It's Monday, time for another lesson I've learned in the venture capital business. Today I will tell a story that I love telling. It has some of my favorite people in it. Back in 2004, early in my blogging career, I heard about a service that had just launched called Feedburner. It provided a number of useful services for a blog's RSS feed. So I went and signed up and AVC became one of the first users of the service. I immediately liked the service and the idea. So I contacted the founder/CEO Dick Costolo, who has gone onto bigger and better things. I told Dick that I was…
Venture Capital
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Most Topular Stories
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You Can Do Too Much Due Diligence
A VC : Venture Capital and Technology13 May 2013 | 3:18 am -
Should You Consider Replacing Yourself as CEO?
Both Sides of the Table19 May 2013 | 9:56 amMy internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have talked about this publicly a great deal – how I prefer “missionaries” over “mercenaries.” But lately I’m more swayed by the wise words of Reid Hoffman. “Founder is a state of mind, not a job description” We all love the mythical stories of our great founder heroes who drove startups from scratch and led their businesses many years later: Bill Gates,… -
The First Six Months Developing For The Computer On My Face
TechCrunch24 May 2013 | 9:00 pmEditor’s note: Jon Gottfried is a Developer Evangelist at Twilio, Co-Founder of the Hacker Union, and a StartupBus Conductor. Follow him on Twitter @jonmarkgo. Being one of the first cyborgs in the world, I have been privy to a unique set of bizarre experiences that have led to some early observations and theories about the future of Google Glass and wearable technology. At Glass Foundry SF, among the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, the New York Times and Hearst, was a rag-tag group of independent developers building Ice Breaker: myself, Song Zheng, and Rajiv Makhijani. When I… -
TheFunded.com Discussion: How Effective is Social Media in B2 B?
TheFunded.com23 May 2013 | 10:13 am -
Why We Need to Elect @EricGarcetti on Tues as Next Mayor of Los Angeles
Both Sides of the Table19 May 2013 | 7:32 pmOn Tuesday Los Angeles will elect a new mayor. And while Eric Garcetti is leading in the polls by 7%, according to recent articles a victory is not certain. LA needs Garcetti. He would be the first tech mayor of our city. He understands our issues as a community and vows to help keep LA Tech on the map. From his opponent I have heard crickets in the past year. Why does it matter? And how can you help? If you live in LA please turn up to vote on Tuesday. In a citywide election every vote really DOES matter. If you live in LA (or even if you don’t you can help amplify) please consider…
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TechCrunch
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The First Six Months Developing For The Computer On My Face
24 May 2013 | 9:00 pmEditor’s note: Jon Gottfried is a Developer Evangelist at Twilio, Co-Founder of the Hacker Union, and a StartupBus Conductor. Follow him on Twitter @jonmarkgo. Being one of the first cyborgs in the world, I have been privy to a unique set of bizarre experiences that have led to some early observations and theories about the future of Google Glass and wearable technology. At Glass Foundry SF, among the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, the New York Times and Hearst, was a rag-tag group of independent developers building Ice Breaker: myself, Song Zheng, and Rajiv Makhijani. When I… -
50M Matches Strong, Hot Mobile Dating App Tinder Is Ready To Go Global, And Move Beyond Flirting
24 May 2013 | 8:44 pmDigital dating is nothing to scoff at; it’s a big business, and it’s changed a lot of lives — mostly for the better. Yet, while dating has seen enormous progress during the Digital Era, there’s still a lot garbage out there, and the space is still mostly dominated by a handful of old names. A gaggle of dating sites and apps have appeared over the past five years, but few have had real staying power, and many have gone the way of the dinosaur. While it’s still too early to make any pronouncements, it’s looking more and more like Tinder could buck the trend. -
Google Now's “Topics” Page Returns And Shows You How Much Google Knows About You, But It Only Works On Android
24 May 2013 | 7:34 pmA few weeks ago, Google briefly made a “Google Now” topics page available on the web and then took it down again. The page showed a list of topics Google believed you were interested in, based on your search history. Now this feature is back, but it’s a bit different from the leaked page. A few days ago, it seems, the company quietly (re-)launched this feature with the latest Google Now update. The leaked page was also visible on the desktop, but it looks like Google has plugged this hole the cards are now only available on Android – and only by going through Google… -
Ask A VC: Index Ventures' Danny Rimer On The Future Of Ecommerce And More
24 May 2013 | 2:50 pmOn this week’s Ask A VC episode, Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer joined us in the studio. Rimer has been in the venture industry for over 11 years so he had plenty to share on how VC has changed, and the differences in the venture world in Europe and the U.S. Rimer, who has led the firm’s investments in Etsy, Nastygal and many others, also talked to us about the future of e-commerce and how the industry is changing for startups. Check out the video above for more! -
Microsoft And Google Bury The Hatchet To Work On A Windows Phone YouTube App With Ads
24 May 2013 | 1:31 pmOnce a upon a time, Microsoft saw fit to put together a YouTube app for Windows Phone and it was actually pretty great — it let users download videos straight from the app and there was nary an ad to be found. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Google wasn’t too pleased: after all, the features that made the app so appealing didn’t exactly jibe with YouTube’s terms of service, and the search giant demanded the offending app be removed. Well, after a bit of back and forth (and a conciliatory update), it seems the two companies have finally come to an agreement.
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TheFunded.com
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TheFunded.com Discussion: How Effective is Social Media in B2 B?
23 May 2013 | 10:13 am -
TheFunded.com Discussion: Technology Investors in the Seed Capital, Series a Space
22 May 2013 | 1:04 pm -
Balderton (Benchmark EU): Composed and Smart
18 May 2013 | 12:16 am| Posted by KK | Fund Rated 3.1Met with them for the first time in Berlin (at a Capital On Stage Conference): Rob Moffat, one of their principals, is professional and cuts through any crap quickly. Decent feedback was given to us and we would recommend them - they know their space well. -
Index Ventures: Associates are Misrepresenting Index
17 May 2013 | 11:56 pm| Posted by Anon | Fund Rated 3.3 | 80 Chars in PrivateIndex needs to hire more qualified associates - preferably those with 5-7 years + experience in their previous roles. -
TheFunded.com Discussion: Tesla Pitches on Sand Hill (Humor)
17 May 2013 | 3:10 pm
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Both Sides of the Table
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Why We Need to Elect @EricGarcetti on Tues as Next Mayor of Los Angeles
19 May 2013 | 7:32 pmOn Tuesday Los Angeles will elect a new mayor. And while Eric Garcetti is leading in the polls by 7%, according to recent articles a victory is not certain. LA needs Garcetti. He would be the first tech mayor of our city. He understands our issues as a community and vows to help keep LA Tech on the map. From his opponent I have heard crickets in the past year. Why does it matter? And how can you help? If you live in LA please turn up to vote on Tuesday. In a citywide election every vote really DOES matter. If you live in LA (or even if you don’t you can help amplify) please consider… -
Should You Consider Replacing Yourself as CEO?
