[greghendershott]

Is it their own money? I thought the general partners are using money from limited partners. As the article put it: "I would love to ask the investment officers at a firefighter’s pension fund in Wyoming what they think of venture capital GPs using their money to fund their colleagues’ personal projects."

[jacquesm]

It could be it does not have to be. VCs have fiduciary responsibilities to their capital suppliers and in case there are potential conflicts of interest you can be fairly sure all the i's will be dotted and the t's will be crossed to avoid future trouble. If a VC has accepted public funds or other funds administered by parties who are not the eventual beneficiaries then those things will likely be double checked and expressly allowed.