on our plates? Personally, I havent written a blog– launching our fund last year was my primary focus– but, I have been thinking about various topics related to being a VC and I do like the idea of sharing them with the greater community. Thanks to Dans new venture, I hope to be able to articulate some of those through this new forum.

Going back to the original question, you could make the case that a VCs blog helps entrepreneurs by providing insight into the investors mind and way of thinking,which certainly is beneficial to anyone seeking VC investments. The VC firm also benefits, as the blog provides awfully good PR for them.

In fact, I recently chatted with a VC friend of mine who does write a really thought-provoking blog, and I asked him whether or not he gets the support from his partnership to take the time to write and maintain his blog. He told me that he plotted his blogs traffic against his VC firms website, and his numbers blew his firms away its hard not to support real numbers. After all, blogs provide another layer of information that a standard web site just cant offer. When you think about it, a good blog indirectly helps LPs as well the increased traffic from entrepreneurs and added exposure the blog brings both the VC and his firm will certainly result in increased deal flow.

But in thinking about the various subjects that I could write about here, Ive come to the conclusion that the person benefiting most from writing a blog is the author. Forcing yourself to weigh the ideas in your head and articulate them in a manner that is easily consumable by your target readership well, that makes you think really hard about what you consider to be worth sharing.

So, should VCs write blogs? Ive decided that my answer will be the same as when entrepreneurs ask me about writing business plans. I tell them that business plans are more for the author than the reader providing a slate for organizing and communicating ideas in such a way that the reader can understand their thinking and hopefully see the value.