19 May 2013 | 9:56 amMy internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have talked about this publicly a great deal – how I prefer “missionaries” over “mercenaries.” But lately I’m more swayed by the wise words of Reid Hoffman. “Founder is a state of mind, not a job description” We all love the mythical stories of our great founder heroes who drove startups from scratch and led their businesses many years later: Bill Gates,… -
The One Word That Shouldn’t Exist in an Entrepreneur’s Vocabulary
15 May 2013 | 1:18 amNo. The one word the best entrepreneurs never accept. I said it. Now let me walk you through a broader story because avoidance of the word in and of itself will seem cliche. Stay with me. When I was little I had a role model for entrepreneurship – my mom. She was a natural leader. She was president of the UJA in Sacramento. From this I saw civic involvement and leadership first hand. She was a nurse but was never graduated from a 4-year college. Still – she can do the NY Times crossword puzzle better and faster than I. Even today. She was a hustler. And a ball buster. And a… -
The Corrosive Downside of Acquihires
13 May 2013 | 6:57 amFor the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And to keep up with the Jones’s it seems that Yahoo! has now employed the same strategy. And who cares, right? A couple of tech giants throw millions around in either cash (for which they have hoards) or part with some publicly traded stock. And a few teams of super talented, educated and bright entrepreneurs make a few mill. in their 20′s. What could be more capitalist than that? It has even gone so far that we now have… -
Why Online Video Just Took One More Big Step to Legitimacy
7 May 2013 | 11:14 pmAnyone who reads this blog frequently will know that I am a big believer in low-cost video content and specifically the power of YouTube as a content creation & distribution platform. Our industry just took one big step towards legitimacy with the hiring of renowned media exec Ynon Kreiz to run Maker Studios. The industry finally has one of their own at the helm of the largest YouTube network. This followed an investment late last year by Time Warner in the company in a round totaling $36 million, led by Rachel Lam, head of their investment group. This has been a very welcome…
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VatorNews.tv
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List of top Bay Area accelerators and incubators
24 May 2013 | 3:13 pmIf you want to find one, they're everywhere! So you have the basics of your startup figured out, but you need a little help getting off the ground? You need a little acceleration, you say? You live in the Bay Area and you need information on organizations devoted to accelerating startups? Welcome, friend! You’re in luck, because if there’s one thing the Bay Area has an abundance of, it’s accelerators. Here are a few to consider: General Y Combinator Duh. Since 2005, Y Combinator has funded over 500 startups, including Airbnb, Reddit, Dropbox, Disqus, Scribd, Heroku,… -
Funding roundup - week ending 05/24/13
24 May 2013 | 10:39 amLyft, UpOut, Swivl, Change.org, Weemo, Mission Markets, Cubic Telecom, Adly, Imonomy, LoyalBlocksSeed stage Social local discovery service, UpOut raised $850,000 in seed funding from a number of Silicon Valley angels, including Sand Hill Angels and TEEC Angels. Postmaster, provider of an API for shipping packages, raised $600,000 in a seed round led by Capital Factory, Cloud Power, and Zelkova Ventures. Data API Orchestrate.io raised a seed investment round of $3 million led by True Ventures and joined by Frontline Ventures and Resonant Venture Partners. Edtech startup… -
FTC set to probe Google's display-ads practices
24 May 2013 | 9:43 amGoogle already being investigated for antitrust violations by the EU, Canada and South Korea(Updated to reflect comment from the FTC) Here we go again. After finally reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in January over alleged antitrust violations with its search algorithms, the agency is now looking into potentially opening yet another inquiry, this time into how whether or not Google is using its dominant position in the online display-advertising market to curb competition, it was first reported by Reuters late Thursday. The issue at hand is in… -
Report: Google looking to outbid Facebook for Waze
24 May 2013 | 12:00 amWaze said to be looking for more than the $1 billion Facebook is offeringSocial traffic app Waze seem to be the hot commodity these days, with two very high profile companies reportedly looking to purchase it for a whoooole lot of money. Earlier this month it was reported that Facebook was looking to make the acquisition for between $800 million and $1 billion. But now Google is apparently getting into the mix as well, and could spark a bidding war with Facebook over the property, according to a report from Bloomberg Thursday. Waze is said to be seeking more than billion… -
Facebook cancels rollout of HTC First in UK
23 May 2013 | 2:00 pmHome has seen terrible reception and sales of HTC First said to be suffering(Updated to reflect comment from Facebook) Customer reviews of Facebook Home have been pretty abysmal, to say the least. With a 2.3 star average, and 9,349 one star reviews out of a total of 18,004, is anyone shocked that the HTC First, which came with Home preloaded, is bombing? The first sign that sales of the HTC First were not up to snuff came when AT&T, which was originally selling the phone for $99.99 decided to dropped the price all the way down to 99 cents. And now the…
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VentureBeat
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Why due diligence matters in equity crowdfunding
25 May 2013 | 3:00 amThis sponsored post is produced by MicroVentures. VentureBeat recently reported that funding marketplace MicroVentures raised over $16 million for tech startups. Over the past 2 years, MicroVentures has reviewed over 2,000 companies and through its rigorous review process, filtered the prospective list to less than 40, which met the criteria to raise on the platform. This represents approximately 2 percent of the companies that initiated the process. Once the SEC issues the final rules around the JOBS Act, it will pave the way for funding portals to start equity-based crowdfunding, giving… -
DHS warns of vulnerability exposing employee social security numbers
24 May 2013 | 4:18 pmThe Department of Homeland Security issued a warning to its employees this week, saying it was alerted to a vendor vulnerability that could have exposed social security numbers. The vendor, which DHS does not disclose in its alert, deals with background check information. It helps the investigation process, and stores personally identifiable information collected during a background check. The vulnerability could have exposed names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and other personally identifiable information that stretches beyond the “username and password” you usually… -
Peter Thiel’s venture firm to invest in space (exclusive)
24 May 2013 | 3:29 pmPeter Thiel’s late-stage venture firm Mithril Capital Management is planning to invest in space exploration and transportation. Mithril partner Jim O’Neill denied in an email that he is raising a dedicated fund, but confirmed that the firm just hired several space industry experts to join the investment team. “We are delighted to have hired two space industry veterans on our investment team to help us examine hard technology companies, including transportation and space,” he said. Sources also said that several million dollars has already been poured into the fund to… -
