Iria

Last September, when Di-Ann Eisnor, a 33-year-old entrepreneur, traveled to Silicon Valley to pitch her start-up business to venture capitalists, she stayed calm by reminding herself that it would be like mingling with strangers at a party.

There might be instant rapport with some, while conversations with others might wither and die on the spot.

Indeed, Eisnor clicked so well with people she met at two venture firms--Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Omidyar Network--that both firms signed on to invest in her company, Platial, an online mapping service.

But when it comes to venture capital and so-called mashups like Platial--a new breed of Web-based application that mixes data from different online sources--Eisnor's luck appears to be the exception to the rule.

Many venture capital firms are loath to finance mashups, in part because they are not readily "defensible," meaning that they might be replicated by others.
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Read More / Source: News.com