Ven ture capitalists are very wealthy individuals or, more often, investment firms, that look for small companies that are about to grow rapidly. They invest large amounts of money (between a million and a few hundred million dollars) with the hope that in a few years the company will be large enough to sell stock to the public in an event called an initial public offering (ipo). In the ipo, the venture capitalissts take profits and once again search for a new small company in which to invest.