Yahoo continues spending spree by jumping into the bidding fray over Hulu
24 May 2013 | 2:48 pmYahoo has officially placed a bid to acquire popular video streaming service Hulu. Rumors came out earlier this month that Yahoo was interested in Hulu after Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer met with members of Hulu’s executive team. Hulu’s current owners — News Corps, Disney, and Comcast — tried to sell the company for around $2 billion in June 2011 after irreconcilable differences over business strategy. No one came close to the asking price and the sale was officially terminated. Instead, the owners decided to focus on growth. A report in AllThingsD today said “a… -
Google and Microsoft agree to play nicely on a new YouTube Windows Phone app
24 May 2013 | 2:19 pmJuly 9-10, 2013 San Francisco, CA Early Bird Tickets on Sale It’s all sunshine and lollipops over in Windows Phone land today. Google announced that it’s ending its fight over Microsoft’s YouTube Windows Phone app and that the two companies will be working together on a revamped version. In a statement, Google says it will be “working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks.” Additionally, Google says Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube…
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A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
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Video Of The Week: My Talk With John Battelle at CM Summit
25 May 2013 | 3:54 amIf you want to watch here, hit play and go to 47 minutes in. Or click on this link which will take you to you YouTube and get you to 47 minutes in. -
The IPA
22 May 2013 | 3:34 amNo, I am not blogging about India Pale Ale, although I must say that I am a big fan of it. I am writing about one of the best patent hacks I have seen in the decade that I have been working to find relief from the ridiculous patent system in our country. Twitter came up with a concept last year called the Innovator's Patent Agreement (IPA) and put a draft IPA up on GitHub. They have gotten a ton of feedback and have iterated and improved the concept since then. The basic idea of the IPA is that it is a contract between Twitter and the engineer(s) and designer(s) who developed the IP. The… -
Native Advertising Event
21 May 2013 | 3:16 amThis Thursday from 1pm to 6pm, our portfolio company Zemanta is co-hosting a summit on native advertising here in NYC. I've written and spoken a fair bit about native advertising so regular readers will likely be quite familiar with this topic. However, from what I am seeing out there, native advertising is really hitting its stride as social platforms and mobile consumption become the norm. If you are a marketer or an entrepreneur working in the advertising/marketing space, you should be paying attention to this trend. I will be kicking off the event at 1pm with a brief talk and… -
Success Has A Thousand Fathers
20 May 2013 | 3:50 amBack in the early days of AVC, I did a thing called VC Cliche Of The Week. There was an RSS feed of all of them powered by Delicious, but it is broken and most likely can't be fixed. You can find some of them on gawk.it. One of the cliches I posted about is "success has a thousand fathers." I thought I would re-run that post. Here it is. You can count on it - when a deal works out spectacularly everyone involved will take credit for it. This behavior is particularly annoying to the entrepreneurs who put the sweat, blood, and tears into the Company. They watch the VCs take credit… -
You Can Do Too Much Due Diligence
13 May 2013 | 3:18 amIt's Monday, time for another lesson I've learned in the venture capital business. Today I will tell a story that I love telling. It has some of my favorite people in it. Back in 2004, early in my blogging career, I heard about a service that had just launched called Feedburner. It provided a number of useful services for a blog's RSS feed. So I went and signed up and AVC became one of the first users of the service. I immediately liked the service and the idea. So I contacted the founder/CEO Dick Costolo, who has gone onto bigger and better things. I told Dick that I was…
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Union Square Ventures: A New York Venture Capital Fund Focused on Early Stage & Startup Investing
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Yahoo acquires Tumblr
20 May 2013 | 1:11 pmYahoo announced today that they will acquire our portfolio company Tumblr. In September of 2007 we, together with Spark Capital, invested in a 3 person start-up founded by David Karp, a 21 year old coder who had not finished high school. At the time, our biggest challenge was convincing David to drop the four other projects he was working on to focus on Tumblr. Once he did, he quickly built one of the world's greatest platforms for self expression. Over the last five years, Tumblr became much more than that. Today we, as users, are all overwhelmed by the amount of content available on the… -
The Patent Quality Improvement Act
9 May 2013 | 3:48 amThis week, Senator Schumer introduced legislation that would take a whack at patent trolls: the Patent Quality Improvement Act aims to make it easier and cheaper for companies facing spurious infringement suits to defend themselves. This is not a complete fix for the software patent problem, and we absolutely need go further (more on how, below), but it's a step forward and we wholeheartedly support the Senator here. For those who are new to this problem: patent trolls are eating internet startups. "Troll" is another word for "patent assertion entity" (PAE) or "non-practicing entity" (NPEs)… -
Coinbase
8 May 2013 | 2:37 amWe have been thinking about and looking to make an investment in the Bitcoin ecosystem for several years. Today, we are happy to be able to talk about our first investment in the sector. We have made an investment in Coinbase along with our friends at Ribbit Capital, SV Angel and Funders Club. We believe that Bitcoin represents something fundamental and powerful, an open and distributed Internet peer to peer protocol for transferring purchasing power. It reminds us of SMTP, HTTP, RSS, and BitTorrent in its architecture and openness. Like what happened with those other low level protocols,… -
CircleUp
6 May 2013 | 2:14 pmAs venture capitalists, we understand how valuable an injection of capital into an early-stage, fast-growing business can be. But our industry has a particular set of economics, one that has skewed the availability of equity investment towards startups in the technology sector. Yet, despite a lack of access to upfront capital, entrepreneurs are constantly innovating in all areas of our economy. One of the most vibrant verticals is consumer products, with over 50,000 new consumer and retail companies started every year. These businesses are drivers of economic growth. CircleUp has created an… -
Science Exchange
29 Apr 2013 | 12:36 pmRight now, there are thousands of scientists whose research is being held up because they lack access to the experimental expertise needed to test a hypothesis or verify a result. But while we have seen how online marketplaces can dramatically expand and create new businesses in many other diverse areas, it is still too difficult for those scientists to access the right experimental expertise. Help is on the way. Techniques that some label "science as a service" are making specialized resources and institutional expertise available on demand and with openness and transparency. Science…
