Bambi Francisco's commentary at CBS MarketWatch (free registration required) lists some reasons its a good time to be an entrepreneur:

• The most conservative estimation of the excess venture capital from the heyday is $13.5 billion. If venture capitalists don't invest the overhang of funds they were entrusted with five years ago and paid to manage, they risk having to give back management fees to their investors.
• A total of 31 IPOs have raised $8.1 billion in proceeds so far in 2004, well ahead of the five IPOs that raised $645 million in the year-ago period.
• The number of start-ups getting seed to first-round funding in the fourth quarter jumped to 30 percent of all funds invested.