Venture Capital

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    TechCrunch

  • Spotify Arrives On Nokia’s Symbian, Sony Ericsson And Samsung Platforms

    Steve O'Hear
    23 Nov 2009 | 1:29 am
    The much hyped music streaming service Spotify has extended its mobile reach significantly today with the release of an app for phones powered by the Nokia-led Symbian operating system. This follows earlier clients for both iPhone and Android and means that the service will now be accessible on millions more handsets from Nokia, obviously, along with Sony Ericsson and Samsung which also support the platform. Unfortunately, for once users in the U.S. will have to wait longer as Spotify has delayed the launch of it’s service there until the new year. Phones powered by Symbian far outstrip…

  • Phil Schiller Grants Interview About Apple’s App Store, Claims Devs Actually Like Approval Process

    Jason Kincaid
    23 Nov 2009 | 1:15 am
    Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, is back on his one-man crusade to defend the App Store from the latest wave of criticism pointed in its direction. This time, Apple is having to battle the news of Facebook’s all-star developer Joe Hewitt quitting the platform, more high profile app rejections, and the rise of Android as an increasingly viable alternative to the iPhone. Schiller has granted BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl what the publication says is his first “wide-ranging interview on the matter”. Unfortunately, Schiller doesn’t…

  • Textbook Rental Market Heats Up: BookRenter Raises $6M Series A

    Nik Cubrilovic
    22 Nov 2009 | 10:52 pm
    Earlier this month college textbook rental company Chegg raised $112M as part of a combined Series D and debt round, bringing the total raised by the company to a massive $144M. Competitor BookRenter will tomorrow announce a Series A round of $6M, raised from Storm Ventures and Adams Capital Management. BookRenter has only raised a fraction of the capital of their competitor Chegg, but the company claims that it is growing at over 300 percent, year-over-year. The companies are loading their war-chests to fight over a fiercely competitive college textbook rental market. Both Chegg and…

  • Bing Tries To Buy The News

    Erick Schonfeld
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:29 pm
    Rupert Murdoch is pointing a gun to Google’s head, and Microsoft is helping him pull back the trigger. For the past few weeks, Murdoch and his officers at News Corp. have been very vocal about their distaste for Google and their desire to lead other media companies in a boycott of sorts. Murdoch keeps threatening to stop letting Google index the WSJ.com and his other media sites, and wants other news sites to join him in this self-imposed silence. The folks at Microsoft’s Bing think this is a great idea. Not only that, but the FT reports that Microsoft is in fact in discussions…

  • Backstage Footage With Twitter COO Dick Costolo

    Michael Arrington
    22 Nov 2009 | 8:46 pm
    We had a great interview with Twitter COO Dick Costolo at the Real-Time CrunchUp on Friday. Costolo always gives the audience a few good nuggets of news and handles the more difficult questions with ease. He’s a pro. After the conference I reviewed some of the backstage footage we shot of Costolo before he went on stage for the formal interview. We ask lots of great questions – about Twitter’s revenue, business model, details of the search deals, chances of getting bought next year, and the lovely bathrooms they have at the office. He manages to entertain the entire…
 
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    Demo.com

  • Join Us: December DEMO Innovation Meet-Ups in San Francisco, Seattle, NYC and Austin

    DEMO Staff
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:32 pm
    The DEMO Innovation tour where Matt Marshall, DEMO Executive Producer and the DEMO team travel around the globe to connect with the DEMO community in search of  the best innovation to showcase at DEMOspring 2010 is making it's way across the U.S. in December. Read more

  • DEMO’s visits to London and Boston show California is great place to launch

    DEMO Staff
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:28 pm
    Matt Marshall, DEMO Executive Producer I’ve been on the road lately, in a continued effort to find and meet with the best companies around to launch new products at the DEMO conference, and have been developing some cool ideas for DEMO’s next conference in March. I’ll share more about those ideas in future posts. Read more

  • DEMO rocked! Now the party starts again

    DEMO Staff
    13 Oct 2009 | 7:25 am
    From: Matt Marshall, Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences and Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat It’s been two weeks since the end of DEMO. I’m awestruck by the experience, both by all of the incredibly talented people that convened there in San Diego, and by the traction 70 entrepreneurs were able to get during those short few days. Thank you to all of the people who came and make it such a terrific event. Read more

  • DEMO 2010 starts now

    DEMO Staff
    7 Oct 2009 | 2:58 pm
    We're fresh off DEMOfall 09 where two weeks ago, 70 companies launched products and announced innovative business plans. If you haven't taken a look, check out the class of DEMOfall 09 at www.demo.com.   Read more

  • DEMOfall 09 starts today.. Watch live coverage

    DEMO Staff
    22 Sep 2009 | 6:41 am
    Didn't make it to San Diego for DEMOfall 09? Watch it live on www.demo.com home page starting Tuesday, 9/22 at 8:30am. PT,  thx BitGravity! Read more
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    Both Sides of the Table

  • The Case for In-Stream Advertising

    Mark Suster
    22 Nov 2009 | 6:24 pm
    The topic of whether in-stream advertising has heated up.  I just read well written pieces on the topic by Ross Kimbarovsky, Robert Scoble, Paul Carr and the NY Times.  I myself recently covered the topic when I spoke about why GRP Partners invested in Ad.ly. Let me lay out my defense of In-Stream Advertising because I believe the topic is really important. 1. People feel angst about advertising in any form – I feel the same feeling about advertising as most consumers.  I feel it’s a necessary evil.  Yes, I often skip commercials when I watch on my PVR.  But I also accept and…

  • What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI

    Mark Suster
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am
    This is part of my Startup Advice series. I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI.  (In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”)  I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done.  You are constantly faced with decisions and there is always incomplete information.  This paralyzes most people.  Not you. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right.  They move the…

  • Don’t Roll out the Red Carpet on the Way out the Door

    Mark Suster
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:14 pm
    This is part of my Startup Advice series. Before I started my first company in 1999 I worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).  One of the things I noticed was that when really talented people – The “A players” – wanted to quit, the firm would quickly scramble to try and keep that person from resigning.  Suddenly it was star treatment and all sorts of promises about the future. In my observation this seldom worked.  When you’ve reached a boiling point where you feel mistreated or under-appreciated you tend to leave regardless of the newly created…

  • How to Deal with Skeletons in your Closet

    Mark Suster
    12 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am
    This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. I recently wrote a post on how to Deal with your Elephants in the Room during your VC meetings.  Elephants being big issues that the VC will be thinking whether you bring it to his/her attention or not. My advice with Elephants was that you need to take them head on in your first VC meeting because the VC is already thinking about the issue whether you bring it up or not. But what about issues that might have a slightly negative connotation that the VC couldn’t know in advance?  Skeletons in the Closet are these types…

  • Deal with Your Elephant in the Room

    Mark Suster
    9 Nov 2009 | 5:46 pm
    This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants” then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking.  There’s a lot of truth in this adage. It’s sometimes called “The Elephant in the Room” because even when you don’t mention not to think about an Elephant there are certain issues that you just can’t stop thinking about whether they are brought up or not. Many…
 
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    VatorNews.tv

  • Hot Potato serves up social event stream

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm
    Launching today, this startup's iPhone app geo-locates you and geo-locates the partyHot Potato, a startup focusing on an iPhone app that streams updates from friends at events in your area, launched on Friday, just one month after the completion of its Series A round of funding. The Brooklyn-based early-stage startup has raised $1 million so far for its mobile brand of social networking via events.Backed by Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein, Hot Potato's iPhone app will be one which facilitates a conversation that revolve around events: who's going where, who's enjoying what, what's happening (as…

  • Social networking sites are media portals

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:45 am
    Time spent viewing video on social networking destinations up 98% year-over-year, reports NielsenOne of the things I love about Facebook is how simple it is to view videos on your live feed.  For the most part, videos from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, or those uploaded directly to Facebook play right in the feed without ever having to stray away to another destination.  It just works.  It makes sense that this ease of viewing could be one of the reasons why time spent viewing video on social networking has increased 98 percent year-over-year, according to a report by Nielsen…

  • Facebook shares rise 42% in 4 months

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am
    Common stock is trading at $21/ share on SecondMarket, giving the company a $9.5 billion valuation.Facebook’s valuation has been all over the map. In 2007, a $240 million investment from Microsoft pegged the company at a whopping $15 billion. After Wall Street imploded, the company plummeted to $3.7 billion in its own estimation, according to court documents discovered by the AP in February of this year. By May it climbed back to $10 billion with an investment from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies. DST then offered to buy up to $100 million in common stock from shareholders…

  • Adobe to release Acrobat.com for smartphones

    20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    After a couple weeks worth of mobile news, Adobe keeps the updates comingAdobe revealed Thursday that this weekend it will be launching a new version of Acrobat.com, an online platform which allows for PDF conversion, web conferencing, and more. Included in the announcement is the news that Adobe will likewise be releasing both iPhone and BlackBerry applications for Acrobat.com.The new Acrobat.com, which launches this Saturday, Nov. 21 at 3:00am PST, consolidates all of the user's files--documents, spreadsheets, presentations--into one central hub, for easier access. Both free and premium…

  • Twitter's new question: What's happening?

    19 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am
    Biz Stone says "What are you doing?" was never the most important questionFrom the beginning, Twitter has asked its users one simple question: "What are you doing?" The original idea assumed the network would be a place for people to keep in touch with each other and the occurrences in their day-to-day lives.But, as co-founder Biz Stone acknowledges in a Twitter Blog post today, that question has taken a backseat to a more important question.According to Stone:The fundamentally open model of Twitter created a new kind of information network and it has long outgrown the concept of personal…
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    VentureBeat

  • Roku adds 10 new free content channels for its set-top video players

    Dean Takahashi
    22 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm
    Roku offers a trio of set-top boxes that can download movies and TV shows from the web and show them on your TV. Now the company is adding 10 new free content channels to its service. You can use a Roku box with a Netflix subscription or the Amazon Video on Demand service to watch movies or TV shows on your TV. You connect a Roku box to both your TV and the web. Then you can cruise through the Netflix catalog and watch movies instantly as they stream via Wi-Fi or Ethernet to your TV set. Now Saratoga, Calif.-based Roku is adding access to these sites: Blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr,…

  • 16-yr old launches Vye music-sharing site. Another Napster?

    Craig Agranoff
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am
    With the help of close friends and family, 16-year-old Charles Allatt, has launched Vye Music, an online meta search app for music files around the Net. The site pulls search results from other music sites — including Skreemr, MP3Codes, and 4Shared Music, sites which in turn index hundreds of thousands of sites, blogs and artist pages. Vye collates all of this content for the user and applies a simple, AJAX-based interface to let you build playlists, stream songs, and download them. Letting users share and download music for free is what got Napster in trouble for copyright violations…

  • 5 O’Clock Roundup: Nook sold out, Sony launches online store, Bing gets slammed

    Dean Takahashi
    21 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm
    We’ve been a little behind with roundup lately. Our apologies. Here’s the latest action: Barnes & Noble Nook sold out — The bookseller’s entry into the eBook reader market is under way. The B&N Nook is out of stockk on the company’s web site and it is now taking orders for devices that will ship next year. Analysts say that the Nook wasn’t ready for shipment in huge quantities and B&N probably launched it anyway to head off sales for Amazon’s rival Kindle eBook reader. Well, there’s always Spring Design’s Alex. Sony to launch…

  • Week in review: Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie on apps, Al Gore at GreenBeat

    Anthony Ha
    21 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pm
    Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days: Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie: Apps don’t make your phone special — “It’s not the applications available on the various platforms that will be the differentiators, Ozzie said, even though that’s what many companies and writers seem to focus on.” Microsoft’s Xbox Live chief on banning modders and browsing Facebook photos on TV — “It’s a cat and mouse game. These were people that were pirating software.”…

  • Entrepreneur Corner Roundup: The state of the VC world and tech’s human problem

    Chris Morris
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am
    Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner: 5 ways VC firms can stop shooting themselves in the foot – Venture Capital firms drill the need to create basic credibility into the companies they invest in – but often fail to take their own advice. Laura Grimmer, CEO of Articulate Communications (which works with VC firms), lists five things they could do to build a better pipeline of prospective portfolio companies. After VC cash? Show ‘em what you’ve learned – When the time came for Cafepress to seek its second round of funding, the company went about it in a…
 
 
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    A VC

  • The Story Of My Avatar

    Fred
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:36 am
     I saw this tweet when I got up this morning:hey @fredwilson - whats the story behind ur avatar? While longtime readers know it, I figure many of you don't. So here it goes. Starting about four years ago, Howard Lindzon started commenting actively on this blog. He was funny, he was smart, and I enjoyed our banter in the comments. One march vacation, our family made a short stop in Phoenix, where Howard used to live. He emailed me and offered my son and me two tickets to the Suns game. We took him up on that and that's how we met for the first time. It turned out Howard was…

  • Ten Meetings Per Day

    Fred
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:44 am
    I was explaining how I go about finding deals yesterday to a friend of mine and I thought I ought to explain it to everyone.I write this blog. It's like a broadcast channel of "what is interesting to me." I market it every way I know how and I get somewhere between 70k to 100k unique readers of it every month between web, rss, and mobile.As a result, I figure entrepreneurs and others have a pretty good idea of what I want to see and what I don't. And I believe they can self select. And for the most part, they do a great job of that.Given that dynamic, I take meetings, as…

  • The Power Of Instant Approval

    Fred
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:51 am
    Back in the early days of web video, it wasn't clear who would win the competition for video upload to the web. There was YouTube, Vimeo, and the big dog was Google Video. I tried all of them. YouTube was by far and away the best experience.Google Video required you to wait for days to see the video you uploaded. It was so annoying that I wrote this post exactly four years ago today (how's that for a coincidence?). This line sort of sums it up:Posting stuff to the Internet has to be instantaneous.  What if wrote this post on Tyeppad and it took me 10 minutes to see the…

  • My Social Recruiting Summit Keynote Talk

    Fred
    15 Nov 2009 | 8:10 am
    On Friday I posted some of the key themes I'll be addressing tomorrow in my keynote. I spent this morning assembling them into a deck that I'll use in my talk tomorrow. Here's a final draft. Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions/critiques/copy edits, please leave them in the comments. Social Recruiting SummitView more presentations from fredwilson.

  • Social Recruiting

    Fred
    13 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am
    I'm giving the keynote talk at the Social Recruiting Summit in NYC on Monday. I've been working on my presentation over the past few days and some themes are worth talking about.1) Since we started Union Square Ventures in 2003/2004, we have only been involved with one retained search. Our portfolio companies have certainly used search firms, but our use of them has been extremely rare. We prefer to source candidates ourselves using our networks, and increasingly our social networks.2) We sourced both of our junior investment professionals, Andrew Parker and Eric Friedman, with blog…
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    Xconomy

  • Bio Architecture Lab, Maker of Seaweed Biofuel, Snags $8M Venture Round, DuPont Deal

    Luke Timmerman
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:20 am
    cleantech, Biotech, deals Luke Timmerman wrote: Seattle-based Bio Architecture Lab, the company using the emerging science of synthetic biology to make alternative fuels, has raised $8 million in its initial venture financing and secured a research collaboration with chemical giant DuPont to make biofuels from ocean seaweed. The complete Series A round is being led by Energy Capital Management, the venture arm of Norway-based Statoil, the world’s largest producer of energy from offshore sources. The other investors are Chile-based Austral Capital and X/Seed Capital of Menlo Park, CA. We…

  • Receptos, Led By Biogen Idec Vets and Scripps Stars, Snags $25M For Drug Discovery Engine

    Luke Timmerman
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Biotech, VC, startups Luke Timmerman wrote: Receptos, a San Diego-based biotech startup formed by a number of Biogen Idec veterans, has nailed down $25 million in venture capital to develop a vivid new way to look at certain protein structures on cells that it hopes will ultimately take a lot of the guesswork out of drug discovery. The cash infusion is coming from Venrock Associates, Arch Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, and Lilly Ventures. Bill Rastetter, a partner at Venrock who was the CEO of Idec Pharmaceuticals before it merged into Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec, has joined…

  • Report from the Russian (Entrepreneurial) Front

    Bill Aulet
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm
    Entrepreneurship, Education, Russia Bill Aulet wrote: November 20, 2009, Moscow, Russia—I write this from the Moscow airport on my way home to Massachusetts after teaming with MIT colleagues Howard Anderson and Peter Kurzina to teach a week-long boot camp on entrepreneurship for the first class of MBAs at the new Skolkovo Business School. Skolkovo* is a private business school strongly supported by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and, hence, the top Russian business leaders. It not only has lots of money (the school is currently housed in a 5-star hotel), it has access to the highest…

  • Under the Radar Deals: 10 (+1) New England October Financings You Never Heard About

    Robert Buderi
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm
    VC, deals, startups Robert Buderi wrote: The big picture is great. But at Xconomy, we also like the smaller details, which often fill in or round out the big picture—and make everything more clear. So it is when it comes to company financing rounds. We always bring you stories about the main venture deals in the region and a list of the biggest rounds every month. But starting last month, we also began bringing you the most interesting small financings in high-tech, life sciences, and energy. These are the under-the-radar deals between $100,000 and $1 million that are routinely left out…

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    20 Nov 2009 | 5:43 pm
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    Ross Mayfield's Weblog

  • Why Twitter Implemented Retweets

    Ross Mayfield
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am
    In a thoughtful post, Ev explains the thoughts behind why twitter implemented Retweets. There are a lot of good reasons for adapting this user generated convention into mainstream use. MG Siegler, Sean Bonner and others provide some insight into how this adaptation may have gone to far, but I wanted to explore why this feature was implemented the way it was. Two weeks ago Twitter partnered with Bing and Google to provide the real time firehose for inclusion in their search indexes. Most likely these deals are providing the majority of Twitter's revenue to date. Form follows funding,…

  • From Enterprise 2.0 Adoption to Business Value

    Ross Mayfield
    2 Nov 2009 | 10:13 am
    In 2006, Enterprise 2.0 gained a definitional framework with Andrew McAfee's seminal article. But then the conversation quickly shifted to adoption frameworks. In part this was needed for something that was both new and powered by people. But unfortunately it has caused a perception problem, to the detriment of the industry. It's time to elevate the conversation from adoption to business value.There isn't a shortage of budget for Enterprise 2.0, but quipping the I in ROI is nominal doesn't cut it. At Socialtext, we've been hard at work combing through our customer…
 
