Investors who aren't announcing another $1.5 billion fund still have to get attention somehow, or they'll lose deal flow to the latest venture celebrity. Gil Dibner, a VC at DFJ Espirit, thought maybe a "VC Code of Conduct" might do the trick. But the 17 point promise inadvertently outlines all the ways investors will give founders a raw deal.

Insiders are not wrong when they insist this tech bubble is nothing like the last one. For one, the corporate war chests of Google, Yahoo, and Facebook—and the need to compete against them—have financed soft landings and acqui-hires for stalled out companies as far as the eye can see. But here's a new twist: not letting a moribund startup die.