The venture capital model remains broken after never fully recovering from the dot-com bust at the turn of the century, a long-time venture capital and private equity player said Thursday.

“Nine years later, there’s still no venture capital industry, as far as I’m concerned,” George Siguler, co-founder of Siguler Guff & Co., told an audience at the Buyouts East conference in New York City. “Ten thousand companies were funded at the height of the Internet bubble. Now we’re not seeing any [investor exits].”

The nearly non-existent market for initial public offerings continues to stifle VCs, he said. “The typical venture capital deal burns $70 million to create a company worth $40 million.”

For instance, in 1999, Cisco Systems announced it was paying $6.9 billion for Cerent, a networking equipment company that Mr. Siguler said had $50 million in annual revenue.

“Those days are gone,” he added.

Mr. Siguler’s VC credentials include a stint as founding partner of the firm that manages Harvard’s endowment, where he initiated and managed its venture capital, private equity and hedge fund activities. He said his current firm’s joint venture providing debt financing for venture-backed companies provides insight into the industry.

The global recession also has cast a pall over leveraged buyout funds, Mr. Siguler said. While LBO funds can prosper when an economy comes out of a recession, funds that filled up their portfolios before the recession hit will face choppy seas.

“If it’s 70 percent invested, it’s toast,” he said.

One problem confronting private equity investors is how to value potential acquisitions.

“The multiples of EBITDA only make sense if you know what the “E” is,” referring to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a metric widely used to hang a price tag on companies.

Turning to the prospects of global economies, Mr. Siguler said that China is likely to emerge first from the recession, but that Eastern Europe is a “basket case.”

The long-time investor urged general partners to abandon their sense of “entitlement” and remind themselves daily that they are the “fiduciary” of the money entrusted by limited partners.