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    DEMO Conference Blog

  • Join Us: December DEMO Innovation Meet-Ups in San Francisco, Seattle, NYC and Austin

    DEMO Staff
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:32 pm
    The DEMO Innovation tour where Matt Marshall, DEMO Executive Producer and the DEMO team travel around the globe to connect with the DEMO community in search of  the best innovation to showcase at DEMOspring 2010 is making it's way across the U.S. in December. Read more

  • DEMO’s visits to London and Boston show California is great place to launch

    DEMO Staff
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:28 pm
    Matt Marshall, DEMO Executive Producer I’ve been on the road lately, in a continued effort to find and meet with the best companies around to launch new products at the DEMO conference, and have been developing some cool ideas for DEMO’s next conference in March. I’ll share more about those ideas in future posts. Read more

  • DEMO rocked! Now the party starts again

    DEMO Staff
    13 Oct 2009 | 7:25 am
    From: Matt Marshall, Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences and Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat It’s been two weeks since the end of DEMO. I’m awestruck by the experience, both by all of the incredibly talented people that convened there in San Diego, and by the traction 70 entrepreneurs were able to get during those short few days. Thank you to all of the people who came and make it such a terrific event. Read more

  • DEMO 2010 starts now

    DEMO Staff
    7 Oct 2009 | 2:58 pm
    We're fresh off DEMOfall 09 where two weeks ago, 70 companies launched products and announced innovative business plans. If you haven't taken a look, check out the class of DEMOfall 09 at www.demo.com.   Read more

  • DEMOfall 09 starts today.. Watch live coverage

    DEMO Staff
    22 Sep 2009 | 6:41 am
    Didn't make it to San Diego for DEMOfall 09? Watch it live on www.demo.com home page starting Tuesday, 9/22 at 8:30am. PT,  thx BitGravity! Read more
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    Venture Hacks

  • 3 customer development case studies

    Nivi
    22 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm
    If you’re trying to implement customer development at your startup, you’ll learn more from these 3 case studies than anything else I’ve seen. I consider each of these a “must-read”. I’ve quoted some great bits from each case study, but make sure you click through and read each one in full. 1. Using an LOI to get customer feedback on a minimum viable product: “We decided from the get-go that, while we clearly saw the benefits and necessity of our concept, we would remain fiercely skeptical of our own ideas and implement the customer development process…

  • Weekend reading

    Nivi
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am
    Some weekend reading culled from our most popular tweets this week. Steve Blank and I have a good discussion about his and Eric Ries’ new customer development overlay. Regarding the Atlas Developer Beta, John Gruber says that “Access to the beta program is $20″ — this is the new way and I like it. Fake Steve Jobs always has better analysis than WSJ, NYT, TechCrunch, Economist, and your mom combined. I don’t think you need operational experience to be a good VC but Mark Suster’s great new post illustrates the difference. I recommend you pair these posts with…

  • The ignorant VC

    Supporting Author
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    Thanks to Atlas Venture for supporting Venture Hacks this month. This post is an interview of Fred Destin — one of Atlas’ general partners — by David Woodward, a journalist and blogger. If you like it, check out Fred’s blog and tweets @fdestin. A few days ago, I had an interesting chat with Fred Destin, Atlas Venture’s ebullient technology partner. Atlas bought a stake in the property website Zoopla at the beginning of 2008, which wasn’t exactly a fun time to be involved in the property game. It was also a pretty difficult period to source capital in any sector — all…

  • The sultans of startup marketing

    Nivi
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:35 am
    I recently re-connected with an up-and-coming venture capital Associate who thanked me for introducing her to the masterworks of Steve Blank and Eric Ries. I told her to check out Sean Ellis’ blog, and mentioned that I’ve learned just as much from Sean. Later that night, she sent me a note: “Sean Ellis is awesome. Thanks so much.” Let me tell you why Sean is awesome. First, Sean lead marketing from launch to IPO filing at LogMeIn and Uproar. He later worked with Xobni (Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital), Dropbox (Sequoia Capital), Eventbrite (Sequoia Capital),…

  • Extrapolating computing

    Naval Ravikant
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am
    Remember when mainframes did all of the computing? And workstations were dumb terminals docked to the mainframes? The terminals had less power, but were more “mobile”. Then everyone got a desktop. And the desktop is where you did most of your computing. And you carried around your underpowered laptop, which had to be synced with your desktop, or docked to a big screen, keyboard and mouse to be usable. The laptop had less power, but it was more mobile than the desktop. Now most early adopters have a laptop as their main computer. And they’re carrying around their underpowered…
 
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    Venture Capital Access Online

  • A New Addition to Entrepreneur Showcase

    17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Venture ID: 681 N.B. The above and other venture listings are reserved for members (accredited investors) only. Register for free membership (Accredited Investors Only) http://www.vcaonline.com/showcase/register Login to Entrepreneur Showcase http://www.vcaonline.com/showcase/login Showcase Your Business Plan or Executive Summary to Accredited Investors Entrepreneur Showcase provides a fast, simple and cost-effective way to showcase your business plan or executive summary to every accredited investor of our network. This is the best way for accredited investors to see your venture. Post Your…

  • Fenwick & West's Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey Reveals Increase in Valuations in Third Quarter of 2009

    10 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., November 11, 2009-- Fenwick & West LLP, one of the nation's premier law firms providing comprehensive legal services to high technology and life science clients, today announced results of its Third Quarter 2009 Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey. Click the above link to read the news story.

  • VCPro Database 2009

    8 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    VCPro Database 2009 (12th Edition) is a downloadable venture capital and private equity directory with complete profiles of over 4,200 venture capital firms worldwide. Compiled by a veteran VC researcher, VCPro Venture Capital Database is available in both Windows and Macintosh formats. (includes a FREE annual update in January 2010) Click the above link to learn more.

  • 2009 The New England Venture Summit

    5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    2009 The New England Venture Summit December 8, 2009 Click the above link to view this event.

  • 12th Annual Corporate Venturing & Innovation Partnering

    5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    12th Annual Corporate Venturing & Innovation Partnering February 23-25, 2010 Click the above link to view this event.
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    VC & Angel Investor Profiles

  • Investor Profile: 3i

    22 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm
    Ken Hanau, Partner, 3i Ken joined 3i in 2006 and is a founding Partner of 3i US Growth Capital in North America. He focuses on the industrial and media sectors and was involved in investments in Mold Masters and Grupo Union Radio. He also leads the North American Team. Prior to joining 3i, Ken held senior positions with Weiss, Peck & Greer and Halyard Capital, leading investments in the industrial, media and business services sectors. Over his investing career, Ken has been involved in investments in Village Voice Media, Richelieu Foods, Color Associates, American Community Newspapers,…

  • Investor Profile: Brand Building Ventures

    22 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm
    Parker Gilbert, Angel Investor, Managing Partner, Brand Building Ventures Parker Gilbert is the Managing Partner of Brand Building Ventures, based in Westchester County, New York. Brand Building Ventures, founded in September, 2004, is committed to investing in emerging consumer goods and services companies that possess unique selling propositions. Mr. Gilbert has thirteen years of classic consumer packaged goods marketing experience across a range of product categories. Over the course of his career, Mr. Gilbert has won two sales awards and one national advertising award. He has a track…

  • Investor Profile: Contour Venture Partners

    22 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm
    Matt Gorin, General Partner, Contour Venture Partners Matt Gorin is a general partner and co-founder of Contour Venture Partners and has experience in technology operations, start-ups and turnaround management, with a focus on the financial services and applied technology sectors. Matt was previously part of the launch team at Promontory Interfinancial Network and before that worked at Red Hat. Earlier in his career Matt was at Morgan Stanley within its financial services focused venture capital fund and was a turnaround consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Some of his investments include…

  • Investor Profile: Edison Venture Fund

    22 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm
    Tim Foster, Business Development Manager, Edison Venture Fund Tim Foster serves as Manager of Business Development. Tim is responsible for managing and expanding Edison's referral source network of service provider professionals and financing sources in the Mid-Atlantic region (PA, DE, MD, VA, DC, NJ, NY, CT, MA) Tim identifies and builds new relationships for mutual referral opportunities. This includes trading deal flow and facilitating lead sharing with referral network contacts and sourcing Edison deals and portfolio company opportunities to service providers. In addition Tim represents…

  • Investor Profile: FirstMark Capital

    22 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm
    Amish Jani, Managing Director, FirstMark Capital Amish Jani, a Founder and Managing Director of FirstMark Capital, focuses on software and systems investments in the enterprise, communications and digital media sectors, and serves on FirstMark Capitals Investment Committee. Amish also leads FirstMarks investment strategies for the Indian marketplace. Prior to founding FirstMark Capital, Amish served as a Partner with Pequot Ventures. *Come meet with Amish in this exclusive New York City speaking engagement: Perfect Venture Conference V on November 12, 2009 FirstMark Capital Some invest in…
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    VentureWoods

  • Software Architect

    Ranjit Jatar
    21 Nov 2009 | 10:03 pm
    There is a partially VC funded start–up which has had a pilot going on for 2 years in Delhi which  caught the personal attention of Bill Gates when he visited Delhi in Nov 2OO8 leading to partial funding by him to keep the fires burning. Bill Gates has a financial inclusion mission which is dear to his heart and to his Melinda Gates Foundation and saw synergy in this companys innovative mobile banking business idea and possibility of a Melinda-Gates led CSR association.  There is an absolutely committed co-founding team. They have gone through ups and downs financially till Bill…

  • Barcamp Chandigarh @ 22 Nov

    Sameer
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:33 am
    The startup ecosystem in Chandigarh, the city beautiful, is buzzing with activity. On 12 November the results of Business plan competition, Enterprize - organized by TIE Chandigarh & Chandigarh Administration, were announced. The winners got place in the EDC setup by the Chandigarh Administration, in the IT park. Continuing the good news for start-up folks, Fountainhead School of Business is organizing BarCamp Chandigarh - an extreme popular unconference, on 22 November. It will be a day long event that provides you the opportunity to attend some interesting sessions, meet like-minded…

  • Book Review - Getting to Plan B

    Alok Mittal
    12 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm
    Just finished reading this book by John Mullins and Randy Komisar. It outlines the importance of iterating on the business to evolve the plan continuously - in many cases, the initial plan that entrepreneurs start with doesn’t work as it is. This is something that people in the venture space have known intuitively. John and Randy do a good job of motivating it with examples, and outlining a broad framework of what to watch out for. In some sense, the book is broader than just getting to Plan B - the initial portions on analogs and antilogs (as ways to find patterns that can fit your…

  • Israel: Leader in Business Innovation

    Alok Mittal
    1 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm
    CNBC has this interesting video on what makes Israel business innovation tick

  • Will angels dirty their hands?

    Alok Mittal
    28 Oct 2009 | 9:47 pm
    I was speaking to a successful entrepreneur and angel investor yesterday about the evolving angel investment climate in India. He voiced a concern that seems to strike a chord - that while many successful entrepreneurs in India are involving themselves in angel funding, and even setting up early stage funds, there is a tendency to “rise above” building companies and a resistance to acting as a peer to budding entrepreneurs. Many successful entrepreneurs seem to graduate over, and consider it below themselves to roll up their sleeves with a rookie. Conference speeches take over…
 
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    VCCircle Feeds

  • $2.5B PE/VC Money In Tamil Nadu Inc.

    Madhav Chanchani
    22 Nov 2009 | 11:18 pm
    One of the country’s top five large states in terms of its contribution to national income, Tamil Nadu always offered a large potential for financial investors including private equity and venture capital funds. But, the emergence of the state as the fifth largest destination for PE/VC deals, since January 2005, has been against the odds of a conservative profile of South India-based business families who typically tend to take small business steps and are largely cautious of bringing stakeholders from outside. At the same time, it also represents the rise of a new set of entrepreneurs…

  • India Financial Inclusion Fund Raises $90M Kitty

    Madhav Chanchani
    22 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm
    India Financial Inclusion Fund (IFIF), one of the largest funds focussed on investing in companies playing in the bottom-of-the-pyramid market, has achieved a final close of $90 million. Advised by Hyderabad-based Caspian Advisors, IFIF has raised commitments from the likes of UK’s CDC Group, Global Microfinance Equity Fund and Switzerland's Social Investment Services.  IFIF started fund-raising last year before the crisis and has managed to close it in a period of 15 months. The interest in the MFI sector has been consistent throughout the period, said Mona Kachhwaha, Director of…

  • Managers - Corporate Finance/Investment Banking - Fortress Group

    Madhav Chanchani
    22 Nov 2009 | 10:03 pm
    Job Description: Managers: Corporate Finance /Investment Banking (Positions 6 :  2 each in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai) CA/ MBA / Engineer - MBA or having equivalent qualification and  around 2-3  years relevant experience in operations of the Corporate Finance / Investment Banking business. Incumbent would be expected to have excellent understanding of the financial markets /products / processes and shall be responsible for business operational aspects of the business including Marketing Support, Financial Analysis, and preparation of offer document / Information Memorandum etc.

  • AVP - BD - Corporate Finance/Investment Banking - Fortress Group

    Madhav Chanchani
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:42 pm
    Job Description: Asst Vice President / Senior Manager- Business Development - Corporate Finance / Investment Banking (Positions 3 : Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai) : CA/ MBA / Engineer - MBA or having equivalent qualification and  around 4-6 years relevant experience in business development in the Corporate Finance / Investment Banking segments. Incumbent would be expected to have excellent understanding of the financial markets /products, and shall be responsible for independent generation of business as well as execution of transactions. Company Description: Fortress Group is one of the…

  • News Roundup: Intelenet Likely To Buy US Firm In $30M Deal

    Sarimul I Choudhury
    22 Nov 2009 | 8:07 pm
    HTW Looking At Acquisitions In South India - Metal container manufacturer, Hindustan Tin Works (HTW), plans to acquire smaller firms in South India and is currently in talks with a host of potential targets. The company, which plans to fund the acquisition from debt and internal accruals, is in talks with three leading lenders -- State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Standard Chartered, to raise the debt part for the proposed acquisition. (DNA) LN Mittal Doubles His Stake In Ophir - Steel major Lakshmi N Mittal has paid over $110 million to double his stake in Africa-focused Ophir…
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    Seeing Both Sides

  • Time for Massachusetts to Pass Education Reform

    bussgang
    14 Nov 2009 | 7:43 am
    I've been blogging for five years about the start-up, innovation economy and I almost never write about politics.  But this week is different.  This week, the Massachusetts Legislature is about to vote on a bill to (finally) reform education in Massachusetts - to lift the cap on charter schools, empower commissioners to reform the worst-performing schools and create "Readiness Schools" that get around the usual bureaucracy and drive towards academic excellence. The importance of passing this legislation cannot be over-stated.  I've been somewhat involved with education…

  • What Makes Boston's Start-Up Scene Special?

    bussgang
    13 Nov 2009 | 5:59 am
    (follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bussgang A few weeks ago, Fred Wilson posted a presentation he delivered on What Makes the NYC Start-Up Scene Special. I was inspired to deliver a similar presentation today to a group of Harvard Business School students who are interested in entrepreneurship in Boston. There's been alot of chatter in the community about a start-up renaissance in Boston.  Don Dodge of Microsoft had a great post listing out all the amazing start-up resources in the Boston community that's worth reviewing as well. Yahoo's ex-president (and fellow HBS EIR)…

  • What Makes Boston's Start-Up Scene Special? - video

    bussgang
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:50 am
    Here's the video from the talk I gave at HBS on what makes the Boston start-up scene special.

  • The VC Gender Gap - Are VCs Sexist?

    bussgang
    5 Oct 2009 | 8:31 pm
    I find the preponderance of males in VC an annoying and stubborn phenomenon.  When I first entered the start-up game as an entrepreneur in the mid 1990s, I didn't think much of the "VC gender gap" as there were plenty of women executives around.  In fact, between one third and one half of the executive teams at my two start-ups (Open Market and Upromise) were women. As the father of a capable, ambitious daughter, perhaps I'm over-sensitive to the issue, but since becoming a VC seven years ago, I find it amazing that only 5-10% of the VC industry is made up of women. …

  • Healthcare and Entrepreneurship

    bussgang
    10 Sep 2009 | 4:17 am
    President Obama's compelling healthcare speech last night made the case for acting now. In a follow-up email that he sent to millions, he urged action to finally address this pressing issue, positing that we are "closer now than we have been in 60 years." Here's my question - where can I find an analysis of the impact of the plan on entrepreneurship? Why has this major engine of job growth been silent or ignored in the debate - or have I just missed it? Anything that creates friction in entrepreneurship is a bad thing for our innovation economy. I have seen aspiring…
 
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    Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

  • Moving to the Cloud is not an all or nothing proposition

    DonDodge
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am
    The Enterprise Cloud Summit panel at the Interop Conference yesterday discussed some of the challenges and concerns of large enterprises and government agencies in moving their applications to the cloud. While there are some regulatory and compliance concerns for some applications, it isn’t an all or nothing proposition. Moving your email, calendar, spreadsheet, word processor, and other productivity apps to the cloud now can save big money, and free up your IT resources to focus on more strategic issues. InformationWeek says “The vendors argued that cloud computing offers enough real…

  • Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen diagnosed Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

    DonDodge
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am
    Paul Allen, the 56 year old co-founder of Microsoft has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer of the lymphatic system. Paul is a tough guy, he already beat Hodgkin's Disease 25 years ago, and he will beat this too. Paul is one of the good guys. Everyone who knows him loves him. Say a prayer for Paul today. It is tragic when anyone is struck with cancer, but it seems only the celebs and rich people get noticed by the media. It is those less fortunate, those without adequate health care, that we should focus more attention on. Health insurance for all Americans must be…

  • Thanks Microsoft, Hello Google

    DonDodge
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am
    Thanks to all the fine people at Microsoft. It was an interesting ride. Four years, 11 months, and 20 days, and I enjoyed every one of them. Well, except for the last few days, that was not fun at all. I hope I played a small part in making Microsoft more approachable, friendly to startups, and easier to work with. Microsoft is a different company, a better company, than when I joined 5 years ago. There are more new people who joined Microsoft in the last 5 years than all the previous employees combined. However, laying off 5,000 people when you have $37B in cash and huge profits is not cool.

  • Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter the new communication modes

    DonDodge
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:43 am
    Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter have become my main communication channels since leaving Microsoft. They are always open on my laptop and cell phone. It is somewhat surprising to me how effective these tools are at reaching individual people or thousands of people at the same time. The corporate email system seems oddly out of touch now. Strange now fast that happens. I have used Facebook and Twitter for a long time. But now that I am outside the corporate wall they have taken on new importance. Gmail is new to me, but I can already see why people have been raving about it. It is email, but…

  • Pay It Forward, Give and you shall receive

    DonDodge
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:57 pm
    I want to publicly say thank you to all my friends. You know who your friends are when times are tough. I heard from hundreds of friends last week and it meant a lot to me. Social media has created a whole new set of “friends” who know a lot about you and care about you, even though you may have never met in person. Hundreds of these friends took the time to write to me. Over 400 emails on my new Gmail account. There were also hundreds of comments on blogs and news sites that carried the story of my separation from Microsoft. It was almost like I had died, but got to read my obituary and…
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    Bizjournals.com: Venture Capital

  • Lender could pay penalty for a borrower’s job cuts

    22 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    In this economy, lenders are taking aggressive steps to minimize exposure to losses by protecting assets and seeking workouts. Many loan agreements allow lenders to take extraordinary control or exert significant pressure over a debtor.

  • Banks selling more loans to commercial developers

    22 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Banks have taken their share of licks from the development community lately — from complaints about the lack of capital to grumbles that the industry is kicking the recovery can down the road by extending underperforming loans.

  • Carrollton Bank chief sizes up Illinois banking

    22 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Tom Hough, the fifth generation to lead Carrollton Bank, finds his bank in good shape in the downturn and has accepted the chairmanship of the Illinois Bankers Association, one of the largest state banking association in the U.S. He discussed the state of banking in an interview with the Business Journal.

  • AFL woes become Fifth Third headache

    22 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The Arena Football League’s bankruptcy reorganization is going to hit Fifth Third Bancorp’s financial statement.

  • Bankers wonder about Congress’ regulation plans

    22 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The crisis in the mortgage industry has left Americans with a whole new vernacular: subprime, TARP, predatory lending and now, CFPA.
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    PE Hub Blog

  • peHUB Rewind

    Erin Griffith
    21 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
    Here’s a look at the last week’s worth of scoops, data, and analysis from the peHUB team. Catch up on what you missed before it goes behind our paywall… All First Reads |  All Second Opinions 10 Largest VC-Backed M&A Exits of 2009 Voxeo - A Recapitalized Dotcom Mayfield On Voxeo: No Regrets VCs Duel On Healthcare Reform TL Ventures Dispute Heads To Arbitration (And Then Back to Court) Mid-Market Exit Three-Peat Today in 3Com: Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right NVCA Seeks Tweets Sin is In: Golden Gate Eyes Playboy Bump On The Road To Smart Grids - A Lawsuit Jason…

  • Companies Led By Women Are Greener

    Deborah Gage
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pm
    This is one conclusion of a study from UC Davis and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives in Palo Alto, which looked at 400 of the largest publicly held companies in California to see how many of them had women board members or executives. They didn’t find many — women hold only 10.6% of the board seats and executive jobs at these companies, and only 15 of the companies have women CEOs. At 30% of the companies, both board members and executives were all male. One of the counties that ranked the lowest for women-led companies, by the way, was Santa Clara, which is in the…

  • peHUB Second Opinion 11.20

    Erin Griffith
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:33 pm
    Wacky Business School Traditions: Including pants-free pub crawls, Olympics, human castles, mustache competitions…. (BusinessWeek) Daily Dose of Snark: The Wall Street Journal Tackles the Important Stuff. (Cityfile) Rising Renminbi: Chinese private equity funds are emerging in big cities as China promulgates new regulations aimed at creating a homegrown private equity industry, one that Beijing hopes will strengthen the country’s capital markets and fuel private sector growth in an economy overly dependent on government investment. (NY Times) Keep It Classy, Ohio: My home state…

  • How TCW Met Magic Johnson, Formed “Capital Assist”

    Erin Griffith
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:28 pm
    At yesterday’s Buyouts West conference, Deborah Gage interviewed Mark L. Attanasio, managing director at TCW. As Dan noted in this morning’s peHUB Wire, the Milwaukee Brewers owner said he wouldn’t trade Prince Fielder. More closely related private equity, he discussed the formation of TCW’s new joint venture with Magic Johnson. How does a mid-market mezzanine lender get hooked up with a former L.A. Lakers great? This is how: “I went over to Ron Burkle’s place to visit the Stanley cup. Ron owns the (Pittsburgh) Penguins, and they won the Stanley Cup, and I…

  • NVCA: The Tweets Are In

    Deborah Gage
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pm
    All week, Startuphire.com and the National Venture Capital Association have been sending out press releases highlighting the U.S. jobs created this year by venture-backed companies — more than 35,000 to date. They also asked employees of these startups to submit 140-character testimonials on what inspires them to get out of bed and go to work each day. Here are some of them: “Our CEO is wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt right now. At bulbstorm.com, we’re too busy innovating to iron!” Bart Steiner, CEO, Bulbstorm “A bad thing about working for a startup is everyone…
 
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    Technosailor.com

  • The Gov 2.0 Camp LA Drama: Lessons for Community

    Aaron Brazell
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:31 am
    Community events have become very common these days. Ever since the days of the first BarCamp – an unconference event that caters mainly to developers and techheads and is organized around attendees picking time slots to speak in on the day of the event – and transitioning to other similar style events,  like PodCamp, WordCamp, and now Gov 2.0 Camp, these events have become a catalyst for grassroots movement in the areas they focus in. As a WordPress guy, my roots are with the WordCamp events that are held around the country. I just got back from WordCamp NYC 2 and we’ll be…

  • WordPress and PHP 5: Be the Change You Want to See

    Aaron Brazell
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am
    The other day, I wrote the popular 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9. As usual, most people are very excited about the new release which is now in beta and available for testing. In the article, I made a few fundamental errors which I have since corrected. Notably, I mentioned that WordPress 3.0 would be going to PHP 5. This was based on conversations I had with a core developer which I now realized I misunderstood. Kinda. WordPress will probably not be dropping PHP 4 support in WordPress 3.0 but as core developer Mark Jaquith suggests: Some things already require PHP 5, like…

  • The WordPress Bible: A Writing Redux

    Aaron Brazell
    17 Nov 2009 | 11:07 am
    Back in July, I noted that I had accepted and was beginning the process of writing The WordPress Bible for Wiley Publishing. You can read that post here. It’s now November and almost everything is in the bag for me. I’ve written the book with an average of 20-30 pages per chapter. I’ve gone through Author Review (A.R.), more commonly called “editing”. I’ve taken screenshots. Wrote code. Sifted through pages and pages that have so many changes, from three different editors, that the page appears to bleed. I’ve survived. Sometimes barely. I want to talk…

  • 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9

    Aaron Brazell
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm
    Gentlemen, start your engines! WordPress 2.9 is just around the corner. Unlike WordPress 2.8, which Mark Jaquith describes as the Snow Leopard of WordPress since most of the basis of the WordPress 2.8 upgrade was complete rewrites and optimization of the infrastructure that ran WordPress instead of providing lots of new features in the same way Apple’s new OS X release is a focus on improved performance instead of features, WordPress 2.9 brings major new “bling” to the table. As a reminder of WordPress 2.8, you can see the writeup that Jonathan Dingman brought us last time…

  • Will the Real Tech Community Please Stand Up

    Aaron Brazell
    30 Oct 2009 | 11:39 am
    Our world today is diluted. The lines have blurred. Everyone has bought into this concept of community – that everyone has something for everyone and we’re one big happy family. Specifically, the concept of the “technology community” which is a term that has come to mean anyone who has a blog, uses social media or Twitter and engages online in some way or another. Though this has been a trend that is akin to the frog happily boiling in an ever increasing pot of hot water, the reality struck me today as I saw this Wall Street Journal article about how Facebook and…
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    LINKEDIN ANSWERS: VC AND PRIVATE EQUITY

  • What Oil, Gas or Alternative Energy Companies are in need of funding with NO Equity Stake?

    22 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

  • Where to advertise my start up to investors

    22 Nov 2009 | 9:01 am
    Hello everyone I have a very good startup that impresses everyone that has access to investors. But because of some limiting factors I cant get these guys to introduce me to their investors. My Dilemma is I need a very small amount like $50000 to get these consultancies to upgrade my business plan to standard and then get it financed through the reg D. I seemingly cant get anyone to invest 50K yet I get more enthusiasm when I invite people to invest the entire 3.5 million required for it to b ...

  • How to Promote a Non-Traditional Business?

    21 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm
    We pay our Private Funders a higher than normal interest rate (20% annually) because our profits are high. Our profits come from our trading SP Futures. People will naturally think not possible. That's why we first meet with our potential Private Funders and reveal to them how we earn our profit. Does anyone have any ideas? I thought proving what we do first is a good idea.

  • real estate appraiser solar systems

    21 Nov 2009 | 6:53 pm

  • What SEC concerns should I have when raising outside capital for my business

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:57 am
    I have a client who is raising capital for her business. We were told by a potential investor that if we get "passive" investors we will have to file a bunch of stuff with the SEC and it could cost $50,000 in legal fees. But, if we get "active" investors who are members of board or "managers" in the LLC then we would be exempt. Trying to verify or get more info on this.
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    GigaOM

  • Should Page Speed Influence Google PageRank?

    Om Malik
    22 Nov 2009 | 10:30 pm
    Matt Cutts, a software engineer and an eloquent corporate spokesman for Google, spoke at PubCon earlier this month and later gave a video interview to Web Pro News, in which he said that the speed at which web pages are available might become a factor in SEO moving into 2010. He said that because many within Google consider fastness to be vital to the web, the company is considering making web site speed a factor in calculating page rankings. Those comments have confused and scared many folks as to how speed might impact their businesses. To be sure, Cutts’ comments don’t offer…

  • AdMob Data Reveals Android’s Growth, Device Market Share

    Om Malik
    22 Nov 2009 | 10:27 pm
    AdMob, a mobile advertising network, which has been releasing mobile metrics for a while now and touting the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch metrics as headlines, is instead focusing on RIM, Symbian, Android and even Windows Mobile devices in its October 2009 mobile metrics report. I guess when you are soon going to be part of Google, why give arch-nemesis, Apple and its iPhone any airtime. AdMob is in the process of being acquired by Google for $750 million. The report has some interesting facts about Android and gives a rough breakdown on the success (or lack there of) of various different…

  • AOL Reveals Lame New Look & Logo

    Om Malik
    22 Nov 2009 | 7:43 pm
    AOL will launch a new look and logo along with its official spinout from Time Warner on Dec. 10, as it tries to become a content-centric company. Wolff Olins, a global brand and innovation consultancy, worked on this new look and logo which seeks to replace the older, more iconic AOL branding. The minute I saw the logo (and its various interpretations), my first reaction was simple: lame. It is ambiguous at best, and as sexy as the obese, shapeless humans living on Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet in Pixar movie “WALL-E.” Why such a visceral reaction? Perhaps because I grew up…

  • TripIt Launches Android App as Beta

    Om Malik
    22 Nov 2009 | 5:10 pm
    TripIt, a travel aggregation service that is offered as an application on the iPhone and BlackBerry, is now available as a beta app for Google’s Android platform and can be downloaded from the Android Market. Just like us, our colleagues at jkOnTheRun, WebWorkerDaily and TheAppleBlog are all fans of TripIt, and the Android version will allow more people to use this fantastic service. TripIt recently launched an application programming interface for other developers to build their own web and mobile apps.

  • How Video Is Changing the Internet

    Richard Bennett
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am
    The rise of video streaming is dramatically affecting the Internet, according to a two-year study of Internet traffic trends that Arbor Networks recently presented to the North American Network Operators Group. Two years ago, Internet traffic was distributed evenly among a dozen Tier-1 network providers, but today the majority of traffic flows through direct peering agreements among large content providers, content delivery networks and ISPs. Consequently, Tier-1 networks have shifted their business models from simple packet delivery to richer cloud computing and content hosting services, and…
 
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    EzineArticles.com

  • How Joint Ventures Can Be Beneficial For Your Business

    21 Nov 2009 | 4:31 pm
    A business enterprise of your own can be highly rewarding if you can manage it well. Proper handling of your business involves a keen attention to every detail of the same.

  • Can a Factoring Company Help Your Company?

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm
    Does your Canadian business have cash flow problems? Read this article to learn how a factoring company can help improve the cash flow of your company.

  • Finding Capital in Asia and the Search For Angel Investors

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:29 am
    Asia provides an excellent location to develop a business. However, access to capital is a key requirement for many projects and the key question for many entrepreneurs in Asia is where to find it.

  • Turnaround Engagement - Part I

    19 Nov 2009 | 6:08 pm
    I recently completed a turnaround engagement with a mid-market company. The effort was successful and the story of the turnaround was typical of many. My initial foray into any company identifies those threats that are likely to bring it down.

  • How to Not Leave Money on the Table When Raising Equity

    19 Nov 2009 | 2:16 pm
    There you are, you're drafting the term sheet for your private placement memorandum and you come to the warrant section. You know, that part of an equity security offering that states how much of the equity you're willing to part with. You can't just throw out a number - "20%", "40%", "anything under 50%". If you offer too little in warrants, your prospective investors will never become your investors; the return is not sufficient to compensate for the risk. Offer too much, and yes, you'll get investors, but at the expense of leaving money on the table. It needs to be a win-win. That's great,…
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    Ventureblogs

  • Berkman Center Reception This Wednesday

    David Hornik
    17 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am
    In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the power of circumstance. He explains that Bill Gates and Bill Joy had unprecedented access to the earliest computers and, as a result, they built a couple of the most important computer companies in the history of computation. A quick look at the folks who graduated from law school with me at the dawn of the Internet age (it sounds so long ago when you put it that way) and you can see the power of circumstance at work again. In my law school class were four of the most well-respected Internet scholars: Professors Jonathan Zittrain, Yochai…

  • Monetizing Twitter -- Bring on the Ads!

    David Hornik
    9 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am
    True, no one asked me. But here's my two cents anyway. Twitter should open up its platform to advertising. That's right, advertising. Forget all this hoo-ha over selling data or paid business accounts or dashboards . . . Twitter has everything it needs to build a wildly-successful ad driven business model. It should get on with it. The two hallmarks of successful advertising-driven businesses are 1) massive scale and 2) abundant context. How has MySpace built such strong advertising revenue atop their social media platform? Huge scale and a ton of context. Same is true of Facebook and Yahoo…

  • Welcome Reid Hoffman to the VC Side of the Table

    David Hornik
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:40 pm
    First came the announcement earlier in the year that Marc Andreessen was joining the ranks of "capital" -- a welcomed defection from "labor." And now my friend Reid Hoffman has jumped into the fray as well, joining Greylock Partners in their new fund (although he is not quite abandoning "labor" -- for the time being he will continue on as Executive Chairman of LinkedIn). Having two superstars like Marc and Reid join the venture business is excellent news at a time when the press is gleefully touting the demise of our profession. While the venture business is, no doubt, under serious pressure…

  • Lessons from Rajeev Motwani's and Craig Johnson's Lives

    David Hornik
    12 Oct 2009 | 4:07 am
    In the past three weeks, I have attended 2 memorial services and 2 brises. The brises celebrated the births of two future superstars -- the sons of four of the smartest entrepreneurs and venture investors in the Bay Area. The memorial services celebrated the lives of two recently deceased superstars -- both entrepreneurs and venture investors in their own right. As I listened to the stories of the lives these great men had lived, and listened to the toasts and prayers for these great men-to-be, it struck me that there were lessons to be learned for entrepreneurs and venture investors alike.

  • Pen and Paper are Mightier Than the Laptop

    David Hornik
    29 Sep 2009 | 7:37 pm
    Relatively recently I hosted a meeting of the advisors to one of my portfolio companies. It was an impressive group of tech veterans. Each of them had been involved in the building of multi-million dollar high tech companies. Yet, what struck me about this summit was how many of these computer gurus carried with him a good, old fashioned notebook. Two varieties seemed to dominate the gathering -- the classic, leather-bound Moleskin and the pocket-sized graph paper Rhodia. I was surprised to see so much scribbling and so little typing. Since that meeting, I have kept my eyes out for this…
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    Recent Buzzes - VC Experts, Inc.

  • In a Leveraged Buyout With a Controlling Stockholder, Loyal Directors Must Actively Negotiate

    17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Louisiana Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System v. Fertitta A recent decision by the Delaware Court of Chancery reinforces the responsibility of a board of directors to assertively defend the interests of the noncontrolling stockholders when negotiating with a controlling stockholder in order to satisfy the board's duty of loyalty. Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.

  • Venture Capital Survey - Silicon Valley Third Quarter 2009

    16 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Fenwick & West LLP., a national law firm that provides comprehensive legal services to technology and life sciences clients of national and international prominence, has analyzed the terms of the venture financings in the Bay Area for the third quarter of 2009. In this week's Buzz article you will be able to take a closer look at the results of the Fenwick & West survey by Barry J. Kramer and Michael J. Patrick which found up rounds exceeded down rounds in 3Q09, 41% to 36%, with 23% flat. This was the first time that up rounds have exceeded down rounds in 2009 and the percentage of inside…

  • Applicability of Delaware Income Tax

    10 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    The Delaware income tax applies to domestic and foreign corporations, other than those specifically exempted, deriving income from business activities carried on and from property located within Delaware during the income year. The applicability of the Delaware corporate income tax to limited liability companies (LLCs) is determined by the LLC's classification for federal income tax purposes. Therefore, an LLC will be classified as a partnership, unless otherwise classified for federal income tax purposes. Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.

  • New York State Enacts Changes Impacting the Creation and Potential Uses of Powers of Attorney

    9 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    On September 1, 2009, broad changes to the laws governing powers of attorney became effective in the State of New York. These changes impact both the creation and potential uses of powers of attorney and apply not only to New York residents, but also to individuals who execute powers of attorney while conducting business in New York. Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.

  • Note on Preparation and Content of Placement Memorandum ('PPM')

    3 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    The early rounds of financing entail the issuance of securities in "private placements," transactions exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 in accordance with one or more statutory exemptions, as discussed in "Reg. D and Other Exemptions from Registration". Most source materials suggest that the use of private placement memoranda is essential in private placements. Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.
 
