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This morning I browsed through Wired Magazine’s interview with “Ted,” the pseudonymous figure behind TheFunded.com. The site offers entrepreneurs unprecedented insight into the workings of the VC community, namely by offering entrepreneurs themselves the chance to swap their VC horror stories without revealing their identify. “Ted,” however, agreed to step out from behind the veil. He is Adeo Ressi, the founder of two successful startup companies.

Naturally we had to have a peek.

The VC firms reviewed at TheFunded.com are organized by geography and funding level. Each firm is rated according to five factors (track record, operating competency, pitching efficiency, favorable deal terms and execution assistance) on a scale from one to five (five being positive). Only vetted entrepreneur/members can rate the VC or write comments. Each review offers public comments as well as private info available only to members.

Although TheFunded.com is mostly oriented toward US venture firms (no surprise there), we were able to find a number of familiar European VCs. Just for fun, I decided to see what the group had to say about a firm I’m familiar with, Ariadne Capital. (Disclosure: I have no business relationship with this firm.)

Ariadne Capital was evaluated by seven members and received a collective rating of 2.2 (track record: 2.1, operating competency:2.0, pitching efficiency: 2.3, favorable deal terms: 2.3 and execution assistance: 2.1).

In addition to this rating, the Ariadne Capital page contains eight member reviews. Six of the reviews range from negative to scathingly critical. Two reviews are best described as neutral and one is vaguely supportive. Members can click a Digg-like button to indicate whether they agree or disagree with these comments and have further access to private comments. The VCs themselves have no opportunity to respond to the comments.

It’s easy to see why TheFunded.com has VCs in an uproar. These are people used whielding the power of God (or at least Mammon) over entrepreneurs. This is not an industry accustomed to transparency, either. I can’t imagine the folks over at Ariadne Capital would be happy to read a comment like this one (copied from the site):

Not Worthy of Mention

I have had the extreme misfortune to have crossed paths with Ariadne Capital. Quite frankly I am surprised they are still around. They have a rolodex of middle managers and try to get retainers for introductions for business development deals. Taking consulting services from these guys would be a very poor decision. They have little real world experience and surround themselves with a revolving door of weak people. Remember where they came from - organizing cocktail parties…