The National Venture Capital Association has produced its first online video.

The video spoofs the fund raising process, following the desperate protagonist to an Entrepreneurs Anonymous meeting. It might amuse those in Silicon Valley who recognize the deal makers who double as actors in the skit. (The cast includes people with Goodwin Proctor, Levensohn Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Scale Venture Partners).

But it also serves the more serious purpose of educating the public about what exactly venture capital is, said Emily Mendell, the association's vice president of strategic affairs.

To that end, the overly long video includes factoids about venture capital. Apple, Intel, Amazon and Google were all started with venture capital, for example. So was Starbucks, which was founded by an English teacher, and Jet Blue, which was originally called Taxi. Venture-backed companies employ 11 million Americans and produce 18 percent of the United States gross domestic product.

The entrepreneur has a potion that she bets will become an alternative to oil, once she gets the money to build a company to produce it. First she tries a bank, where an intimidating group of evil bankers stands at the end of the table whispering such things as "too pie in the sky" before sending her off. Next she tries the local Small Business Administration office, where a woman who smacks her gum way too loudly discourages her with the long list of people already waiting for loans. Another investor is too distracted trading stocks on his computer to listen to her — or to bet on something that he can't immediately liquidate.

Finally, our heroine stumbles into Entrepreneurs Anonymous. One by one, the members introduce themselves: "I'm Brian, and I'm an entrepreneur. You can tell I'm a bit nervous about being here, but, I've been told I need a global distribution strategy."

Conveniently, a venture capitalist accidentally walks in the room. They all mob him and, well, you can guess the way it ends.

In the true spirit of venture investing, one element of the video is, as the evil bankers would say, pie in the sky. The characters in the fictional Silicon Valley board rooms are much more diverse, in terms of both gender and ethnicity, than the actual sea of men in khaki pants.