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    Frank Peters Show

  • Bankruptcy! Philadelphia's Rob Bovarnick

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:50 pm
    What's the difference between a wind-down or work-out and bankruptcy? Philadelphia-based Rob Bovarnick knows and he shares that and more in today's show. Fox Business, Forbes, he's an expert on bankruptcies and he's building an audience in traditional media. Will an appearance on the show open his eyes to podcasting? Or, more likely, I'll be learning something from Rob. Show #260 (27:57) Listen Register Now 8 Dec 2009 the Puerto Rico Venture Forum in San Juan

  • Wilson Sonsini: Shut Off TweetPhoto Interview

    18 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am
    I was astonished to receive this somewhat threatening letter from this well known and highly respected Silicon Valley law firm. To me, as a journalist, the letter appears to limit my ability to conduct candid interviews and to report them. Since I am not an attorney, I would appreciate any suggestions from my readers and listeners in regard to this most amazing letter. How would you respond? Notable commentary: TechCrunch, Why I Laugh by Chris Lindsey, Amateur Hour at James Hatch and Podcasting News.

  • TweetPhoto Update: Wilson Sonsini Threatens

    17 Nov 2009 | 8:32 pm
    Who would've thought Wilson Sonsini would threaten a blogger? They're famously smart people who've contributed hugely to the success of Silicon Valley and the venture capital industry, so why would they kick sand in my face over a split-up at TweetPhoto? Read their complaint below. Of course, the whole issue is a joke. How do you remove a podcast from the internet?

  • Dan Caulfield, TweetPhoto

    16 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pm
    BANNED BY WILSON SONSINI Photos for twitter? Sounds like a natural, so that's what former Tech Coast Angel Dan Caulfield has jumped into: TweetPhoto. Is it another case of "it's more fun to be an entrepreneur than an angel"? Well, not exactly, because now he's ex-CEO and there's trouble in paradise. TweetPhoto works with TweetDeck, which is on my desktop already, so I tried it. Works great, and for a photographer like me, I can see myself tweet'ing out lots of my favorite shots. So, if you're a former Tech Coast Angel, I'd assume you take your deal back to your friends, right? No, Dan has…

  • The Villalobos Memorial Celebration

    11 Nov 2009 | 11:57 pm
    At Luis' memorial celebration, Howard Miller is one of the first to speak. Show #258 (08:56) Listen Register today 8 Dec 2009 the Puerto Rico Venture Forum in San Juan
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    Feld Thoughts

  • Can A Soundtrack Make or Break a Tech Conference?

    Brad Feld
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am
    I’ve been to my share of tech conferences that either don’t have any music playing or have some horrible mix that the hotel supplies turned up either a little to much or not quite enough.  In contrast, I know that Eric Norlin obsesses over every aspect of his conferences, including the soundtrack.  He knows his audience well and nailed it this year.  He’s published the soundtrack on the Defrag blog.  I’m now looking forward to the Glue Conference soundtrack (and conference). Related articles by Zemanta Official Web 2.0 Expo New York Music Playlist (web2expo.com)

  • BlogTalkRadio Interview on the Startup Visa Movement

    Brad Feld
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:11 am
    Last week I did an hour long interview with Jon Hansen on the Startup Visa Movement titled Diminishing Prospects: How U.S. Policy is Undermining Entrepreneurial Vision. The interview is embedded below and Jon has a longer post up on his blog titled Snakes in a Playpen: Why U.S. Policy Regarding H-1B and EB-5 Visas is Outdated and Ineffective. I haven’t done any long form interviews on this topic yet.  I thought Jon did a great job of steering the conversation, pulling out some important perspectives, and helping cycle back to make sure the appropriate points were covered. If you are…

  • TechStars, StartUp Visa, iRobot Looj, and Cornell

    Brad Feld
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:07 am
    You may be thinking “what do these things have to do with one another?”  Well – they are all in my browser this morning after I returned from my run with Reece Pacheco of Overtime Media.  And in case you are wondering, Reece is an ex-lacrosse star who is now running Overtime – which makes HomeField.  They are a young company, but are working with about 200 sports teams at colleges across the country to get the video of their games online.  Reece met me at the NY Entrepreneurs Roundtable Event that I spoke at on Monday, sent me an email about running, and off we went this…

  • Living Life While Working Hard

    Brad Feld
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:29 am
    I had a 19 hour day yesterday – it started when I woke up at my hotel at 26th Street at 5am and ended when I hit the sack at midnight.  I had a bunch of meetings, a few scheduled phone calls, was on a panel, and stayed on top of my email throughout the day.  I even managed to keep my FishVille fish fed and got my Cafe World food served before it spoiled. When I crawled into bed, I was toast.  However, when I woke up this morning, I had this deep happy feeling from yesterday.  As I took a shower, I remembered four great things that I did in the midst of a very busy day.

  • Zeitoun

    Brad Feld
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:12 am
    Over the weekend, I read what I think is going to be my “best book of the year.”  It’s Zeitoun by Dave Eggars of McSweeney’s fame. Some people just know how to write.  And Eggars is one of them.  Wow. As I ran around downtown Manhattan this morning thinking about how radically different my run today was from my typical runs around Eldorado Springs and Boulder, I couldn’t help drifting back to Zeitoun.  It’s a stunning story about one man – Abdulrahman Zeitoun – and his family before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.  But Katrina was only the…
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    Ask The VC

  • Why Don’t Venture Capitalists Tell You Why They Won’t Invest?

    16 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am
    Today, we were asked the following question: '”Why don't VCs tell you the reason why they don't invest? Any feedback would be useful. It's just plain rude.” I (Jason) figured that this is really a personal question, so I thought that I’d post on my personal blog, as I certainly can’t speak (or even guess) the response for the entire VC industry. You can see Jason’s thoughts here. 

  • Preparing to Wind Down a Business: What information do you need?

    10 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am
    We continue to work our way through wind downs in the third part of the series from Roger Glovsky.  Roger, you have the floor… The primary responsibility for shutting down operations and liquidating assets falls on the managers and/or owners of the business, at least until or unless the creditors or court system takes over.  This could come as a nasty shock to some investors.  Many angel investors or even venture capitalists enter a transaction with the intent of just contributing money.  They may be surprised to learn some day that the management team for the company…

  • When to Shut Down Your Company

    19 Oct 2009 | 9:02 pm
    Last week we started the blog series (written by Roger Glovsky), How to Wind Down Your Company.  The response and comments were great!  Keep them coming.  This week we tackle the hardest problem of all: deciding when to shut down your company. It is not easy an easy decision, especially for entrepreneurs.  Starting a company is about creating a vision, persuading others to believe in the vision, turning an idea into reality, and pursuing a dream.  The last thing an entrepreneur wants to do is to shut down his or her dream. So, how do you make the decision to shut down…

  • Know Your Communication Strategy When Raising Money

    19 Oct 2009 | 7:26 am
    Today’s interesting post is from Matt Eventoff and talks about how startups need a communications strategy while raising money – not all that dissimilar from a disgraced politician.  Thanks Matt!

  • How To Wind Down Your Company – New Series

    7 Oct 2009 | 9:51 am
    Of the most popular posts that Brad and I have created are our series on Term Sheets, Compensation, and Mergers and Acquisitions.  One of the subjects that we've wanted to tackle has been the dissolution of companies.  It's never fun to think about failure, but it happens a lot. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten around to it yet, so it was with great joy that my friend Roger Glovsky elected to write the series himself.  This is post one of the series and I'm really excited to introduce Roger to our readers.  Take it away, Roger. This is a follow-up to Jason Mendelson's…
 
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    Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog

  • Lessons from leaders in virtual goods

    jeremyliew
    30 Oct 2009 | 7:34 pm
    Worlds In Motion has a good summary of my panel today from the Virtual Goods Summit, where leaders in Asian and Western virtual goods social networks shared what lessons they had learned.

  • Speaking at Virtual Goods Summit – 15% off code

    jeremyliew
    8 Oct 2009 | 4:45 pm
    I’m speaking at the Virtual Goods Summit on Oct 29-30th. I’m moderating an all star panel including Min Kim from Nexon, David Wallerstein from Tencent, Bill Wang from Perfect World and Dai Watanabe from DeNa. Between them, these four companies generate around $1bn in annual revenues through virtual goods sales. So we should be able to learn something from the discussion! The full program is here. If you’d like to join me at the summit use the code “LSVP” to get a 15% discount

  • Birthday greetings as a proxy for how communication is becoming more public 3.0

    jeremyliew
    29 Sep 2009 | 3:20 pm
    This is the third year that I’ve tracked my birthday greetings as they have moved from private channels to public channels, primarily facebook. As I noted previously, in 2007 and 2008; Social networks have changed the dynamic – it isn’t enough to wish someone a happy birthday, but it is also important to be SEEN to wish someone a happy birthday. Equally, it is important to be SEEN to have a lot of people wish you a happy birthday too! This year the shift continued but was much less pronounced, as the graph below shows: It’s somewhat notable that despite the huge increase of…

  • Where will the next ad network breakthrough come from?

    jeremyliew
    24 Sep 2009 | 6:36 pm
    I’ve noted in the past that the four core competences of ad networks are: Aggregating Inventory Aggregating Data Targeting Sales Better targeting has historically been one core area of competition for ad networks, especially those focused on direct response advertising. However, as Anand Rajaraman (co-founder of Kosmix, a Lightspeed portfolio company) points out, more data usually beats better algorithms. Andrew Chen recently noted that after three years of work, Netflix awarded its $1m prize to a combined team of experts for an algorithm that only improved targeting by 10.5%: This…

  • Awesome stats on social game purchasing

    jeremyliew
    23 Sep 2009 | 11:23 pm
    Andrew Chen has a guest post from Gambit that breaks down who is buying virtual goods and how much they are buying. The summary is that while teens spend substantially less per capita than people older than 20, they more than make up for it in volume. Read the whole thing and see the pretty charts here.
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    Clean Ventures

  • Clean Sweep 73

    Tim Chapman
    4 Nov 2009 | 7:40 am
    A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. DealsUK cleantech specialist Ludgate Environmental Fund has made a follow-on investment of Euro2.3m in portfolio company agri.capital. The investment bring's Ludgate's total investment up to Euro7.3m.Münster-based agri.capital produces biogas from manure and silage feedstocks, and currently operates at 44 sites with total

  • Clean Sweep 72

    Tim Chapman
    16 Oct 2009 | 7:56 am
    A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. DealsWaste treatment group New Earth Solutions secured £5m from Ludgate Environmental Fund as part of an ongoing £15m fundraising round. The Dorset-based group provides waste services, including a proprietary temperature-controlled composting process, for local authorities across southern and central England. Its New Earth

  • Clean Sweep 71

    Tim Chapman
    5 Oct 2009 | 7:40 am
    A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. DealsWave power developer Aquamarine Power raised £10m to support offshore testing of its Oyster device. Investors include Scottish & Southern Energy and Sigma Capital, who previously backed Aquamarine in 2007.The Oyster is a hydro-electric wave energy converter, which uses the motion of the sea to pump high-pressure water to

  • Clean Sweep 70

    Tim Chapman
    17 Sep 2009 | 4:13 am
    A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. It's been a while since the last one, and there's been plenty happening. DealsEnergy-efficient electronics developer Nujira raised a £10m fourth round from new investor Environmental Technologies Fund, Bank Invest, 3i, Amadeus, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and private investors. The Cambridge-based firm provides a range of

  • Clean Sweep 69

    Tim Chapman
    25 Aug 2009 | 5:08 am
    A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. DealsGreen cement developer Novacem raised something over £1m from Imperial Innovations, the London Technology Fund and the new Royal Society Enterprise Fund. A spin-out from Imperial College London, Novacem is developing a cement which absorbs more carbon dioxide over its lifetime than is emitted in its production.
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    Guy Kawasaki

  • The Perfect Interview Test

    GuyKawasaki
    21 Nov 2009 | 10:12 pm
    Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon, authors of I Hate People!, have figured out a quick way to interview job candidates. The solution is easy: watch how they cross the street. I’m a “wader,” by the way.

  • The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read

    GuyKawasaki
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm
    Inc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop.

  • How to Get Found

    GuyKawasaki
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pm
    The reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff.

  • How I tweet

    GuyKawasaki
    2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am
    By popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices.

  • Current Twitter Demo Script

    GuyKawasaki
    28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 am
    This is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this.
 
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    deal architect

  • The shoemaker's children

    21 Nov 2009 | 10:59 am
    On my flight over to San Francisco, I changed planes in Las Vegas and got free wi fi courtesy of Google. On my flight back on Delta I got free Wi-fly courtesy of eBay. Both are spreading some holiday cheer....

  • Where there are clouds, there is often a rainbow

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm
    Marc Benioff likes to talk about how salesforce is "democratizing" technology by making large enterprise class IT infrastructure and application management affordable for even the smallest companies. But at Dreamforce this week, I saw a much wider view of his...

  • The maturing of salesforce.com

    17 Nov 2009 | 5:42 pm
    So, I am walking near Moscone Center - in town for Dreamforce - and the guy tempts me with the offer of a free convertible. Got my attention - see the sign "work for a consulting company whose name you...

  • Sapience 2009: TCO Management Event for SAP customers

    17 Nov 2009 | 4:45 am
    "Sapience 2009, an event for CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and IT Decision makers seeking to escape the limitations of a strongly vendor controlled application landscape will take place December 8-9, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, MA." says the PR Several...

  • HP, the disruptor?

    16 Nov 2009 | 5:29 pm
    Why would Cisco move down into 25% mainstream server margin business when its networking business has yielded it 65%? That is the question many asked as Cisco announced its Unified Computing System in early 2009. Its marketing said it “..represents...
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    PureVC

  • Trading Currency For Yield

    James Chen
    30 Oct 2009 | 7:51 pm
    Most investors don't realize this but investing is a simple exercise is trading one currency for another. In the foreign exchange market in order to buy a currency you must sell another one in a pair. For example to buy the US Dollar you must sell another currency such as the Euro. The system is built this way because all markets are dynamic and all instruments are relative to each other.The stock market is another example of this. In the US, we pay US dollars for a share of a public company's stock. In essence you must short the US Dollar and go long the equity of the company you…

  • Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds

    James Chen
    13 Jul 2009 | 1:26 pm
    One key concept in business is to take good care of your best customers. In the startup world, a marquee customer can lay the pipeline for further deals with that company as well as serve as a reference to get your foot in the door of new leads. In business when times get rough and the economy is in recession, it is important to hunker down and to think of creative ways to add revenue. Generally, you don't increase fees and rates to increase revenue. Doing so is a great way to get customers to stop using your product. When your customers are having tough times, you don't want to…

  • Why Commercial RE May Not Crash

    James Chen
    26 Jun 2009 | 2:18 am
    Many market commentators have been predicting that commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop in the credit crisis. I've seen a handful of presentations with whopping statistics on the amount of outstanding debt that will need to be revolved in the upcoming years. However, there has not been the massive apocalypse in commercial RE. At least not yet.And there actually may not be. At least for a long while. The reason is that early this year the IRS changed some rules to allow REITs to pay some or all of their dividends in the form of stock. Typically a REIT pays its dividend in 100%…

  • When Your Investor Owns the Marketplace

    James Chen
    23 Jun 2009 | 8:48 pm
    One reader has commented that I seem to be going on a lot of tirades about the economy and the bailout and that this blog has seemingly taken a political bent. That comment is well taken and so I will post this final post about the bailout and the excessive governmental tampering with the free markets now. I promise to leave the topic alone after today and move on.So now that it appears that the economy has bottomed, banks are paying back their TARP loans. This is good news but it seems that now banks are negotiating with the government to buy back the warrants owned by the government. These…

  • The Private Equity Grind Down

    James Chen
    19 Jun 2009 | 8:48 pm
    Every industry has its own "Grind Down". Perhaps it goes by another name, but our firm refers to a "Grind Down" as a negotiating tactic that occurs in deals when one party or the other at the last minute tries to achieve more favorable terms for itself or threaten to back out of the deal at a time so late in the game that the other party cannot find another transactor.Most homeowners have experienced the common retail mortgage grind down where when you go to buy a house and the deal is about to happen that the lender has some funny stuff fees in the transaction that you…
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    VentureWoods

  • Software Architect

    Ranjit Jatar
    21 Nov 2009 | 10:03 pm
    There is a partially VC funded start–up which has had a pilot going on for 2 years in Delhi which  caught the personal attention of Bill Gates when he visited Delhi in Nov 2OO8 leading to partial funding by him to keep the fires burning. Bill Gates has a financial inclusion mission which is dear to his heart and to his Melinda Gates Foundation and saw synergy in this companys innovative mobile banking business idea and possibility of a Melinda-Gates led CSR association.  There is an absolutely committed co-founding team. They have gone through ups and downs financially till Bill…

  • Barcamp Chandigarh @ 22 Nov

    Sameer
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:33 am
    The startup ecosystem in Chandigarh, the city beautiful, is buzzing with activity. On 12 November the results of Business plan competition, Enterprize - organized by TIE Chandigarh & Chandigarh Administration, were announced. The winners got place in the EDC setup by the Chandigarh Administration, in the IT park. Continuing the good news for start-up folks, Fountainhead School of Business is organizing BarCamp Chandigarh - an extreme popular unconference, on 22 November. It will be a day long event that provides you the opportunity to attend some interesting sessions, meet like-minded…

  • Book Review - Getting to Plan B

    Alok Mittal
    12 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm
    Just finished reading this book by John Mullins and Randy Komisar. It outlines the importance of iterating on the business to evolve the plan continuously - in many cases, the initial plan that entrepreneurs start with doesn’t work as it is. This is something that people in the venture space have known intuitively. John and Randy do a good job of motivating it with examples, and outlining a broad framework of what to watch out for. In some sense, the book is broader than just getting to Plan B - the initial portions on analogs and antilogs (as ways to find patterns that can fit your…

  • Israel: Leader in Business Innovation

    Alok Mittal
    1 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm
    CNBC has this interesting video on what makes Israel business innovation tick

  • Will angels dirty their hands?

