When disruptive innovation appear, investors have learned, it’s time to act quickly!

VCs of today are risk averse and some private and international investors see this as a tremendous opporunity.
VCs risk averse attitude, this phenomenon is because of herd mentality, which has given the opportunity to private investors who were investing in traditional investments such as real estate, commercial properties and franchises to move their bets to young companies mainly in the life science medical device sector.
Start-up companies that are becoming successful are asking for larger multiples for their effort as a result the primary investors are making a big ROIs.
The startp-up CEOs are getting smarter, they are exiting earlier than usual, so the opportunity for VCs to get in late and reap bigger profits are gone.
CEOs are raising larger Seed or A rounds and exiting after accomplishing a decent milestone be it CE Mark or phase II clinical of a drug.
The new trend (Herd) for VCs is to impress (their LPs) with more deals for less money. Very little due diligence is going into these deals. In my opinion these are showcase deals, the chances of success is low, that is the reason they are available for cheap!. This strategy works in a way, VCs can downsize their organization yet hire their folks to run their new portfolio of failing companies (setting these new CEOs for failure instead of laying them off) and keep an eye on the company.. does this sound like a win-win or lose-lose for someone who has been with a VC firm for long.

Lets look at a unmet clinical need. Obesity and Diabetes.
In the 2000s, the timing of some VCs in the obesity and diabetes space was bad, the stringent FDA, clinical community still trying to figure out patho-physiology of obesity, companies targeting GI doctors with new technologies, while patient first comes to bariatric surgeon for treatment. Then there were a slew of technologies being inserted through the mouth with profiles as large as the esophagus, causing tears during insertion of the device into the stomach, with no opportunity to fix these problems with stand by surgeons...obviously there will be some challenges. Recently, newer technologies have emerged with great rationale to treat obesity and diabetes. But because few big name VCs are sitting on the sidelines, small boutique ventures are afraid to jump. Today obesity is the world's biggest market, US represent only a third of the market. Companies like Reshape, Obalon, Baronova, Onciomed, and GI Dynamics are the next gen technologies and have opportunities for jaw dropping exits.