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Xconomy
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International Caregiver Network, JEMS Tech Sign Mobile Health Deal
24 May 2013 | 10:54 amSarah Schmid JEMS Technology, the Orion, MI-based mobile health company, announced late last month that it has signed a deal with the Southfield, MI-based International Caregiver Network (ICN) to offer JEMS’ remote monitoring platform to ICN’s network of home health and hospice care providers. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. JEM offers plug-and-play, real-time video streaming to smart phone and tablet devices, which in turn allows doctors or nurses to offer medical guidance from afar. The system complies with privacy requirements under HIPAA, the Health Insurance… -
Colorado Looks to Reward Entrepreneurs who Risk “Glorious Failures”
24 May 2013 | 8:44 amMichael Davidson Entrepreneurs know embracing risk brings with it the possibility of failure. It’s a fact of life, but it’s usually the last thing government officials acknowledge when touting job creation programs backed with state support. But the state of Colorado is taking a different approach with its new “Glorious Failure” innovation challenge. The program will give up to $100,000 in cash and in-kind donations to the winning companies. To compete, a company must make less than $1 million in annual revenue. Their prospects for success must be good—creativity and potential… -
Ekos, Maker of Ultrasound Blood Clot Dissolver, Bought for $180M
24 May 2013 | 8:05 amLuke Timmerman Ekos has been around a long time in the business of making ultrasound devices to improve the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Now it’s getting some rewards for that investment of time and money. The Bothell, WA-based company agreed to be acquired by U.K.-based BTG for $180 million upfront, and another potential $40 million in payouts later this year and through 2015, according to a BTG statement. Ekos has 150 employees and BTG said it expects to keep them all. Ekos, co-founded by Joe Eichinger and Doug Hansmann back in 1995, makes a special catheter called EkoSonic that… -
Astellas Tells Aveo to Go It Alone in Kidney Cancer
24 May 2013 | 6:41 amBen Fidler If Aveo Oncology has any plans to sell tivozanib as a kidney cancer drug, it’s going to have to do it without Astellas Pharma. The fallout from the disastrous May 2 FDA advisory panel continues as Cambridge, MA-based Aveo (NASDAQ: AVEO) revealed in a short filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Astellas has no plans to fund any future clinical trials for tivozanib in renal cell carcinoma, also known as kidney cancer. Astellas also won’t file for approval of the drug in Europe. Aveo revealed the news late Thursday, but was actually told of the Astellas decision… -
Startup Diary: Looking Back on Life in an Accelerator
24 May 2013 | 6:05 amJustin Lee [Editor's Note: Justin Lee is a co-founder of TheSquareFoot, a two-year-old Web-based commercial leasing platform based in Houston. He and his three co-founders were part of the most recent class of the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator in New York, which started in January and ended with the accelerator’s fourth Demo Day earlier this month.] I had a pretty good idea of what we were getting into before ERA began, but it’s only in retrospect that I can truly appreciate how valuable and awesome the entire experience was from start to finish. The class was comprised of 10…
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Venture Capital News and Information on Yahoo! Finance
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ETF Firm RevenueShares Gets a Chinese Investor
23 May 2013 | 12:45 pmRevenueShares, the ETF sponsor known for its six-ETF suite of revenue-weighted funds, landed a $7 million investment from a Chinese venture capital firm in exchange for a 22% stake in the issuer’s parent ... -
Ride-share service Lyft raises $60 million from venture capital firm
23 May 2013 | 10:17 amRide-sharing service Lyft said it had raised $60 million from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, underscoring the growing appeal of services that tap into consumers' willingness to share goods and ... -
Lyft, A Year-Old Startup That Helps Strangers Share Car Rides, Just Raised $60 Million From Andreessen Horowitz And Others
23 May 2013 | 9:00 amA massive infusion of cash. -
Former Chrysler, Fisker CEO launches venture fund with Penske
23 May 2013 | 8:55 amTom LaSorda, the former chief executive of Chrysler Group LLC and Fisker Automotive, is launching a venture capital fund with racing magnate Roger Penske to invest in technology startups. The fund, IncWell ... -
Internet service startup receives $100K Iowa award
23 May 2013 | 8:09 amAn eastern Iowa startup that tries to help businesses find cheaper Internet service has been awarded $100,000 in state assistance to help develop the company. The Iowa City Area Development Group said ...
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Venture Capital
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San Jose's Tessera Technologies loses proxy showdown with hedge fund, agrees to sweeping management changes.
24 May 2013 | 5:08 pmA San Jose tech company that had been fighting for its life in a proxy battle has surrendered to the hedge fund that had been seeking to oust the company's board. -
Lyft gets a $60 million lift from Andreessen Horowitz
23 May 2013 | 5:37 pmRide-sharing service Lyft said it had raised $60 million from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, underscoring the growing appeal of services that tap into consumers' willingness to share goods and services for a fee. -
New York hedge fund Starboard Value keeping pressure on Silicon Valley tech companies
22 May 2013 | 2:04 pmSan Jose chip technology company Tessera on Thursday will try to fend off a proxy effort launched by Starboard Value, a New York hedge fund that has targeted several other Silicon Valley companies the firm believes are underperforming. -
Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital team up for $20 million investment in Skyhigh Networks
22 May 2013 | 10:41 amSkyhigh Networks, a Cupertino company that aims to help customers keep track of which cloud-based software their employees are using, on Wednesday will announce a $20 million funding round from Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners.
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Venture Capital Access Online: Website Updates
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VCPro Database 2013 ***Updated For 2013***
22 May 2013 | 5:00 pmVCPro Database 2013: 16th Edition Now Avaialble! VCPro Database 2013 (16th Edition) is a downloadable venture capital and private equity directory with complete profiles of over 5,000 venture capital firms worldwide. Compiled by a veteran VC researcher, VCPro Venture Capital Database is available in both Windows and Macintosh formats. (Updated January 2013) Features: >> Profiles of over 5,030 venture capital and private equity firms >> Searchable by all the data fields including contact information (company name and executive names) and investment criteria (stage, geographic, industry… -
vcaDeals Q1 2013 ***Newly Released***
22 May 2013 | 5:00 pmvcaDeals is a quarterly roundup of the US venture capital deals published on our site's Deals News section. Click the above link to learn more. -