    Alok Mittal
    28 Oct 2009 | 9:47 pm
    I was speaking to a successful entrepreneur and angel investor yesterday about the evolving angel investment climate in India. He voiced a concern that seems to strike a chord - that while many successful entrepreneurs in India are involving themselves in angel funding, and even setting up early stage funds, there is a tendency to “rise above” building companies and a resistance to acting as a peer to budding entrepreneurs. Many successful entrepreneurs seem to graduate over, and consider it below themselves to roll up their sleeves with a rookie. Conference speeches take over…
 
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    Southeast VC

  • Internet Summit Attracts Over 1,200 People to Raleigh

    Jason Caplain
    9 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am
    The second annual Internet Summit was last week in Raleigh and co-presented by TechJournal South and Southern Capitol Ventures. You can see all the details, speakers, sponsors here. Over 1,200 people attended, which was almost double last year's event. The conference exceeded all my expectations and as a firm, we were proud to be involved. When I sat down with Eric Gregg and Scott Hedrick at TechJournal South a year and a half ago and we came up with this idea, I never thought it would get this big, this fast. The goal of the conference was to put on a more national internet…

  • Why Showing Up to a Meeting is Not Enough

    Jason Caplain
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:24 pm
    Over the last few weeks, I have been giving greater thought to how people perceive our firm after a first meeting. And this is happening because during that same timeframe, I've had two very different experiences with companies I have met with. And that made me think more about my personal interactions with people that meet me or my partners. I thought I'd share my experiences here from those 2 meetings hoping you and I can learn something from this as well. To set this up properly, it is important to mention that: 1. Our firm could be a customer for both companies I talk about. 2.

  • Happy Halloween!

    Jason Caplain
    30 Oct 2009 | 12:19 pm
    Wow, the folks at ChannelAdvisor really went all out for Halloween this year. Looks like fun. Check out all the pics of their employees today. I wish I could have made it over to see in person!

  • Best Buy, Google, ChannelAdvisor & Pier 1 Share their Holiday Strategies

    Jason Caplain
    27 Oct 2009 | 8:01 pm
    Retailers: here is some good advice for the holiday season offered by some experts. Video features Lorraine Twohill and Eric Schmidt from Google, Jeff Haddox from Pier 1, Brad Smith from Best Buy and Michael Jones from SCV portfolio company, ChannelAdvisor. If you want to learn more, check out the Google Retail Advertising Blog, which highlights this video.

  • Internet Summit - Save $50

    Jason Caplain
    25 Oct 2009 | 9:24 am
    Internet Summit is next week Nov4 and 5 in Raleigh, NC. Our firm, Southern Capitol Ventures is co-presenting along with TechJournal South. Friends of SCV can receive a $50 discount when registering by using the VIP code "SCV50." That will bring the cost for you down to $245. Register here. We have a fantastic lineup of 75 speakers including brands such as Google, Pandora, Expedia, ESPN, Digg, Lending Tree, Technorati, comScore, Huffington Post, Meebo, AOL, Gannett, IBM, Goldman Sachs, SAS and Microsoft just to name a few. Last year was sold out. This year we expect north of 1,000…
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    Israel Venture Capital 2.0

  • Founder CEO, CEO Founder

    Daniel Cohen
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:47 am
    Last week I had an interesting call with one of the founder/CEOs in my portfolio. This is someone I highly trust, and I truly believe he has the potential to take his company all the way, from zero phase to a successful IPO. During our conversation, we talked about the stage of the company: A working product, growing distribution, a good team, and some initial revenues. We both agreed that it’s time to take the company to the next stage. Leverage the existing foundation of the venture and build a real company: Roles & responsibilities, clear processes, scalable models. It’s time to…

  • Self Interview

    Daniel Cohen
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm
    Since no one is really interested in interviewing me, I decided to do a self interview. This is my version of “self portrait”, especially since I can’t draw (or sing. or dance. Shows something about the qualities of VCs) Why haven’t you blogged for since mid September? Can’t really say. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to write. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say. I actually had a lot to say, but my typing hands were heavy. Do you think you are now officially back to blogging? I can’t promise anything. But I will try. I will also be blogging at the Gemini…

  • Shana Tova תשע

    Daniel Cohen
    16 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm
    Here it is, another Rosh Hashanah arriving, and the previous one still seems so recent. I looked back at my wishes from last year, and some of them came true. Obama won and showed the world what Leadership 2.0 is all about. Hapoel Haifa won, made it to the Israeli premier league, and did that with a lot of passion, commitment and style. This year I decided to be a bit more specific, something beyond just general health and world peace. So, here are my 3 wishes for the new Jewish year: 5 great deals: When I talk about deals, I mean it in the most broad sense. Some combination of exits,…

  • Crazy MA Week

    Daniel Cohen
    16 Sep 2009 | 1:42 pm
    There are rumors floating around that Google is in the process of acquiring Brightcove for $500M-$700M. In addition, Adobe already announced the acquisition of Omniture for $1.8bn. In the “mid-range” deal category, Intuit swallowed Mint.com for $170M. Aren’t we supposed to be in a downturn? Isn't the venture model seriously broken? Give us 52 more weeks like that and we will be just fine. But still, this is not good news. A few years back I saw Paul Deninger speak at an Always On conference. Paul is a very smart guy, and extremely knowledgeable about the Venture Business. He said that…

  • A Journey to the land of the North

    Daniel Cohen
    14 Sep 2009 | 1:22 pm
    For some reason, this post got a bit of a bombastic title, a choice of words that reminds me the Lord of the Rings. In reality, I spend all of today in the Northern part of Israel, visiting 3 exciting companies that are operating in the Galilee. As I am a VC, you would expect to hear now about some great portfolio companies, or at least about exciting product companies. That wasn’t the purpose of this trip. Together with 2 good friends, I went to visit Babcom Centers, Galila Line technologies, and Galil Software, three leading companies in the new emerging sector – the IT services…
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    Sarah Tavel / Adventurista

  • Measuring churn for recurring revenue businesses

    10 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm
    For any recurring revenue company, churn is almost always one of the key metrics the company (and their board) tracks. Why work hard to get new customers if you can’t keep the ones you’ve got? Moreover, low churn means you have a stronger recurring revenue base and therefore more money to spend acquiring new customers. Thus, having low churn creates a virtuous cycle for the company in more ways than one. While churn may seem like a straight forward concept, I’ve found that recurring revenue companies often only measure monthly or annual churn in terms of customer count. While this is…

  • What Twitter has meant for FourSquare, and what I think Twitter should learn from Four$quare

    28 Sep 2009 | 6:09 am
    That FourSquare has benefited tremendously from Twitter is obvious. I can’t sign into my twitter account without finding out so-and-so got some badge or became the mayor of some place. In fact, I first learned of FourSquare thanks to Twitter and to seeing these announcements, and I would be willing to bet that a huge majority of FourSquare’s current users also found out about FourSquare thanks to Twitter.Sites like Twitter and Facebook are fantastic word of mouth conduits. Whereas FourSquare once would have had to grow by asking users to email their friends and sign up, Twitter provides a…

  • "Installed applications are going away in five years"?

    17 Sep 2009 | 2:52 pm
    Recently, I got into a heated argument with someone at a cloud computing-related meeting where a person I was speaking to swore up and down that within five years people would no longer install applications besides their browser.I swore up and down that that’s not happening any time soon in mainstream USA.I may feel like a dummy in five years, but I have to say, I recently received a new PC and I’m amazed by how many applications I’ve installed so far (not including what was pre-installed on my computer -- thank you HP bloatware!). My list so far (day #2 of computer):Adobe ReaderBunch…

  • My "ista" take on Larry Cheng's VC Blog Ranking

    9 Sep 2009 | 6:01 pm
    Larry Cheng updated his popular VC Blog Ranking and included some fun analysis, particularly on how Fred Wilson continues to lead the VC blogging show. If you haven't already, take a look.Because I initially started my blog with the intention of blogging from the perspective of a female, junior professional (hence the “ista” in Adventurista), I’ve created two sub-sets of Larry’s: 1) Junior (i.e. non-dealmaker) professionals and 2) females.#dos is pretty straight forward, but I might need some user generated editing for #uno. My rule of thumb was that if a person didn’t have the…

  • Is the OS the new QWERTY keyboard?

    6 Jul 2009 | 4:30 pm
    It never ceases to amuse me that the layout of the QWERTY keyboard was first designed to slow down typists.Although we no longer type on typewriters and a more efficient keyboard layout has since been designed, we are still (and probably always will be) stuck with good ole, inefficient QWERTY.The QWERTY is reinforced by hardware (keyboards), software (the default setting in Windows and other OSs), but mostly, it is reinforced by habit: people around the world have grown up typing on a QWERTY keyboard, and we continue to train people today on the layout of the QWERTY.Habits (and cultural…
 
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    Babbling VC

  • You Hardly Ever Fail Because of Your CTO

    Paul Jozefak
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:29 am
    This has been said many times before but I'll say it again. It's not about technology or innovation. It's all about customers and sales. I've noticed recently that you have lots of entrepreneurs always pitching their newest "mousetrap". Unfortunately, the discussion about how you're going to find customers for your product and sell it to them comes late or never. If you're going to send your business plan to a VC or pitch their partnership make sure you address this issue right up front. Convince them that you first know who your customer is. Second, make clear that you know how to address…

  • It's Not About Paychecks. It's About Equity!

    Paul Jozefak
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:46 am
    I've often made the dating reference when it comes to VC's and entrepreneurs. Well, there's one further point which I want to make clear, although to many it's obvious. After we invest, we want to eventually sell our stake. Be it via an IPO or a trade sale, we eventually want out. This means that our premise for investing is taking the money we initially invest and increasing it tenfold or better. You're scratching your head asking yourself why is Paul writing this? It's obvious! Well, not to everyone. We are not looking for businesses which get to break even and then flatline on their…

  • Why Are There Simply Deals We Won't Do

    Paul Jozefak
    1 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am
    I'll keep this one short but it answers a question often asked. As is probably the case with most VC's and their LP contracts, there are industries we can't invest in. Very simply put, we won't invest in gambling, porn, first-person shooter games and anything having to do with alcohol, drugs or tobacco. All LP contracts vary but it's pretty clear why some of these areas are taboo for VC funds. Hence, if your company is in one of these industries, you will most likely have difficulty finding a venture fund to back your business. Note that I am not making any judgement on these industries and…

  • As in any profession, most VC's are full of shit!

    Paul Jozefak
    26 Oct 2009 | 1:35 am
    I read the following line in Paul Graham's essay"The reason VCs seem formidable is that it's their profession to. You get to be a VC by convincing asset managers to trust you with hundreds of millions of dollars. How do you do that? You have to seem confident, and you have to seem like you understand technology."I don't mean to imply with my blog title that all VC's are idiots. Simply put though, even if they are, they sure as hell can hide it well. It's funny how much that sentence from Paul's essay stuck in my mind. Having recently been out in the market gauging LP appetite for venture…

  • A VC's Perspective: Blogs I'm Reading Now

    Paul Jozefak
    19 Oct 2009 | 12:35 am
    I bang out a post like this every now and again as it needs updating. I read a bunch of blogs every day but there are always a couple I come to first. These are usually the core of my reading and tend to drive what else I read as I discover new ones via links in posts. Below is the core of blogs which make up my daily reading now. Tune in 12 months from now to see if this list has remained the same:A VCFred's blog has been on this list for a long time. I am presuming it'll remain on this list for a while longer. I simply like how Fred writes and the best part of his blog is the comments…
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    DataGrant Venture Capital News

  • Awards for family businesses

    FrancisLinton81
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am
    Fullerton’s Family Business Council, the Business Journal and California State University hosted a luncheon event on a grand-scale. At the event, prizes were distributed to family businesses for their enterprise right from a designer of clothes inspired by mixed martial arts to a mortuary. The surprise winners were Irvine-based Silver Star Casting Co., designers of T-shirts, hats and accessories with gothic, tattoo-style artwork. The company is owned and run by Luke Burrett and wife Charis and it recently moved from San Clemente to a larger space in Irvine. No joke-the longevity award…

  • Primoris set to acquire James Construction Now

    FrancisLinton81
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am
    On Thursday, James Construction Group LLC, a Baton Rouge, La.-based construction company was acquired by Primoris Services Corp., a Lake Forest-based construction and engineering company for $135 million. James Construction was founded in the year 1998 and worked for both government and private clients extending from Texas to Florida. Last year only, it generated revenue of $410 million. According to reports, it saw a profit of $33 million last year. James Construction is being acquired by Primoris for $7 million in cash, a five-year $53.5 million promissory note and shares of Primoris with…

  • LPL and Pacific Life Heading For Legal Battle

    FrancisLinton81
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:55 am
    The Boston-based stock brokerage company LPL and the Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Insurance Co, are expected to be caught in a legal fight sometime soon. According to a story in the trade publication Investment News, fraud suits against a broker who sold stakes worth millions of dollars in a hedge fund that collapsed in the year 2007, could arise to determine which company is liable for the damages. Pacific Life was associated with three stock brokerages for selling LPL stock. The stock brokerage called Associated Securities Corp., was the one with which the broker was actually affiliated…

  • Hyundai Moving Up With Mexico Plant

    FrancisLinton81
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am
    South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. has a chance of coming up with its third North American plant in Mexico. It is the largest automaker with operations in Orange County. Santa Monica auto Web site Edmunds.com Inc. reported that there is a great probability of the Mexican gulf state of Veracruz being the site for the new plant. There is a chance of incorporating 150,000 additional vehicles to the automaker’s North American output, bringing it closer to Japan’s strength in the market of North America. The automotive site reported that the negotiation process between officials from…

  • El Pollo Loco Faces Third-Quarter Loss

    FrancisLinton81
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am
    El Pollo Loco Inc., which is a Costa Mesa-based Mexican fast food chain operator, posted a third-quarter loss and also a fall in revenue. According to the Chief Executive Stephen Carley, it happened because the promotions failed to deliver effective results in their most challenging quarter till date. Based on the reported results for the debt holder, the privately held company lost $5 million in the quarter in comparison to a loss of $48,000 reported a year ago. The revenue of the company was reported down by 8.5% to $68.5 million and the sales at restaurants open for one year showed a…
 
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    DealBook

  • Reliance Makes Bid for Chemical Giant

    By DEALBOOK
    23 Nov 2009 | 1:33 am
    Reliance Industries, the largest private company in India, said that it had made an offer to acquire a controlling interest in the world's third-largest chemical company, LyondellBasell.

  • After the Bailout, the Haggling

    By DEALBOOK
    23 Nov 2009 | 1:05 am
    The government plan to auction off the warrants it received from banks in exchange for injected funds is sensible, but the Treasury will probably be criticized anyway, Breakingviews says.

  • Ciena Said to Win Nortel Unit for $769 Million

    By DEALBOOK
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm
    Ciena will buy Nortel Networks' optical networking and carrier ethernet business for $769 million after outbidding Nokia Siemens Networks in a three-day auction, Reuters reported Sunday, citing unnamed sources.

  • G.E. and Vivendi Halt Talks Over Stake in NBC

    By DEALBOOK
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pm
    Talks between General Electric and Vivendi over the future of NBC Universal have stalled, with the two sides apparently at least $500 million apart on how to value the network, The New York Times reported Saturday.

  • Wall Street Finds Profits by Reducing Mortgages

    By DEALBOOK
    22 Nov 2009 | 9:16 pm
    Investment funds like the Fortress Investment Group are buying mortgages, trimming some of them to the benefit of homeowners, and shifting any risk to the federal government.
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    Ann Arbor USA Blog

  • Construction begins again on Upland Green’s apt units in Ann Arbor

    admin
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:37 pm
    The Upland Green project is in much more start than a fit these days, now that work has begun again on the multi-use development on Ann Arbor’s north side. New investors out of New Jersey have taken over the project –which has been on-again / off-again since 2004– with plans to finish off the residential section by the end of the winter. Model units should be open by the beginning of the new year, bringing more life to the Plymouth Road corridor, adjacent to the University of Michigan’s North Campus. The 20 units have been switched from condos to apartments, ranging in…

  • Cross St streetscape project moves forward in Ypsilanti

    admin
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:37 pm
    Ypsilanti’s Cross Street streetscape project is at a crossroads, ready to put actual shovels in the ground. The $1 million project would improve Cross between the Water Tower and Depot Town. That means adding bump outs, redoing sidewalks, planting trees and shrubs, installing benches and other street furniture and putting in crosswalks. The bottom line is it will improve the corridor for both motorized and non-motorized traffic. “We’re trying to improve the pedestrian experience,” says Theresa Gillotti, one of the organizers behind the project. “It should also…

  • EMU teams up with Chevron to make campus more sustainable

    admin
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:37 pm
    Eastern Michigan University intends to tighten its energy belt by forming a partnership with Chevron Energy Solutions. The two will conduct energy audits of the university’s 16 buildings. Some of these buildings are a 100 years or older, but most were built in the mid 20th Century. Many have gone decades without updating their infrastructure, if it was upgraded at all. “We’re looking at more than $30 million in potential savings> And that is just in our housing buildings,” says Steven Moore, energy and sustainability manager for Eastern Michigan University, a post…

  • Single-stream recycling expected to produce big gains in Ann Arbor

    admin
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:37 pm
    All of the little streams of recycling in Ann Arbor are about to be combined into one big river, and that river is expected to grow exponentially. The City Council has approved switching from the traditional sorting method of recycling (papper, plastic, etc.) to what is called single-stream, which allows homes to throw all of their recycling into one container. The material is then sorted out at the recycling plant, making the process more user-friendly. Among the other cities that use single-stream recycling are Austin, Texas and Baltimore, MD. “We expect to basically double recycling…

  • Development News

    admin
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am
    News from Concentrate
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    Venture Chronicles

  • Get Ready for the Much Smaller AOL

    Jeff
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:55 am
    AOL’s strategy, the latest new one, is to shift away from being an ISP to being a “next generation publishing” entity. Without parsing what it means to be “next generation” when you are doing what Yahoo has been doing for years, this sounds like a reasonable strategy but the anchor that weighs it down is that the bulk of AOL’s traffic comes from AOL’s ISP customers and there is no data that suggests a meaningful shift in where site traffic is coming from. People login to AOL and follow links to AOL sites which generates the traffic that underpins the…

  • Reporting from the Echo Chamber

    Jeff
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am
    I read this short Reuters piece on President Obama’s Fox interview last night and simply thought “who are these people?” Here’s my edited version of the full piece: BEIJING, Nov 18 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession. His crack team of economic advisors made the previously undiscovered link between deficit spending and negative economic consequences on Tuesday night and defended the $3…

  • Three Card Monty at GM

    Jeff
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:33 pm
    I read this and shook my head in amazement at the limited financial acumen of reporters covering business. General Motors, encouraged by its improving financial situation, could repay all of its $6.7 billion in loans from U.S. taxpayers by the end of next June, the company’s top executive said Monday.[From With $42B, GM moves ahead | freep.com | Detroit Free Press] Let’s recap what is going on at GM. The Federal government - aka “us taxpayers” - gave GM $57.6 billion in exchange for equity in the company and a debt instrument for $6.7 billion, which is referenced in…

  • Every Day is a Bonus

    Jeff
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:44 pm
    This is really nice.

