The new mantra of the venture capitalist is capital efficiency.

I must have heard that six or seven times while attending the IN3 investor’s conference in Boston this week. The event, put on by Elsevier Business Intelligence, brings together startups, established companies and venture capitalists; three interdependent partners with competing interests. After all, the startups want to get the VCs’ money, who don’t want to give it to them. The VCs want to sell their companies to the big companies, who don’t want to give them the valuations they want. And everyone wants to sell their company to Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) or Covidien plc (NYSE:COV).