Remember iPhone Bob? He was senior director of Apple’s worldwide product marketing for the iPhone, and the onscreen pitch man in 2008’s iPhone 3G Guided Tour videos. Bob Borchers worked on the iPod and iPhone for five years at Apple, while the company’s stock went up, up, down, and up again. He’s now a general partner of venture-capital firm Opus Capital.

Borchers is taking the plunge into venture capital even as the venture industry has been hit hard by the recession. Fund-raising is down, many startup investments have been hurt, and venture exits through IPOs and M&A are also hard to come by. Numerous venture capitalists have been let go or are retiring.

To move into an industry where more people are going than coming can only mean one thing. Borchers has the money to do what he wants. Bob, say, “Thank you, Apple.”