  • Co-opting UPS’ Whiteboard Ads

    Jeff
    10 Nov 2009 | 12:18 pm
    Brilliant.
 
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    Fred Destin

  • How a great entrepreneur deals with complexity

    FredDestin
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am
    I aksed Joe Cohen at Seatwave how he deals with the ongoing complexity and varied demands on his time that come from managing a hypergrowth company, and I thought I would share the thoughts he jotted down for me: Oversimplify and execute well.  If you make a mistake in strategy you can generally correct it by executing well even if you execute something else Only do what only you can do - this is really hard but if anyone in your company is able to do something the CEO should not, by defnition, do it Ignore the first request for everything.  If it's really important then they will…

  • The one-sentence e-mail turndown

    FredDestin
    31 Oct 2009 | 2:49 pm
    Image via Wikipedia If you have pitched VC's, you have probably received one of those: Thanks Company X for sharing your proposal, this is not one for us, best of luck with the fundraising and stay in touch.  Best, VC Y You are probably thinking, WTF.  After all, aren't VC's paid to look at pitches and business plans ?  Actually, we are not.  Here are reasons why I regularly write the above: If I won't invest in you, I can't spend time with you.  And before you ask, of course there are plenty of exceptions including some really naive entrepreneurs who I really like…

  • The Ignorant VC as counterpart to the Ignorant Entrepreneur

    FredDestin
    26 Oct 2009 | 7:43 am
    I decided to fully republish a great post by David Woodward that was fuelled by an interview we did together but which captures the views I previously developed here better than I could express them.  Hope you enjoy ! A few days ago, I had an interesting chat with Fred Destin, Atlas Venture's ebullient technology partner. Atlas bought a stake in the property website Zoopla at the beginning of 2008, which wasn’t exactly a fun time to be involved in the property game. It was also a pretty difficult period to source capital in any sector—all in all an investment climate fit to make even the…

  • DailyMotion raises EUR17M and defies expectations

    FredDestin
    22 Oct 2009 | 12:02 am
    Image via CrunchBase DailyMotion today officially announces its new round of EUR17M, defying the fate that has befallen most video sharing startups (see: Veoh's hail mary) as it breaches through 60M Uniques Users.  Atlas Venture participates above pro-rata in this round and grows ownership. As for most video-sharing sites it's been a rollercoaster four years of hypergrowth, legal woes, scaling challenges peppered with some great moments of exhilaration.  The segment remains challenging, not least because your main competitor is not an old school media business but a fast-moving…

  • The problem with VC Motivation

    FredDestin
    12 Oct 2009 | 11:10 am
    Many VC's, particularly in Europe, are disappointing in their (lack of) intensity.  They are not 24/7, passionate advocates of the businesses they fund; neither do you meet them at random conferences scouting for new companies; nor do they necessarily come across as particularly engaged at board meetings.  Why is that ?  Let's talk VC compensation and motivation for a second. My motivation as a VC Introspection is as good a place as any to start.  Here are my top motivations for being a VC (leaving out the personal stuff): Company building: every VC is different, some like…
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    Get Venture: Venture Made Transparent

  • Alex's News Picks: November 19th

    Alex Horn
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pm
    How a great entrepreneur deals with complexity Diary of a Geek VC The Six Entrepreneurs You Meet in China, Part Two Finding a buyer for your start-up MySpace Acquires imeem Social Music Service for a Song 

  • Signs That Your Team Might Be Deterring Investors

    Mark Davis
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am
    Image Provided by ShutterstockVCs pass on investment opportunities for a whole host of reasons having to do with the business, personal experiences or the makeup of the existing portfolio. The reason that VCs are least likely to cite, however, is likely to be one of the most common reasons for deciding not to invest: entrepreneur competency. It’s important for entrepreneurs to consistently try to demonstrate competency throughout the fundraising process. This is critical because the team is a key part of the investment decision; VCs are investing in more than an idea, they are investing in…

  • Alex's News Picks: November 17th

    Alex Horn
    17 Nov 2009 | 11:50 am
    How many Employee Stock Options? Passion For Your Business (video)  Meet the Entrepreneurs of the Year Opportunities created by the growth in data  After VC cash? Show ‘em what you’ve learned

  • Active vs. Passive Sourcing

    Mark Davis
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:55 am
    Image Provided By ShutterstockVCs source deals both actively and passively. Active sourcing entails identifying concepts or sectors that are of interest and then scrubbing the marketplace to identify potential investment opportunities in the relevant sector(s). In the passive sourcing strategy, investors rely on relationships and reputation to bring investment opportunities to them. You could say that VCs that leverage a passive sourcing strategy don’t always know what they’re looking for - they’ll know it when they see it. It’s worth noting that both of these strategies can work for…

  • Alex's News Picks: November 12th

    Alex Horn
    12 Nov 2009 | 11:57 am
    The Winning Young Entrepreneurs, 2009 Does Page Rank matter? "No Brainer" Startup Acquisitions Boxee Device Coming Next Year Getting the competitor analysis right when pitching
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    Will Price

  • Why Blog?

    Will Price
    26 Oct 2009 | 7:57 pm
    I am reading Warren Bennis' seminal work on leadership, On Becoming a Leader.The book profiles scores of business leaders and seeks to identify common abstractions that help reveal "truths" about leadership.Early in the book, I came across the following passage, which perfectly describes why I blog and the benefits of structuring your thoughts via a post:"Faulker said, "I don't know what I think until I read what I said." That's not just a joke. You learn what you think by codifying your thinking in some way. Codifying one's thinking is an important step in inventing oneself. The most…

  • Scott Cook - Wisdom

    Will Price
    7 Oct 2009 | 11:01 am
    On Monday, Widgetbox and I were invited to attend and present at Intuit's inaugural entrepreneurship day. Intuit's founder, CEO, CTO, and senior management hosted twenty plus companies to share ideas on innovation and to explore avenues of partnership.For me, the highlight proved to be an impromptu talk by Scott Cook on lessons learned from 28 years with Intuit.He boiled down this advice to the following observations:The Power of Word-of-Mouth81% of Intuit's customers are driven by WOM WOM remains the #1 driver of customer acquisitionBe Where the Customers AreUnderstand where customers buy…

  • Last Child in the Woods

    Will Price
    28 Sep 2009 | 5:32 pm
    Last Friday, my wife and I went to see Richard Louv speak.  Richard is the author of Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder.His book and talk center on a series of alarming developments in the lives of America's children:increasing divide between the young and the natural worldloss of freedom and time alone for children to explore the woods, local creek, etc.growth in structured "play dates" and the decline of time to create play, particularly play outside fear of traffic and strangers that keeps kids inside rather than outside running around and…

  • Living History: Larry Ellison

    Will Price
    22 Sep 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Last night, Ed Zander (ex-CEO of Motorola) interviewed Larry Ellison at the Churchill Club.The interview proved to be fascinating, with Ed Zander a perfect choice to push and prod Ellison on topics ranging from ORCL's early years, his motivations for buying Sun, to politics, sailing, and the prospects for the US economy.The title of the post "living history" hit home last night. We are fortunate to not only live in a place where monster companies are born and scale, but also to work in an industry where many of the pioneers remain active - Ellison, Jobs, Ballmer, Dell....While the story…

  • Now

    Will Price
    18 Sep 2009 | 2:54 pm
    There is a real challenge in being present - that is enjoying right now, this moment. Modern technology and life makes it very easy to be distracted and the stress and pressure of Silicon Valley provide ample opportunity to ponder the past or project the future.The problem is that such ponderings and projection limit the ability to enjoy right now and sap your energy and effectiveness.Books on wisdom share a common refrain - the past is the past, the future is uncertain and a projection of anxiety or fantasy, and the only sure thing is right now. Too often people live in their heads -…
 
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    VCinJerusalem

  • Israel: Both High-Tech Wunderkind and Slave Economy, Go Figure

    Jacob Ner-David
    9 Nov 2009 | 3:57 am
    Two clashing stories flashed across my screen this past week. The first was the launch buzz surrounding the new book by my friend Saul Singer and his brother-in-law Don Senor, entitled "Start Up Nation ." Essentially tackling the question many have asked over the past twenty years -- how did those guys living in a desert, with no natural resources, cut off from their region, turn their country into an economic power house? Well, part of the answer is most certainly the high-tech wave of the past twenty years, which I have been privileged to ride in and benefit from, and still am…

  • No time for Blogging? Yes and No

    Jacob Ner-David
    4 Nov 2009 | 10:22 pm
    As many of "you" might have noticed, I have not posted anything new in quite some time. Is it because nothing is happening? Absolutely not. In fact at times too much is happening. Is it because I don't have enough time? No. I could "make time." But making time is a question of prioritization. Do I spend ten more minutes with my kids on their homework or write a blog posting?  Do I focus on my life partner and talk to each other or write a blog posting? Do I go for a run or a bike ride or write a blog posting? As I have stated in the past, I am not the world's…

  • Twitter Humor: Twittelah for Your Jewish Mother

    Jacob Ner-David
    24 Sep 2009 | 2:27 am
    During this holiday season, when we repent, then jump back into family tension, then repent again, enjoy this twitter humor (thanks to Barry Pasikov for sharing):

  • Is Twitter Worth Billions? Jeff Thinks So. I'm still not convinced.

    Jacob Ner-David
    21 Sep 2009 | 3:22 pm
    See this interview with my good friend Jeff Pulver on the "State of Now" and the "Real Time Internet." Oh, and by the way, Jeff thinks Twitter is worth billions. Now. Well, good thing Jeff is public that he is a shareholder, we wouldn't want him to be objective about this company... Watch the latest business video at FOXBusiness.com

  • Asaf Ramon, Of Blessed Memory

    Jacob Ner-David
    13 Sep 2009 | 2:00 pm
    No words can describe the tragedy that has befallen the Jewish people and the Ramon family. Asaf Ramon, the son of the legendary Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, who followed his father's footsteps in the Israeli Air Force, died today when his F-16 fighter jet broke apart over the southern Judean desert. We can only hope that the Ramon family finds some solace knowing so many mourn along with them. May they never be the victims of horrible statistics again, and only know joy. And may the memory of Asaf Ramon be a blessing to us all, reminding us of the selflessness that still…
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    Red Herring

  • Red Herring Asia 100 Winners List

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am
    The 100 most innovative Asian startups in this emerging market have been announced by Red Herring.

  • Innovation on Wheels: Tesla IPO Coming

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am
    Silicon Valley maker of Roadster electric sports car is planning to soon file documents detailing its much-anticipated initial public offering, according to a report.

  • Did Twitter Find Business Model?

    20 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am
    The much-hyped personal syndication startup -- RSS anyone? --- that's taken gobs of VC cash with little sign of a business model finally comes up with one.

  • NVP Supersizes Fund to $1.2 Billion

    18 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am
    Silicon Valley venture firm closes giant global fund for early to late stage investments as well as growth equity, a move that comes amid growing industry concerns over monster-sized management fees.

  • Analyst: Nokia-Palm "Premature"

    18 Nov 2009 | 4:04 am
    Amid continued speculation that Finnish phone maker, needing a hit in smartphones, might find a match in the struggling handheld computing pioneer, industry analysts says such a match-up is unlikely at this time.
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    Jason Ball's TechBytes

  • Venture's Back

    Jason Ball
    9 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm
    I'm sure everyone has been seeing what's happened in the US Equity markets- NASDAQ is up 30%+ YTD, with many stocks like Apple showing 131% gains this year. Strong earnings reports mean public companies have cash to deploy...I attended GP Bullhound's Mobile Sector Breakfast two weeks ago, where Manish reported some positive liquidity stats (available here): M&A activity in the mobile sector has seen a 77% increase in transaction value and an increase in transactions over $50M (AT&T's acquisition of Plusmo is one example) Today's announcements that Google is buying AdMob for $750M and…

  • Entrepreneurial Leadership Speaker Series

    Jason Ball
    15 Sep 2009 | 12:24 pm
    Hussein Kanji has organized a venture capital and entrepreneurship lecture series starting in October, which will be held at London Business School. Current speakers announced are:Robin Klein, The Accelerator Group, Thursday Oct 1Stan Bowland, Icera, Thursday Nov 5Stefan Glaenzer, Last.fm, Thursday Dec 3Bernard Liautaud, Balderton, Thursday Feb 4Jos White, MessageLabs, Thursday March 4Herman Hauser, Amadeus, Thursday, May 6Mike Hedger, KVS, Thursday June 3Other speakers will be announced in the near future.If you're interested in venture capital and entrepreneurship; then this is the series…

  • Feeds 2.0 and the Netflix Prize

    Jason Ball
    19 Aug 2009 | 1:30 pm
    I've blogged about my friends at Feeds 2.0 many times over the past few years; I've followed the Netflix prize out of interest since it was covered in Wired back in 2007, mainly because I was rooting for the Feeds 2.0 team...For those of you who may not spend your weekends and evenings reading up on artificial intelligence, here's an overview of the Netflix competition: Netflix released a large movie rating dataset and challenged the data mining, machine learning and computer science communities to develop systems that could beat the accuracy of their in-house developed recommendation system…

  • Opera reinvents the web?

    Jason Ball
    23 Jun 2009 | 1:39 pm
    "Opera today (well, last week. I've been a little slow getting this post out) unveiled Opera Unite, a new technology that shakes up the old client-server computing model of the Web. Opera Unite turns any computer into both a client and a server, allowing it to interact with and serve content to other computers directly across the Web, without the need for third-party servers.Opera Unite makes serving data as simple and easy as browsing the Web. For consumers, Opera Unite services give greater control of private data and make it easy to share data with any device equipped with a modern Web…

  • Qualcomm Ventures - Business Plan Competition

    Jason Ball
    7 May 2009 | 11:23 am
    Today we announced the Qualcomm Ventures Business Plan Competion. It's open to startups in the US, Europe, China and India. Semi-finalists from each region will win $100k, and then compete for a further $150k at the Qualcomm Ventures CEO Summit in November.We're looking for companies that impact the wireless space in the following areas: Consumer/enterprise applications and services Communication devices Semiconductor and component technologies Mobile platforms Digital media and content Healthcare technologies and services CleanTech  Additional details on the Qualcomm Ventures' QPrize…
 
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    Redeye VC

  • VC - Back to the Future?

    Josh
    28 Oct 2009 | 3:35 pm
    I just came across a great report by Industry Little Hawk entitled the Venture Capital Rebound (pdf).  In the report, the authors reach a similar conclusion to Paul Kedrosky (read Paul's great research for the Kauffman Foundation here) -- that too much capital has gone into venture capital.  Paul has argued that we need to shrink the amount of venture funding by 50% -- a statistic that almost every VC agrees with.  (Ironically, 100% of VCs would argue that their fund should be in the half that survives).What is refreshing about the Industry Little Hawk white paper, however, is that they…

  • Company Math vs VC Math

    Josh
    15 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am
    Fred Wilson has a great blog post today entitled The 'We Need to Own' Baloney.  In it he discussed the fact that many VC's apply arbitrary ownership thresholds to investments.  I couldn't agree with Fred more - but I'd take it even further.  This is not just limited to ownership requirements.  Rather, VC's often impose "VC math" on companies in three areas: The amount VC's "need" to own The amount VC's "need" to invest The return VC's "need" to generate certain exit returns These "requirements" are a direct result of the mathematical model that venture funds are optimized for.  And as…

  • First Round Capital to open NYC office

    Josh
    1 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am
    I believe that as the world has gotten “flatter” over the last decade, it’s created a big opportunity for venture investors who recognized that great entrepreneurs can come up with great ideas in almost any location.  Indeed, over the last several years, First Round Capital has invested nationally and has funded companies in over a dozen states.  However, I do believe that certain ecosystems provide real leverage when it comes to the hard work of turning those ideas into reality.  Take acting for example.  Despite the fact that Philadelphia has some great theaters (like the Kimmel…

  • A deal that was "mint to be..."

    Josh
    14 Sep 2009 | 8:42 am
    I’m super excited by today’s news that Intuit has acquired Mint.com for $170 million.   It’s been amazing to watch Aaron Patzer and the entire Mint team transform a rough prototype to a world-class product over the last three years.  As my partner, Rob Hayes (who led our investment in Mint and served on their board of director’s) wrote this morning:   "It has been a short 3 years since we met Aaron Patzer at a STIRR dinner in the Valley.  Seven days after we met, he had a term sheet for his seed round and off he went.  During that time we have had a…

  • Help me rename "Lifestyle Business"

    Josh
    8 Jul 2009 | 6:12 pm
    While venture capitalists pass on companies for many reasons, one of the most common reasons is that they don't think the opportunity is "big enough".  What does this mean?  It means that even if the company executes as planned, the VC doesn't think the exit will be large enough to generate the VC-sized returns.  This determination is based on the venture capitalist's "fund math" and their expected returns model.  It means that VC doesn't think he will make a big enough return by investing here.What doesn't this mean?  This doesn't mean that the business is not going to succeed.  It…
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    Seth Levine's VC Adventure

  • Putting entrepreneurs first

    9 Nov 2009 | 12:12 pm
    Shout-out to Sequoia for featuring Omar Hamoui on their home page today (he’s the CEO of AdMob which was acquired by Google today for $750M). Well done!

  • The “real” America

    3 Nov 2009 | 7:34 pm
    I’ve generally avoided political issues on this blog, but this isn’t something I can keep my mouth shut on. Yesterday Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the New York City Marathon in 27 years. Born in Eritrea on the east coast of Africa, Keflezighi moved to the US when he as 12 (more than 20 years ago), is an American citizen and has raced for the US Olympic team. Still, there are some who are calling his achievement diminished because he’s not “technically” an American by virtue of having been born outside of the United States – chief among them Darren Rovell of…

  • How long should your “trial” period run?

