Your Ideas: Three Stories I'm Working On

Would love to hear from you... I'm looking for New England examples and data points related to the three story ideas below. And also any other stories that you think *need* to be told, right now.

Feel free to post in the comments, or e-mail me. As always, I'm happy to protect your anonymity.

- Bootstrapping on the rise. I'm interested in great examples of companies that have avoided VC investment and grown big... or are doing so right now. What advice do people have about the bootstrapping approach?

- Down rounds. The only thing entrepreneurs fear more than a down round is not being able to raise their next round at all. What's happening in 2009 in this delicate dance between entrepreneurs and VCs on valuation? Are there some cases where, if a company doesn't accept the lower valuation, they wind up not putting that next round together at all...?

- Cleantech/Web 2.0 death pool. I suspect we'll see at least one flame-out in 2009 in the cleantech and Web 2.0 sectors locally. Both have been *heavily* invested in over the last three to four years. Who's it gonna be? Which VC firms are most exposed?