As if all that wasn’t enough for one career, Joe spent several years in public service, serving in posts including Special Assistant to the President, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Acting Secretary of the Navy, and on various Board or Commissions under the last five Presidents.

He now spends about half his time investing in both venture capital and real estate for his family investment firm, McCullen Capital. He also serves on four boards, and is a Senior Advisor to the private equity affiliates of Key Bank.

You might say that Joe knows v.c. You could also say I’m pretty lucky to have been spending a brilliantly sunny March day in Boston, chatting with Joe.

I asked Joe about the state of affairs in the venture capital industry, now about five years removed from the climax of the TMT (technology, media, and telecom) bubble. After several years of plummeting investment caused in part by preoccupation with dealing with troubled investments, the industry has regained some sense of equilibrium. Investors are reallocating assets to venture capital, and venture capital investment overall has been rising over the last eighteen months or so.

I asked Joe where excess and slack investment demand now existed across the v.c. continuum. While many of his peers would not agree with him, he said, too much money is going into late stage venture capital relative to the number of attractive opportunities.

Such an environment is understandable, when you think about it. After seeing millions of dollars disappear into the black hole of TMT start-ups several years ago, it’s natural for investors to prefer later stage, more proven private equity opportunities. By definition, moreover, these companies are theoretically much closer to a liquidity event.

Because of the amount of money flowing into later stage companies, the prospect for excess returns, according to Joe, exists in early stage investing. Entrepreneurs are starving for the funds necessary to take their companies through their formative days. Early stage investors, therefore, are seeing excellent opportunities for profit.