    30 Oct 2009 | 2:43 pm
    I’ve had this running debate with a handful of friends – I’d love to throw it out there for comment. The questions at hand are 1) whether companies should offer a “free trial” period for their software/web service; 2) if they do, how long should it last; and 3) what information should you ask for before starting a trial (specifically should you ask for credit card information up front). Here are a few thoughts. I’d love to hear your opinion. While you know that your web service is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it’s really really hard to convey the chocolaty goodness…

  • Looking forward to Defrag

    28 Sep 2009 | 6:59 am
    I’m really not a big fan of conferences. I go to a small number every year and like most people I find that for the most part, the best part of most conferences happens in the hallways and lobby where there’s a chance to connect with other attendees. The conference itself simply becomes the framework to support making those connections. Defrag, however, is a rare exception to this widely held view in the conference world – it’s a conference worth attending not only for the connections you’ll make in the hallway but also in the insight you’ll gain inside the presentation rooms.

  • ESPRIT 2009

    22 Sep 2009 | 2:42 pm
    I’ve been involved with the Boulder ESPRIT Awards for the the last 8 years. ESPRIT is put on by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce to “celebrate entrepreneurship” in Boulder county. Each year ESPRIT honors a handful of entrepreneurs who embody the best attributes of the Boulder business community. This year is the 25th anniversary of the awards and the program will celebrate the last 25 years of innovation in Boulder valley and look forward to some of the people and programs that are serving as catalysts for innovation for the next 25 years. I’m the event chair this year, which means for…
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    Media VC

  • Sezmi Launches Commercial Pilot and Raises $25 Million

    TK
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm
    Image via CrunchBase Shameless portfolio promotion: Sezmi raises $25 million and launches commercial pilot in LA. Light Reading wrote:Personalized video services provider Sezmi Corp. signaled its intent to enter the highly competitive U.S. commercial entertainment services market today by launching a free, direct-to-consumer pilot service in Los Angeles.The move should help showcase the key assets that recently helped Sezmi land a Light Reading "Top Pick" Consumer Services award: the nationwide broadband and digital broadcast service delivery platform it has built out during the…

  • Happy 28th Birthday, PC

    TK
    11 Aug 2009 | 9:53 pm
    Image via Wikipedia Twenty eight years ago today IBM announced the PC, ushering in a new era of mainstream computing.  Check out this post from Dan Bricklin of Visicalc fame commemorating an earlier anniversary where he shares his thoughts on what it all means.  Hard to imagine life without it, although since that day our "PC's" have come untethered from the desktop and IBM has moved on to other things. Related articles by Zemanta Bricklin On Technology: Words of Wisdom from a Tech Guru (wileyptnews.com) 30 Years After VisiCalc, Socialtext Unveils SocialCalc &…

  • Wow! I knew Q1 was bad, but...

    TK
    16 Jun 2009 | 10:11 am
    ...I had no idea how tough it really was.  An investment bank that we work with shared some internal data which showed that over 85% of deals that got done in Q1 were at either flat or down valuations.  That's off of approximately 50% the prior quarter.  Averages are 30%-40%.  And of course, the "protective" provisions got even tougher for issuers (multiple liquidation preferences, etc.) When I asked the banker to rate the health of the financing market right now on a scale of 1-10, he said 2.0 - 2.5, up from 0 to 1 in Q1.  I rate it higher, based on the activity levels…

  • The New 4 P's

    TK
    30 Apr 2009 | 3:24 pm
    In a recent seminar,friend and Legend advisor "Growth Guy" Verne Harnish offered his replacement concepts for marketing's traditional 4 P's, opting instead for the 4 E's: Product has been replaced by Experience Price is now Exchange, or lifetime value Place is Everyplace Promotion has been replaced by Evangelism The threads underlying these changes are consistent with the rise of Web 2.0:  real time feedback, deeper connectivity, nearly complete reduction in the cost to distribute information, and citizen influencers.

  • It's Official: The Model is Broken

    TK
    29 Apr 2009 | 10:18 pm
    Today the National Venture Capital Association released its long-awaited answer towhat ails the venture capital industry.  In a four pillar plan presented here: NVCA 4-Pillar Plan to Restore Liquidity in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry View more presentations from NVCA. the association hopes to jumpstart a recovery in the IPO market, which has been dismal and shows no consistent signs of recovery.  They are also promoting alternative forms of liquidity such as Second Market.  Notwithstanding all of the thoughtful commentary and analysis, I couldn't help focusing on…
 
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    Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed

  • TED Talks: Living with Data

    pk
    22 Nov 2009 | 11:52 pm
    Good talk and demos from the just-completed TED India about living with data, including such stuff as coffee cups that can help you find coffee. The speaker is MIT grad student Pranav Mistry.

  • Bill Joy: The Promise of Green Technologies

    pk
    22 Nov 2009 | 11:45 pm
    From a recent speech at the University of Michigan, here is KPCB (remember them?) investor-guy (and Sun co-founder) Bill Joy talking about the promise of green technologies.Full video after the jump.

  • Weekend Reading: Tesla, Cycles, Chinese Real Estate, Credit, etc.

    pk
    22 Nov 2009 | 11:44 am
    A few links from my weekly Weekend Reading column: Electric-car maker Tesla said to be planning stock offering (LA Times) China may re-export copper because of stockpiles (Bloomberg) Riding the waves of market cycles (TIME) The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery (WSJ) Like New Yorkers, Chinese people just can't stop talking about real estate (Slate) Car plate prices closer to record (Shanghai Daily) Credit Booms Gone Bust: Monetary Policy, Leverage Cycles and Financial Crises, 1870–2008 (NBER)   How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world (Daily Mail) Rhodes…

  • China Leaps to Second Spot in Global Science

    pk
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm
    The latest Thomson ISI science data shows that China has leaped to second-spot worldwide in academic science, as measured by papers produced. The U.S. still leads the way, at 340,000 publications per year (not shown), but China could surpass U.S. production within five years at current rates of relative growth. Of course, paper production is only one measure. Citations matter at least as much, and that isn’t captured here. Nevertheless, it is striking stuff [via Thomson]

  • Weekend Readings: Chess, Rhodes Scholars, Trade, etc.

    pk
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pm
    Zipf law in the popularity distribution of chess openings (arXiv) Losing Rhodes scholars to Wall Street's siren call (WashPost) China and the U.S. lecturing each other on trade (Pettis) Staking out the middle ground on energy supply (Peak Watch) Animated county-by-county map of U.S. unemployment (AO) Latest issue of Chance for we probability and stats geeks (Chance) Where the Wild Things Were: Declining wildness and its consequences (Foreign Policy) Permafrost thaw threatens Russia oil and gas complex (AFP)
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    BeyondVC

  • Google acquires portfolio company Gizmo5

    Ed Sim
    13 Nov 2009 | 7:28 am
    Congratulations to Michael Robertson and team at Gizmo5 for all of their hard work and perseverance!  There is not a lot I can tell you about the future plans for Google Voice, but I do believe it is important to look back to see how we got here.  We made our investment in Gizmo5 (aka as sipphone and gizmo project) in early 2006.  What Michael and I shared was a vision of openness for the VOIP and IM World.  As I wrote on a blog post in January 2006, consumers want what Google and Gizmo5 will hopefully provide in the near future:At the end of the day consumers don't care about protocols,…

  • The Googlization of IT

    Ed Sim
    27 Oct 2009 | 12:55 pm
    Today I took a sales team from a portfolio company to meet with a couple of senior IT executives at a major retail company.  Towards the end of the meeting, it started to become quite clear to me the effect that Google and the web has had on IT to date and where it was going. In an oversimplified way, it seems that there have been 3 distinct phases to how the web and Google have impacted the enterprise, first starting at the app layer and increasingly diving deeper into the core infrastructure.Phase 1 - Consumerization of IT - all internal corporate users are consumers first and then…

  • Washers, dryers and secret sauce - why naming your technology is important

    Ed Sim
    16 Sep 2009 | 2:36 pm
    Our washer and dryer was on the fritz today, and as I started to do some research on large capacity stackable units I started to get overwhelmed with all of the new terminology and features.  After all, isn’t a washer a washer and a dryer a dryer.  How many different combinations and features could there be?  As I dug deeper I found myself thinking about these appliances less from a consumer’s viewpoint and more from a marketing one and appreciating how these various companies could make a commodity product sound so exciting and differentiated.  Sure, all of the competing products had…

  • Future of television advertising (continued again!)

    Ed Sim
    5 Aug 2009 | 3:42 pm
    My first post about portfolio company Visible World and the future of television advertising was in October 2004 (see here).  In the post, I wrote about how television advertising needed to change and how the advertisers and those with inventory had to adapt to the rising online threat and offer new technology to make their ads more targeted and measurable.  Visible World has been pushing this vision for quite awhile and over the years it has built momentum through investments and relationships with Time Warner and Comcast. And just recently the company announced a deal with Google TV Ads…

  • Lessons from Joost

    Ed Sim
    1 Jul 2009 | 4:53 am
    I am not going to rehash Om Malik's excellent summary of "What went wrong with Joost" but I did want to dive deeper into a few points.  As I have always said, raising too much money can be a curse and not a blessing.  Here is an excerpt from my post in 2006Trust me, I love having well capitalized companies.  However, having too much money can be a curse, not a blessing.  More often than not, I see management lose financial discipline and avoid making hard decisions when capital is abundant and not scarce.  To many executives, money does solve all problems.  And yes, having money allows…
 
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    alarm:clock

  • Making The Green Scene: Catching Up With Canadian Solar , Trina Solar and China Wind’s Earnings, ZeaChem To Start Cooking Soon, And The Best Of San Francisco Green Festival

    jgb
    21 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am
    It was an extremely busy week for renewable energy earnings lead by Canadian Solar (CSIQ:NASDAQ) reporting on Q3 2009. Overall the company showed sequential improvement from the previous quarter posting net revenues of $213.1 million compared to $114.2 million. Despite the increase in revenues, they were still behind the $252.4 million posted in the same quarter in the previous year. Profits showed strength as Canadian Solar posted a net income of $0.69 per diluted share, up $0.20 from previous quarter and a gain of $0.38 from the same quarter in the previous year. Europe continued to be…

  • Brought to You By:

    Pheedo
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  • Karolinska Development and EIF Start New Life Science Fund

    honeil
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:13 am
    Swedish investment company Karolinska Development AB and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have a co-investment agreement, in which the fund managed by the former will be invested in early-stage pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. With a contribution of €26.7M ($39.6M) this is EIF's single largest investment in Nordic region. This agreement for this deal was concluded after the European Investment performed its own due-diligence check of Karolina Development investments in new projects as well as its share in portfolio companies in the final stages of clinical development,…

  • UK RBT Service Secures €9M from VCs

    honeil
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am
    Digital ring-back tone (RBT) service Muzicall has raised another round of funding, securing €9M ($13M) in its latest round. Existing funders BlueRun Ventures and Thule were joined by a new group of investors: Orkos Capital, Veddis Ventures and GP Bullhound. News of this deal comes shortly after flattering value projections made by market research firm, Multimedia Intelligence, which foresees Muzicall tripling its value by 2012. Based out of London, Muzicall will use new capital to expand its RBT service throughout Europe. Hoping to replicate hefty revenue streams like those services in Asia…

  • Brought to You By:

    Pheedo
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am
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    VC Cafe

  • Global from Day One: Aragon Networks Promises to Make the Web Faster, Secures Seed Funding from Genesis

    gmugliston
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:22 am
    The speed of internet access available to the average citizen of a country is now widely recognized as a key economic indicator. This is not surprising as, with faster access to information, knowledge workers are able to work more productively. And for consumers, there is clear value in being able to explore the increasingly rich web at faster speeds. Aragon Networks, an early-stage Israeli startup based in the HaSharon area, is on a mission to ensure that the web user experience is as fast as possible. I recently caught up with Yaniv Shemesh, Founder & CEO, to discuss his startup, which…

  • Zlango’s Second Round Will Fund Global Expansion

    Eze Vidra
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am
    Benchmark Capital led the $3 million round of investment in Zlango, an Israeli start up developing graphic icons for text messaging. This is the second round of financing for Zlango, who has raised $16.5 to date. Previous investors include Benchmark, Accel Partners, Brooks-Keret Group, Israel Angels Management, and private investors. As described by on Zlango’s EMEA Sales Director (on his LinkedIn profile): Zlango is a Rich-Media messaging service over SMS infrastructure that is combining the good of the two worlds; The ubiquitous SMS on one axis, and the rich-media on the other axis.

  • Norwest Venture Partners establishes new fund with plans to invest in Israeli startups

    gmugliston
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:42 am
    In what is widely considered to be a difficult fund-raising environment, Norwest Venture Partners has raised a $1.2 billion fund, NVP XI, following on from the $650 million NVP X Fund which it raised in 2006. Managing Partner, Promod Haque, indicated that he sees this larger fund positions the firm to diversify along three axes: 1)     Geography – increasing deal flow in China, India and Israel; 2)     Sector – extending focus into healthcare information and medical systems; and 3)     Stage – increasing focus on growth equity (later stage) investments in mature companies.

  • Axxana Secures Series B Funding to Accelerate Uptake of Phoenix

    gmugliston
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:37 am
    Data protection software startup Axxana has secured a $9 million Series B investment led by Carmel Ventures. The investment proceeds will be used to help accelerate greater adoption of Axxana’s Phoenix System. The Phoenix System is a data lossless system and the self-proclaimed “holy grail of disaster recovery systems”. The company’s Phoenix System™, which is targeted at storage vendors, consists of multiple components: the Black Box, which holds the data at the main site; the Collector, which processes, encrypts and stores the data onto a SSD contained in the Black Box; the…

  • Qlipso Real-Time Flash Content Sharing Client

    Eze Vidra
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm
    Today, in order to share a video or a slideshow with friends, users have to copy a link and either post it on a social network or paste in an email. The sender has no idea on whether his contacts actually consumed the content, nor can he tell what was their immediate reaction. Qlipso (formerly known as  iContaqt) is working on a new tool for real-time sharing of flash-based content (videos, games, slideshows and music)  while simultaneusly interacting with social network contacts through webcams, voice and text chat. The product is essentially a browser client (available for free…
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    Silicon Alley Insider

  • AOL Unveils New Brand, New Logos

    Nicholas Carlson
    22 Nov 2009 | 7:05 pm
    AOL unveiled a "new brand identity" Sunday night. Read the rest of this story »See Also:Jason Calacanis: "I Plan On Buying $250,000 Worth Of AOL Stock" (TWX)Kudos To AOL's Tim Armstrong... Here's To A New Beginning In 2010AOL's Huge Day Getting Smaller (TWX)

  • Microsoft Offers To Pay News Corp To "De-List" Itself From Google

    Nicholas Carlson
    22 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm
    Microsoft (MSFT) wants to pay News Corp (NWS) and other large publishers to de-list their Web sites from Google's (GOOG) search index, the Financial Times reports. Read the rest of this story »

  • OMG! 'Twilight' Makes $140.7 Million At Weekend Box Office

    Erin Carlson
    22 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm
    As expected, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" did gangbusters in its opening weekend. The supernatural love story -- which we saw last night and found unintentionally hilarious yet highly entertaining -- ranks third among the top-grossing weekend debuts in history. Read more at The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Summit Officially Picks David Slade To Direct Third "Twilight" Movie "Eclipse"The Director Of Twilight 3: Juan Antonio Bayona (Maybe)*Third "Twilight" Movie May Be Saved From Drew Barrymore

  • Man Arrested For Not Using Twitter

    Peter Kafka
    22 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am
    Terrifying? Inevitable? Harbinger? In any case, it’s a first: Police in Long Island, New York have arrested a man for not using Twitter. Someone named Justin Bieber, who apparently is a teenage singer, was supposed to appear at the Roosevelt Field mall on Friday, but didn’t because the... Continue reading »Join the conversation about this story »See Also:ESPN Suspends Superstar Writer Bill Simmons From Using Twitter*The Next Twitter: Pay Attention To Hot Potato, A New 'Real-Time' StartupHere Come Twitter Ads, Says Twitter COO

  • Apple's Contract With AT&T Is Done In June -- Analyst

    Jay Yarow
    22 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am
    Here's another big believer in the iPhone-to-Verizon hype. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall was on Bloomberg Friday night, talking about why Apple will join Verizon. Here's his key points: Apple's contract with AT&T is finished in June 2010. Moving to a multiple-carrier model with Verizon brings the potential for 14 million additional iPhone sales. Apple receives $450 per phone subsidy from AT&T. When it drops AT&T exclusivity it will get a $300 subsidy from Verizon and others around the world. iPhone users are 4% of AT&T's customers but take up 40% of its bandwidth.
 
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    The Private Equity Data Center Buzz

  • Private Company Valuations: Blekko, Inc.

    17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    There have been numerous search engines that have come and gone over the lifetime of the internet. These days there are the obvious (Google, Yahoo, Bing), and there are also others that you might not realize are still around (Cuil, Lycos, AltaVista). There is one company operating in "stealth mode" that is currently creating a new search engine . This week we are going to take a look at the latest round of financing for this company. Blekko, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company is developing an internet search engine. Recently they reported…

  • Private Company Valuations: Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc.

    10 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Clean Technology continues to receive a great deal of attention from VC firms, and so was true with the Q3 2009 deals. One company that has raised a significant amount of capital in this space is Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc. This week we are going to take a look at their latest financing round. Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc. is located in Emeryville, California. The company operates as a synthetic biology company developing renewable hydrocarbon biofuels. Last quarter, the company secured approximately $24.8 MM of a $62 MM Series C round. Some of those participating in this round were Kleiner…

  • Deal Terms and Returns: Antidilution Protection

    28 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    This week we are going to take another look at how terms can affect returns. What if your company had raised $7MM in Series A and Series B rounds , but now you are looking to raise one last round. The problem is that this round will be a "Down Round" priced at $.75 per share as compared to the previous Series B round price of $2. So what would the effect be of Weighted Average Anti-Dilution vs. Full Ratchet Anti-Dilution for the founders and investors?

  • Private Company Investments: FourSquare Labs, Inc.

    21 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    We have covered many of the up and coming or already "here" companies that provide social networking. One of the newest that has recently launched is not from California, yet rather they call the East Coast home. This week we are going to take a look at the first round of financing announced for FourSquare Labs, Inc. FourSquare Labs, Inc. is headquartered in New York, NY. The company provides online mobile social networking services by using LBS (Location Based Service) application technology that allows users to receive information and entertainment services via mobile devices through a…

  • Deal Terms and Their Impact on Returns, Part 2

    13 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Last week we discussed the impact that the Deal Terms have on Returns, and how tweaking some of them might help in negotiating a new round of capital. This is something that could be applied to both sides of the table. We previously showed how the Return would react when the Participation Cap is changed from 0 to 3x. This week we are going to look at a different term, the Liquidation Multiple, and see how it can affect the return.
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    DubaiBeat.com

  • Middle East Investors Directory Updated - 31% additional data

    18 Nov 2009 | 7:18 am
    In the latest update to DubaiBeat's "Directory of Venture Capital and Private Equity in the Middle East", we have included 22% additional investment firms and 35% additional contacts from those investment firms. You can check all details and download your copy from here. (If you have downloaded your copy in the past three months, you are eligible for discount. Please contact us for details.)