Silicon Innovation Forum
21 May 2013 | 5:00 pmSilicon Innovation Forum July 9, 2013 Click the above link to view this event. -
Buyouts Chicago 2013
21 May 2013 | 5:00 pmBuyouts Chicago 2013 June 25-26, 2013 Click the above link to view this event. -
NextWave Greentech Investing
21 May 2013 | 5:00 pmNextWave Greentech Investing September 12, 2013 Click the above link to view this event.
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Venture Capital and Angel Investor Profiles
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Investor Profile: Guggenheim Venture Partners
25 May 2013 | 2:32 amDarren Wallis, Venture Partner, Guggenheim Venture Partners Darren brings 14 years of professional investing and advisory experience to GVP. Darren was formerly a Partner and Portfolio Manager of Permit Capital, LLC. He headed the direct private equity and opportunistic investments of the firm and co-headed the fund of funds investment activities of the firm. Permit Capital manages a $450 million investment program that spans many different asset classes, including public and private equity, distressed debt, venture capital, and hedge funds. Prior to joining Permit Capital, Darren was… -
Investor Profile: ARC Angel Fund
25 May 2013 | 2:32 amTom Nicholson, Angel Investor, ARC Angel Fund Tom Nicholson is an entrepreneur, early-stage investor and founder of Nicholson NY, a leading NYC digital agency sold for $75 million to the Interpublic Group (IPG) and IconMedialab of Sweden, today one of the largest Internet consultancies in the world (NYSE-Euronext: LBi). Subsequent to the sale, he served on the company's Board of Directors and was Chairman of the US region prior to his departure in 2009 to focus on the "post-PC" Internet. Tom has been an active part of the NYC digital scene since it's inception. Called the dean of multimedia… -
Investor Profile: Alliance Consumer Growth
25 May 2013 | 2:32 amTrevor Nelson, Managing Partner, Alliance Consumer Growth As a co-founder and managing partner of ACG, Trevor enjoys providing a unique level of partnership and capital to entrepreneurs with consumer businesses poised for compelling growth. He has years of experience investing in the consumer industry and executing a variety of financial transactions. Trevor currently serves on the board of Phil's Fresh Foods, maker of EVOL-branded frozen food products. Prior to founding ACG, Trevor was a principal with The Lessing Companies, a consumer-focused private equity firm. Earlier in his career,… -
Investor Profile: .406 Ventures
25 May 2013 | 2:32 amGreg Dracon, Principal, .406 Ventures Greg Dracon joined .406 in 2007 and is involved in all aspects of the investing and portfolio management process. He brings 18 years of venture investing and technology operating and management experience. Prior to joining .406, Greg was a Vice President of Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage venture and small to mid-sized growth technology companies. At Core, Greg focused on software, digital media, technology-enabled services and wireless applications. From 1995 to 2005, Greg held various operating and management roles… -
Investor Profile: 37 Angels
25 May 2013 | 2:32 amAngela Lee, Angel Investor, 37 Angels Angela Lee is the founder of 37 Angels, an angel investment network and training bootcamp for women investors. She is an entrepreneur and angel investor with a passion for education. She is also a consultant and educator and teaches Strategic Problem Solving, Entrepreneurial Thinking and Executive Communication at Columbia Business School, NYU, and General Assembly Angela participated in the FundingPost event: NYC Angel Conference on Thursday, April 18, 2013 in NY 37 Angels Today, 13% of angel investors are women. We want that number to be 50%. 37 Angels…
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VentureWoods
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Muscle Capital : Delivered
22 May 2013 | 12:28 amI am not a car guy. I had my last car for 15 years and put over a quarter of a million kilometers on it, but a couple of months ago I bought a Tesla. It felt like a piece of history so I had to have it. It is thrilling to be able to go 0-100km/hr in 4 seconds with only the hum of the tires and no engine roar. It is also fun to lift up the hood of the car to show off its “engine” when there is nothing there. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is an amazing guy. He is fearless, going after goals that defy conventional wisdom. His brain doesn’t register risk the same way most folks do. -
TLabs is organising startup mixer in various cities, applications open for Batch 4
9 May 2013 | 2:22 amIt’s that time of the year again when TLabs goes to a lot of Indian cities and meet early stage startups and budding entrepreneurs. TLabs has now opened applications for 4th Batch (Fall 2013) and is calling all start-ups/entrepreneurs/founders/co-founders who have awesome ideas and are looking for support in nurturing their products into sound businesses. TLabs plan to travel across the country over the course of next few weeks to meet future game changers, so please come and meet TLabs family for a casual mixer in your town! What is TLabs mixer? Mixer is an open forum that provides an… -
Accelerator->Angel->VC flow is still struggling to find its equilibrium in India
7 May 2013 | 2:39 amI had fun moderating the panel on early stage financing at India Internet Day. Vccircle has an interesting article. The key issues are as under: 1. Too few deals are progressing from accelerators to angel, and from angel to Series A. Only 5% of deals going from accelerators to Series A might not be very different from success rate without accelerators. 2. Angel stage valuations are stretched relative to Series A valuations. At 20% success in getting to Series A, a Series A valuation of 35 cr would be a breakeven point for angels (7 cr angel valuation is typical). At 20 cr, the stage is not… -
The role of venture capital in growing Indian ecosystem
1 May 2013 | 9:49 pmIamwire published this article by me around the broader impact of venture capital. I believe venture capital has had a defining role in getting first generation entrepreneurs out in increasing numbers, at the same time benefiting from that trend. In addition to entrepreneurs, the capital-exit model of venture backed companies also creates the right incentives for top quality talent to join startups. Other benefits abound – read on… -
Customer Retention Strategy
17 Apr 2013 | 4:49 amAs a start-up CEO, it is important that you build this strategy right at the outset, because this is a smart way of growing your business instead of just adding new customers. Ofcourse, getting new customers is critical to your business growth because it ensures a bigger market share and more endorsements for your product. But customer retention ensures additional business at negligible costs. So how do you do this effectively? Three things that are critical to your customer retention strategy are: Deliver Top Quality Service: You may have built the ‘best’ service delivery process to…
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Seeing Both Sides
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Should I Join an Accelerator?