  • Abu Dhabi fund invested $75 million in Turkey's logistics firm

    16 Nov 2009 | 4:48 am
    Abu Dhabi-based Invest AD has agreed to invest $75 million to take a significant minority stake in Ekol Lojistik A.Ş. (EKOL), one of Turkey's integrated logistics companies. The transaction is the first by the Abu Dhabi government-owned financial services company for its new private equity fund - Invest AD Private Equity Partners II. It was structured in the form of a capital increase to assist EKOL fund its expansion plans. (To see more Abu Dhabi investors like Invest AD check our investors directory) Their full press release follows:

  • Dubai-based private equity firm Saffar launching a PE fund

    14 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am
    Dubai-based private equity firm Saffar Capital is launching a private equity fund focusing on financial services in the Middle East to take advantage of an improving outlook in the sector, the company's chief executive Al-Usaimi said - according to the Reuters. The fund is starting with seed capital of $15 million but is looking to have $150 million under management, Al-Usaimi said. It is the first to be launched by Saffar, which specialises in taking stakes in private equity financial services firms in the region.

  • Jordan Dubai Capital signed MoU with Kazakhstan sovereign wealth fund

    12 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am
    Jordan Dubai Energy & Infrastructure - the investment arm of Jordan Dubai Capital in the energy and infrastructure sectors - announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Kazyna Capital Management (KCM), the private equity arm of the Kazakhstan soverign wealth holding company, Samruk-Kazyna. both JDE&I and KCM agree to utilize their respective expertise to jointly invest in and establish private equity and infrastructure funds, as well as to develop various investment and infrastructure projects and activities in both Jordan and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

  • Irish oil and gas firm acquired by Emirates National Oil Company

    11 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am
    Dragon Oil, the London listed Irish oil and gas company has agreed to a full takeover by shareholder Emirates National Oil Company. Emirates National Oil Company already holds 51.5% of Dragon Oil, having first acquired a stake in 1998. This purchase values the Irish gas-and-oil exploration and development firm at around $3.9 billion. Dragon Oil is a single-asset company and develops the Cheleken contract area in the Caspian Sea, offshore Turkmenistan. Read more on the MarketWatch.
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    VentureDig

  • Monetizing Social Networks: The Four Dominant Business Models and How You Should Implement Them in 2010

    VentureDig
    1 Nov 2009 | 9:45 am
    The business models within the social media realm are much different than traditional businesses. In social networking, they’re ever-changing, backed by eye-opening revenue and have very little documentation. Reason: as soon as someone sits down to outline ways social networks can be monetized, another model emerges, and another model ceases. For this reason, this piece will be routinely updated with new models and new feedback from your comments. Below are the Four Primary Business Models in the social networking space that I’ve experienced–they primarily are concerned with…

  • How To Calculate Number of Shares to be Offered to Existing Investors

    VentureDig
    14 Aug 2009 | 5:00 am
    I attended a venture finance event a while back in Palo Alto, which was put on DLA Piper. They had a nice segment on legal aspects of venture finance and law. While this post is geared towards the investor, venture capitalist and angel, if you’re an entrepreneur, you will obviously gain value from understanding this overall concept. Calculation of Number of Shares To Be Offered to Existing Investors Pursuant to Preemptive Rights: To determine the number of shares to be offered to a current shareholder pursuant to preemptive rights to maintain ownership percentage, you must first…

  • How Questions Give a Glimpse Into One’s Mind

    VentureDig
    12 Aug 2009 | 5:00 am
    The concept of “listening” is thrown around quite frequently in everyday life. Some old greybeard will declare, “It’s all about listening in business,” or, “I’ve been married for 50 years because I learned to listen.” Certainly true; yet, many fail to follow this action up with the most important thing: asking intelligent questions. Below is a picture where you can view how prefacing your questions statistically indicates smarter questions: [Click to enlarge...]

  • The 9 Rules For Successful Investing

    VentureDig
    3 Aug 2009 | 5:00 am
    I can’t even count the number of investing books I’ve read. The problem with most investing books revolves around the fact that they’re, well, books. The stock market can be extremely confusing. It suddenly becomes much more clear when you set aside a certain amount of money and just invest. Of course, you don’t want to go in blind. Thus, if you decide to go all in (with a small pot), check out these nine tips: Don’t invest like a hedge fund manager Don’t quit when you get back to even There’s always a chance for take-overs Don’t let short-term…

  • Facebook Layouts: How To Change Your Facebook Background

    VentureDig
    22 Jul 2009 | 9:48 am
    While Facebook has clearly become the ideal social network for those wishing to stay in touch with their friends, one thing has always been missing: the ability to change your facebook background with layouts. Some protest, “But I don’t want any backgrounds–I don’t want to sacrafice speed and simplicity.” That’s fine. You don’t have to change; however, the lack of ability to actually style your facebook experience is ridiculous. And, finally with PageRage, the ability to style your facebook is now achievable. I’ve personally looked through a…
 
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    Unstructured Thoughts by Taylor Davidson

  • Marketing through culturematics

    Taylor Davidson
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:29 am
    Related thoughts about how individuals can create businesses by living their lives and creating meaningful, culturally resonating experiences. Marketing through living, in a way. Starting with an old thought from Business Models and Life Models, Interconnected: Business models based on creating value and expanding the pie are more powerful than business models based on allocating and extracting value; lives focused on creating, aggregating and directing value to others are more powerful than lives focused merely on the extracting value for the self. Examples, click here. John Hagel, Pursuing…

  • Working Nowhere and Everywhere: The Zen of Running A Virtual Studio

    Taylor Davidson
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:31 am
    A presentation about “Working Nowhere and Everywhere: The Zen of Running A Virtual Studio” by Christopher Natsuume, focusing on eight tips on how to run a virtual office. You probably already know that creating better organizational and incentive structures for collaboration and value creation is a big interest of mine; below is a presentation that provides eight tips for how Christopher Natsuume puts it into practice for Boomzap, a casual game development studio headquartered in Singapore that leverages a distributed, virtual workforce to tap into quality games developers and…

  • Creating the Intention Economy

    Taylor Davidson
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:01 am
    Continuing the line of thinking about personal APIs and personal RFPs, components of the broader trend in using algorithms to aid human decision-making. Wings, Outstretched, Margaret River Mouth, Western Australia Continuing a line of thinking from Powering Social Search through Personal APIs, referencing Scott Adam’s note on broadcast shopping, Doc Searls, Advertising in Reverse: Here in the VRM development community we’ve been talking (and in some cases working) for several years on the Personal RFP. Technically an RFP is a “buyer-initiated procurement protocol” for businesses…

  • Powering Social Search through Personal APIs

    Taylor Davidson
    16 Nov 2009 | 8:52 am
    How can social search be improved? By maintaining a standardized, publicly accessible database of the information and knowledge in people’s heads, and creating an easy way to access that information. In other words, a personal API. * Damon Horowitz on the Aardvark company blog, The Real-Time People Web, discussing search and the web of people and information: What really matters is the increased accessibility of people online, not just information online. … This becomes pretty compelling if we remember that the amount of information in peoples’ heads positively dwarfs the amount…

  • Financial Models Are (Still) Always Wrong: Create One Anyway

    Taylor Davidson
    12 Nov 2009 | 2:05 am
    In January I released a free financial model to help entrepreneurs model and understand the story behind their business. After a lot of interest from entrepreneurs for a simplified version of that model, today I’m releasing a streamlined version that will make it easier for entrepreneurs to start understanding the equation underlying their businesses. Download the free, completely functional Excel financial model below: Basic Financial Model created by Taylor Davidson Right-click to download. Zip file, 244 KB. This streamlined financial model is intended to help entrepreneurs: Create…
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    The North Blog

  • Hey Brands…Give Your Fans A Show

    Brody
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:36 pm
    Okay, we’ve heard it before. Social media is so much more than just a numbers game. It doesn’t matter how many fans, followers, or friends you’re able to rack up…it’s about the quality of the experience you provide them. You see, you want your loyal fans holding up their lighters (phones) at the end of the show, not rushing for the exits so they can go see another feature act. Remember, the key to successfully leveraging social media as a brand marketing platform is putting forth memorable ideas and content that inspire consumers to respond > share > and…

  • 9 Ways Your Business Could Be Using Social Media, But Probably Isn’t

    North Blogger
    3 Nov 2009 | 4:36 pm
    This just in, consumers are now spending more time on social networks than any other form of website, including porn. The time is now to make the most of this newly emerging opportunity to connect with your consumer, to shape your brand, and develop long-term customer relationships at a fraction of ‘above the line’ media costs. In 9 Ways Your Business Could Be Using Social Media, But Probably Isn’t, the team at North Social outlines all of the ways that you can leverage social media to achieve your branding and business goals. Happy Reading. Share this on FacebookTweet…

  • Top Custom Brand Facebook Pages

    Brody
    3 Nov 2009 | 10:59 am
    Customfacebookpage.com is a great resource for anyone that is in the process of figuring out how to make their brand’s facebook presence more impactful. Whether you’re a developer, designer, brand manager, or social media strategist, you can learn a lot from this site. It’s a great opportunity to explore, comment upon, and interact with some of the best custom Facebook Pages out there. In addition, if you’ve had a hand in developing or designing any kick-ass Facebook applications, custom pages, or campaigns, just click on the submit a page button and they’ll post…

  • A Guy Walks Into A Pool Hall With Harpoon Gun…

    North Blogger
    3 Nov 2009 | 10:31 am
    Okay, we talk about this a lot but it bears repeating. No company or brand can be successful if the product or service offered isn’t first attractive to the target consumer. Then we look at four key questions for a winning product to answer; 1) Does it have the ability to scale to a large consumer market?; 2) Does it solve a significant consumer pain?; 3) Does it create the opportunity for additional sales revenues for follow on transactions (ongoing consumer relationship)?; and 4) Is it within the consumer’s comparative threshold for pricing? Well, in the case of this new venture called…

  • Skating Toward The ‘Sports Gene’

    Brody
    30 Oct 2009 | 10:20 am
    The new North venture Athleticode was featured in today’s San Francisco Business Times. Excerpt: Athleticode will scan the genetic code in a sample of a player’s spit to test for myriad characteristics. They hope to indicate whether an athlete has a high propensity for concussions, heat stroke, heart arrhythmia, torn tendons or other injury. It also plans to identify whether the player has genes associated with advanced agility, endurance, nutrient absorption or flexibility. Armed with this information, athletes can tailor workouts to minimize chances of getting hurt while boosting…
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    Continuations

  • New York City Is Rocking For Startups!

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am
    Here is just a small sampling of all the awesome events that took place in NY City this week (I realize I should have posted this at the beginning of the week).  Just to name a few, there was Web 2.0 Expo, the net neutrality debate on Tuesday night and New York Entrepreneur Week.   There was also the UK digital mission to New York and I am sure many others that I am forgetting or did not know about. Last week saw the announcement of Founders Collective, a great addition to the seed funding available in New York City.  Over the last two weeks I have had meetings with some awesome folks…

  • The Open Web is Under Attack: What To Do (Part 2)

    19 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am
    Following up to yesterday’s post, here is what I think folks should do about the threat of platform lock-in at the application/content layer.   First, recognize that this is directly related to net neutrality.  The ability of existing platforms and content owners to try to force the web back into walled gardens is limited by the ability of entrepreneurs to start open competitors and reach people directly and on a level playing field.   Second, start voting with your mouse.  At the moment we have enough variety on the web in most categories that if any one provider is over-reaching, you…

  • The Open Web is Under Attack: What To Do (Part 1)

    18 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am
    Yesterday, I wrote about why the open web is under attack.  Today, as promised, the follow up on what to do about it.  I believe the single most important thing is to let Congress know that people actually care about this.  Big companies are spending a lot of money lobbying, but good old fashioned calling and faxing (yes, faxing, at least so I am being told by folks from DC) can make a difference.Now “net neutrality,” while somewhat descriptive, is not a great term from a marketing perspective.  It sounds a bit like one is supporting blandness.  So what might you say to your…

  • The Open Web is Under Attack

    17 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am
    Yesterday, Tim O’Reilly published a provocatively titled post: “The War for the Web.“  In it he discusses the dangers to the web as an open platform from the attempts by the biggest players to own more and more of the user experience: We’re heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it’s more than that, it’s a war against the web as an interoperable platform. Instead, we’re facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill. I share…

  • Content Capital

    16 Nov 2009 | 2:34 am
    Had a great discussion at dinner last night about the future of publishing and the role of authors and agents.  My believe is that agents have to start providing content capital.  The idea behind content capital is pretty much the same as that behind venture capital.  Content capital puts up the money, the author creates the work(s) and all proceeds are shared.  These would be what the music world has started calling “360 deals,” where many different revenue streams are generated.  In publishing, this might well include fees from the author’s speaking engagements.  The mechanism…
 
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    Startup Expedition

  • You Name It

    stephens
    12 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm
    These entrepreneurs were not going for a global image when they chose their business name: I wonder if they have a Fook Yoo rewards program?

  • Photo Op

    stephens
    11 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am
    Here is a photo from my Entrepreneurial Journey talk at Lawrence Technological University last month. LTU President Dr. Lewis Walker is on the left, I am in the center, and Prof. Don Reimer is on the right. Note that my hair was dark brown the day I started my startup. And now is it nearly all gray. I am reasonably satisfied with my presentation after reviewing the DVD. I will carve it up and post online soon.

  • Of All Time

    stephens
    7 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am
    Fortune magazine got it wrong. They recently named Steve Jobs as CEO of the Decade. How about Steve Jobs as greatest Entrepreneur of all time? Yes, they nailed it when they said he changed the world of music, movies, and mobile phones. Where they fell short is Steve Jobs also changed the way we think. He changed the way we think about insanely great products. How we think about innovation. How we pitch. Present. How to change human behavior with disruptive technologies. Apple is one of the greatest startup stories ever. How about Steve Jobs for President. Perhaps he could change the way we…

  • Patience

    stephens
    2 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am
    [This is part 5 in a 5 part series about the 5Ps of Entrepreneurship from my Entrepreneurial Journey lecture at Lawrence Tech Entrepreneurs must be patient. The more you are changing the world with your startup, the longer it will take to reach critical mass.I believe entrereneurs are born and not made. That said, I had to learn to be patient. In the beginning, I really felt my startup would take six months to reach revenue. That was 7-1/2 years ago. Mark Burnett, who changed the world with reality television, patiently waited a decade for his vision to reach critical mass. Howard Schultz,…

  • Persistence

    stephens
    30 Oct 2009 | 6:46 am
    [This is part 4 in a 5 part series about the 5Ps of Entrepreneurship from my Entrepreneurial Journey lecture at Lawrence Tech Entrepreneurs must be persistent on their startup expedition. The hardest thing in the world is to create something from nothing and change the world. Startups take time. Very few are overnight successes. With Speedraft, I endured over 1,300 rejections in a 5-1/2 year period before we got to the first “yes”. I am not alone in the persistence game. Mark Burnett changed the world of television programming with so-called Reality Television. It took him ten…
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    VC Deal Lawyer

  • FashInvest Conference and Presenting to Angel Investors

    Chris McDemus
    12 Nov 2009 | 10:07 pm
    On November 10, 2009 I attended the inaugural FashInvest conference in New York entitled “From Concept to Capital.”  Karen Griffith-Gryga and David Freschman, the founders of FashInvest, put on a wonderful event and are definitely heading in the right direction to bring venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and branded and fashion company executives together under one roof.  The conference had a great panel consisting of: Jon Brilliant from the Atelier Group; Adam Burgoon from KarpReilly LLC; Shira Sue Carmi from Launch Collective; Mark Friedman from Trilea Partners; John Nowaczyk…

  • Should you Take Money from a Strategic Investor?

    Chris McDemus
    26 Oct 2009 | 10:56 pm
    The fact that anyone is offering you money is a good thing, at least in times like these.  But wipe the smile off your face and realize that you have some tough decisions ahead of you - you need laser focus!  Not all money is good money, or smart money for that matter.  This issue is not limited to strategics – there are good and bad angels, good and bad VCs, good and bad private equity players, and the list goes on.  The financing sector is a microcosm of life – you get all sorts and types.  So never dismiss money just because it comes from a strategic.  All things…

  • Being the First Mover or Having No. 1 Market Share Isn’t Everything

    Chris McDemus
    25 Oct 2009 | 7:28 pm
    I don’t care if your company is bigger than the competition or has what some like to call the “first mover advantage,” beating out the competition is all about differentiation and playing to your strengths.  What recently got me thinking about this was an older podcast I was listening to from Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leadership program.  The speaker was Greg Ballard, CEO of GluMobile, and his talk was titled “Confessions of a Serial Silicon Valley CEO.”  Amongst many of his other great points, Ballard made the following comment…

  • Hiring the Right Start-Up Lawyer – No Posers Allowed!

    Chris McDemus
    21 Sep 2009 | 8:04 pm
    If you are an entrepreneur or the founder of a start-up or emerging growth company, one of the most important decisions you will make is hiring the right lawyer.  Like all things in life, there are good lawyers and bad lawyers and telling the difference up front can be difficult.  The service they sell (advice) is, at its core, intangible.  It’s not a consumer product that you can pick up off the shelf and hold in your hand or a car that you can take for a test drive.  Lawyers trade mostly off of reputation (which, itself, can produce contradictory results).  Also, lawyers can be…

  • Intuit Buys Mint.com for $170M

    Chris McDemus
    14 Sep 2009 | 10:18 pm
    I was surprised today to hear that Intuit bought Mint.com for $170M.  Maybe surprised is the wrong word.  From a deal and synergy perspective, I can certainly understand why Intuit would want to do the deal.  Reportedly, Mint.com had 1.4M users, tracked $175B in transactions and $47B in assets and identified $300M in potential savings for its users.  So not only does Intuit get access to Mint.com’s fluid and simple design but also all of the data they’ve aggregated on people’s spending/savings habits.  That’s priceless. What did surprise me was the timing.  I…
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