23 May 2013 | 4:10 amToday is Demo Day for Techstars Boston. I love Techstars Demo Days for many reasons, not the least of which is the amazing community that gathers to hear the brief, well-rehearsed pitches from the various start-ups who have spent months planning for this big event. As accelerators like Techstars gain in popularity, many entrepreneurs wonder whether they should be applying and, if admitted, joining an accelerator and when they shouldn't. I get this question a lot from my students, particularly as they're graduating and scrambling to figure out where they should start their… -
Immigration Reform - Senate Testimony
7 May 2013 | 8:19 amI was invited to testify at a Senate hearing tomorrow in front of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Below is my planned testimony. (update: the video of my initial statement is below and the full hearing video is here) The immigration reform debate is near and dear to my heart and has whipped up the passions of many in the Innovation Economy, including Mayor Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, and countless others. It feels like, finally, we may get some positive movement on this and I'm honored to have the opportunity to help in any small way I can. -
I am a Bostonian
16 Apr 2013 | 1:23 pmI was born and have lived in the Boston area almost all my life. I went to school here, met my wife and married her here, built a family and pursued my career here. I am a rabid fan of all the sports teams and love exploring and connecting with every nook and corner of this community. Never have I been more proud of the resilience of my home town. Never have I felt more meaning in the statement: "I am a Bostonian." In the Flybridge partners meeting this morning -- which was held at one of our homes as our office is a part of the crime scene and in "lock down"… -
Raising Your First Round of Financing
12 Apr 2013 | 8:01 amI gave a talk at Harvard Law School this week to a VC and Entrepreneurship class on raising your first round of financing. It was good fun and forced me to rethink my usual presentation and add some practical elements. You can view the presentation here: How To Raise Your First Round of Capital from Jeffrey Bussgang My other SlideShare presentations are here. -
Seeking A Job in Start-Up Land
1 Apr 2013 | 5:57 pmMy first time jumping into the start-up world was as a freshly minted Harvard MBA in 1995. As my classmates were rushing off to high-paying, high-powered jobs on Wall Street, I joined a Series A start-up with 30 employees as a product manager, making $65,000 per year - lower than my pre-MBA salary at management consultancy The Boston Consulting Group. Since then I've had a terrific ride, but I often think of that fateful decision when I get asked, repeatedly, by other freshly minted MBAs: "How do I get a job in a start-up?" Or, more generally, "How do I even begin…
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PE Hub Blog
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Valeant Near Deal to Acquire Bausch & Lomb: Source
24 May 2013 | 2:44 pm(Reuters) – Canada’s Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is nearing a deal to acquire eye care company Bausch & Lomb Holdings Inc from Warburg Pincus LLC for about $9 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. Valeant shares reached their highest level since 2001 on the news and were up 15 percent at C$88.39 in afternoon trading in Toronto. Last month Valeant tried to acquire generic drugmaker Actavis Inc in an all-stock deal that would have topped $13 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. The talks broke down, and Actavis ended up with a… -
Google Eyes Waze as Facebook Circles Hot Web Maps Property
24 May 2013 | 2:11 pm(Reuters) – Google Inc is in talks to buy Waze, an Israeli mapping start-up that has held discussions with several large technology companies, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Google’s discussions with Waze, which one of the sources told Reuters remained fluid and could change in tenor at any time, come amid reports Facebook is willing to pay $1 billion for the crowd-sourced service, which relies on information provided by its 47 million members to craft its mobile-oriented maps. By buying Waze, the Internet search giant would prevent the company from… -
What Are PE, VC Execs Doing this Memorial Day? Grand Prix, BBQs and Hanging with the Family
24 May 2013 | 1:16 pmEvery year, the signs are there: the phone stops ringing, my email grows empty and private equity executives become hard to find. This means we’re heading into the long Memorial Day weekend. peHUB has often tried to figure out what PE and VC execs do on vacations. Do they jet to glamorous places, like Monaco, the Hamptons or South Beach, and drink martini’s poolside? Are they spending the weekend deal-making? Or, like the rest of us mere mortals, will they be dusting off the grill and BBQing with the family? Once again, this year it’s a mix. I did find one PE pro who is in Monaco… -
peHUB Second Opinion 5.24
24 May 2013 | 12:48 pmWitness the fabulous life of Instagram’s “Mr. Wall Street.” Oh, no, another techie reality show on Bravo. Russia’s leading social network get puts on an overnight ”black list” of sites barred from distributing content inside Russia. WordPress’s parent Automattic has raised a fresh $50 million, at a valuation of a billion dollars(ish). Yahoo makes another bid to buy a property: this time it’s Hulu. Warburg Pincus is reportedly preparing to offload Bausch & Lomb for around $9 billion – twice what it paid for it in 2007. Pent-up… -
Exclusive: Capital Dynamics Half Way Toward New $750 Mln Fund
24 May 2013 | 12:19 pmCapital Dynamics, the Swiss-based alternative asset management firm, has raised about half of its $750 million target for its new Capital Dynamics Energy & Infrastructure Fund, two sources told peHub. Capital Dynamics, which manages investments through separate accounts, investment funds and structured private equity products, has been marketing the Clean Energy & Infrastructure Fund since late 2012, one of the persons said. The fund will be structured for direct investments and ownership of clean energy projects such as wind farms, solar arrays, biomass plants, and hydropower.
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Technosailor.com
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9 Years of Blogging: Lessons from the Trenches
20 May 2013 | 11:46 amIt is May 20 today and that means two things. First, it’s the 5 year birthday of this handsome boy. Without a doubt, his day will be filled with belly rubs and snacks… as it should be. But secondly, this is my 9th anniversary of blogging. It’s also the 9th anniversary of me installing WordPress for the first time and embarking on, what would become, a career change and my livelihood. This month, WordPress celebrates it’s 10th birthday which makes me a WordPresser for almost all of the time it has been around. In that time, I have dabbled in everything from traditional… -
I hate social networking
1 May 2013 | 5:21 pmI hate social networking. I despise it. All of it. For me it’s a tool (like me, some would say). “But, Aaron. You have 1500 friends on Facebook and nearly 10,000 on Twitter. You’re lying.” Oh but I’m not. I used to love social networking. I used to travel to conferences where other social media people were just to, in hindsight, make myself look more like a stud. That’s why there are so many. I’ve dated or slept with social media women just for access. I’ve been that guy at SXSW that, as a former Austinite, I now mock. That one cutting to the… -
Two-Factor Authentication: What it is and Why You Should be Using it Now
26 Apr 2013 | 8:46 amPhoto by m thierry on Flickr.Not too long ago, WordPress sites around the world started getting attacked with automated botnet traffic trying to brute force admin passwords. The other day, the official Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked. Last year, Wired reporter Mat Honan was hacked when his Amazon account was compromised. That compromise allowed an attacker to access his Apple ID which gave him access to Mat’s Google account which, in turn, let the attacker into Twitter. Email, in my opinion, is the gateway to identity theft. It’s bad if your Twitter or website… -
WordPress Hacking and Cleanup
12 Apr 2013 | 4:34 pmThere’s a brute force attack underway on a global scale. Massive. The attack vector? Keep attempting user/pass combos in an automated way until a breakin happens. If your WordPress site gets hacked, I am available for cleanup and an audit. Aaron@technosailor.com It absolutely will cost you a minor fortune. That’s the way it goes. Don’t complain or whine, just get your credit card out. It would be cheaper to have a strong password and install a plugin that limits failed login attempts though. But if you don’t, rest assured I can help you despite you having to postpone a… -
Abusing Twitter Direct Messages, Spam and Classlessness
11 Apr 2013 | 8:01 amThis morning I received a Twitter direct message from the official account for I hate JJ Reddick, one of the best Baltimore sports blogs I know of. I like these guys. I read the blog almost every day and follow many of the writers on Twitter. I live in Baltimore, or as we call it… “Smalltimore”. It’s a small town. You get to know people. You run into them all the time. (To be fair, I have yet to personally meet any of them, but it’s only a matter of time. Most of the writers are one degree of separation away.) As a Ravens fan, I am on board with them. I’m a…
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GigaOM
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Android this week: Nexus 7 cloned for $149; Google Edition HTC One; Chrome beta updated
25 May 2013 | 4:43 amSmall slate shoppers have a new option to choose this week: Hisense debuted a tablet that looks like a Nexus 7. The Sera 7 Pro tablet uses the same basic hardware as Google’s own tablet –with a few improvements, even — but costs $50 less. WalMart is the exclusive retailer for the Android 4.2 slate, which is priced at $149. Most of the base components are the same between the two tablets: An Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution, 1 GB of memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. The Hisense model only comes with half of the storage capacity as the Nexus 7… -
7 stories to read this weekend
25 May 2013 | 12:00 amIt is a really long weekend here in United States, and what that means is a lot of time to read this weekend. I certainly plan to do that. Here is a short list of my recommendations for the weekend. The story of an eye witness: Jack London, a San Francisco writer, wrote about the 1906 earthquake that almost destroyed the city by the bay. This is amazing writing from an amazing writer whose words make that tragedy come alive, a century later. Rajat Gupta’s lust for zeros: He had the world on a string and then he made bad choices. His worst was picking to fraternize with the wrong kind of… -
Report: Google wants to connect the developing world with wireless
24 May 2013 | 1:12 pmYou might have thought Google’s gigabit fiber plans in the U.S. were big, but Google may have even bigger broadband ambitions in the developing world. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Google is working with governments and local regulators in countries all over Africa and Southeast Asia to build wireless networks that would connect the unconnected. The Journal, citing unnamed sources, said Google plans to make use of white spaces, the spectrum between TV transmissions that many governments are allocating for wireless broadband use, as well as satellites and aerial transmitters… -
VMware’s revolving door keeps on spinning
24 May 2013 | 1:12 pmA week after VMware announced its top-priority Infrastructure-as-a-Service play, two more executives associated with de-emphasized technologies have left the company. VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger Both execs, Javier Soltero and Kevin Henrikson, joined VC company Redpoint Ventures as entrepreneurs in residence. Soltero joined VMware by virtue of its acquisition of SpringSource in 2009 — after having joined SpringSource by virtue of that company’s acquisition of Hyperic. At VMware he was the CTO of SaaS and application services. Henrickson was senior director of R&D for Zimbra, the… -
Australian researchers get closer to scalable quantum computing
24 May 2013 | 12:51 pmResearchers in Australia are making progress in their quest to construct a scalable quantum computer, having developed a method for extracting information from an electron racing around a phosphorus atom in silicon, the MIT Technology Review reported Wednesday. The achievement suggests that commercial use — and, therefore, wider implementation of a probabilistic computing model much faster than current systems — could be just a wee bit closer. The idea of a operating a quantum computer with a quantum bit — or qubit — based on a phosphorous atom harks back to a vision…
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the Frank Peters Showthe Frank Peters Show
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LocaDreaming with Ash Kumra
23 May 2013 | 11:36 amCoffee with Ash Kumra Early coffee with Dream it Alive founder Ash Kumra. Got a well-established competitor in the local entrepreneurship ecosystem? Consider reinventing yourself to attack the market from a totally new vantage: Get hyper-local to grow entrepreneurship and build sustainable communities at the same time. Where to look for role models? Santa Monica is currently attracting the entrepreneur-class, building a vibrant city in the process. What gifts does Santa Monica enjoy? Among many, transportation choices – everything’s walkable or bikable. They attract the startups that… -
Venture Forward Conference 2013
22 May 2013 | 6:41 pmJoin me in NYC next month for the 2nd Annual Venture Forward Conference. It’s hosted by Gust‘s David S. Rose. The one-day conference is preceded by a splashy soiree on June 17th followed by a full day of the brightest bulbs on the east coast. Except Mark Suster will be there, too. As will many others. Last year I called it, The best conference I had ever attended! and even though I’m prone to exaggeration, I’m assured the program is even better this year. See for yourself, register now. -
EBAN Congress Vienna
13 May 2013 | 5:15 amHansi Hansmann, President of the host angel group AAIA kicks off the EBAN Congress A surprise for me as the 13th EBAN Congress began in Vienna this morning; I finally met Stewart Craine of Barefoot Power in person. He’s been a guest on the show for his efforts to bring low cost power to impoverished villages in the Third World and this morning he was telling me of a new venture. So as these events often do, I am surrounded by old friends as I meet new ones. The venue at the Haus of Industrie is over the top with rich, old-world architectural touches; I really feel as if I’m… -
Allen Yeung, Hong Kong BAN
6 May 2013 | 3:25 pmAllen Yeung We’ve crossed paths at 4 ACA Annual Summits; now it’s time for everyone to meet Hong Kong Business Angel Network‘s founding Chairman, Allen Yeung. Lot’s of high net worth individuals? It’s easy to imagine that Allen should have lots of members near at hand, but what are the unique challenges of building an early-stage high tech investing network in Hong Kong? Allen shares his story… Show #412 Stream, flash player or iTunes -
Dan Mindus, NextGen Angels
2 May 2013 | 11:38 amDan Mindus All Dan Mindus’ angel group members are under 40. Is this age discrimination, or is he on to something? It turns out his NextGen Angels has become a unique fit in the Washington D.C. fabric of early-stage investing groups. I met Dan as we prepared for a panel discussion at the ACA Annual Summit in San Francisco last month. Before we prepped I was concerned that such a small panel couldn’t cover 45 minutes of due diligence discussion. I was mistaken; Dan could more than satisfactorily hold his own sitting next to ACA Chair David Verrill. Dan and his NextGen Angels might…
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Feld Thoughts
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Discover Some Awe This Weekend
24 May 2013 | 7:15 amIt’s the beginning of summer. That is a good thing. Spend three minutes watching the amazing video below and get inspired to open your eyes and breath in this weekend. As I come out of my depression, I’ve been systematically changing many of my tactics and habits. Simple things like deciding not to wake up with an alarm clock. Having a digital sabbath (no email / phone from Friday night to Sunday morning). Talking to Brooks the wonder dog when I take him for a walk, rather than have my thoughts wander around in my head. This video reminded me to break that patterns that my brain… -
Announcing UP Global
23 May 2013 | 6:25 amStartup Weekend and Startup America Partnership are joining forces to create UP Global. In addition to Startup Weekend, UP Global also runs Next, StartupDigest, and NYSE Big Startup. Marc Nager, the CEO of Startup Weekend, will be the CEO of Up Global. Steve Case, the chairman of Startup America Partnership, will be the chairman of Up Global. I’m extremely psyched. I’ve been involved in both organizations since inception. The first Startup Weekend happened in Boulder in June 2007 and have been on the board for the past few years. I was at the White House for the launch of… -
Patent and Immigration Reform Activities
22 May 2013 | 1:42 pmTwo of the public policy things I care about are patent reform and immigration reform. I believe our patent system – especially with regard to software and business method patents – is completely and totally broken. And our immigration system – especially concerning immigrant entrepreneurs – is an embarrassment. There is suddenly a lot of focus and attention on both of these issues. That’s good, and I’m hopeful that it will result in some meaningful positive changes. It pains me to see other countries – such as Canada, the UK, and New Zealand –… -
An Unexpected Night In The Hospital
21 May 2013 | 6:31 amFirst things first – we are fine. Amy had an emergency appendectomy last night. She’s recovering extremely well and feeling great, albeit a little sore, this morning. We’ll be going home in a little bit once the doctor gets here. Yesterday was a typical Monday. Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion. I went for a run. My partners and I had sushi for lunch. I did a bunch of email and phone calls. I walked 20,000 steps on my treadputer. I gave a talk with Jeff Clavier for one of our LPs (AMG) at Frasca to a bunch of their clients. Normal stuff. While hanging out at Frasca, I… -
Bolt – Making Hardware Easier
20 May 2013 | 12:27 pmOver the past few decades, the most compelling engineers and entrepreneurs I’ve met have tended to be working on problems that can be solved with software. Software has some great advantages but it comes with a few big drawbacks, namely it’s tied to a few standard types of input, although we are trying to impact that with some of our investments in our HCI theme. Along with the rest of the tech ecosystem, I’m starting to see more and more entrepreneurs with a piece of hardware in their development plan. These are not your parents’ hardware products. Instead, they are…
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Lightspeed Venture Partners
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How to build trust in the Bitcoin ecosystem
16 May 2013 | 8:44 amWell it looks like the Department of Homeland Security is investigating Mt. Gox and the primary complaint is operating an unlicensed money transmittal business. Things do not look good for Mt. Gox. Its US accounts are being seized. This will likely lead to US customers of Gox (principally buyers of Bitcoin) gradually abandoning the platform, either buying Bitcoin and moving it away, or withdrawing their USD directly. The increased spread in Bitcoin prices between Mt Gox and other exchanges suggests that people holding USD on Gox are indeed buying Bitcoin in order to get out of USD in accounts… -
Got Pernix’d?
15 May 2013 | 7:48 amCongratulations to Poojan Kumar, Satyam Vaghani and the rest of the PernixData team for raising a great Series B round led by Kleiner Perkins. At Lightspeed, we are very proud of what the team has achieved in short 15 months since inception. As the founding investor board member I have witnessed first hand an enterprise innovation at Instagram speed. PernixData’s innovative Flash Virtualization Platform (FVP) disrupts the storage market by enabling virtualized datacenters to take advantage of decoupled storage performance from raw capacity. With PernixData’s FVP, companies no longer need… -
Lightspeed is anchoring a Bitcoin focused fund
14 May 2013 | 5:02 amIt’s no secret that that I see the opportunity for Bitcoin to disrupt multi-billion-dollar markets and dramatically cut transaction costs for people around the world. We are in the early stages of innovation in this ecosystem, and Lightspeed wants to encourage that innovation So today, I am thrilled to announce that Lightspeed Venture Partners will anchor the newly created Boost BitCoin Fund. This fund will provide all of the Bitcoin related startups in the next Boost VC incubator class with guaranteed capital. Joining us an investors in the fund are Rothenberg Ventures, the… -
The role of startups in the SDN networking revolution
13 May 2013 | 5:14 pmFor decades the leading network companies have been tightly coupling their software to complex, custom-built chips. Besides leaving IT buyers with a staggering array of appliances, the reliance on custom silicon has chilled industry startup activity. But with software defined networking (SDN), that is beginning to change. Check out my article in Network World for a look at the evolution of the SDN market, where we are today and what it means for entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/13eAUMc Follow me on Twitter @arifj -
More regulation of Bitcoin is a good thing
7 May 2013 | 9:04 amFinCEN, the department of the Treasury responsible for fighting financial crimes has already issued guidance on how it views Bitcoin. Now it looks like the Commodities Future Trading Commission may also seek to regulate Bitcoin. More regulation is coming for Bitcoin. I think that this is a good thing. I do not believe that the US Government is out to stop Bitcoin. Some in the Bitcoin community may call me naive. But I believe that the arms of the US Government are primarily interested in their stated functions, not in some grand conspiracy to stop Bitcoin from becoming an alternative currency…
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deal architect
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Cloud in a Love Letter
25 May 2013 | 4:37 amI think Marc Benioff will have more fun with this than with "Cloud in a Box" SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott on an analyst call thanking Lars Dalgaard who is leaving: "We thank Lars so much for bringing the cloud DNA... -
Good move at SAP
24 May 2013 | 6:29 amSAP is consolidating several cloud, analytical, mobile innovation developments under Vishal Sikka. That's a good move. For a while now, I have watched him focus a bit too much on HANA - "his baby" as he calls it, while leadership... -
The Un-Cola
23 May 2013 | 11:26 amI like to catalog complex innovation and write about Polymath organizations who can blend infotech, biotech, cleantech and a variety of STEM skills to come up with new solutions. But there are times when a clean, crisp, simple product or... -
More Innovation
22 May 2013 | 4:21 pmOn the New Florence blog Google Shopping Express Upgrading Mall Surveillance GE’s Industrial Internet Quests Your virtual double Cool Spaces Bedtime Math Facebook Home The Zero TV phenomenon -
The shock and awe of the public cloud
21 May 2013 | 11:14 amOn a normal weeknight, Netflix accounts for almost a third of all Internet traffic entering North American homes. Look at the graph below and let the enormity of that sink in. Now consider this. Netflix uses Amazon Web Services as...
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Babbling VC
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Folks Have Figured Out Finance...What About Insurance?
30 Apr 2013 | 3:05 amSince we're focused on FinTech at our company, we love to see that the markets have finally realized that the finance sector is absolutely ripe for disruption. Be it in payments, invoicing, international money transfers, banking software, you name it....the start-ups are popping up. VC's too have seen that this space is hot and are piling in. You simply have to attend a conference such as Finovate to see how much is happening (and it's not all that recent a development). On the other hand, so little seems to be evolving in the insurance sector. Think of the hassle you have with your own… -
Skin In The Game and Other Games VC's Play
29 Apr 2013 | 5:15 amI was reminded of one pet peeve I had from my past in venture capital when reading about Spark's newest development. I highly recommend that you read the article about these guys picking up their own legal fees. I too felt that it was always quite ridiculous to charge legal fees of a VC fund back to the portfolio company after you financed them. I hated this almost as much as VC's who used to charge closing fees on top of this. That was an absolute crime if you really think about how it was the VC fund taking their investor's money and funneling it directly into their own pockets via the… -
Why You Should be Raising Money NOW
22 Apr 2013 | 5:17 amI've been watching in amusement some recent financings and realized the getting has never been so good when it comes to venture capital. If as a startup you're even remotely considering raising money, you should be out in the market. If for no other reason than to see what your business may be worth, get a business plan banged together and send it to some VC's. Why do I think this is the case? Well, very simply put, it's all about desperation and full accounts. At one end of the spectrum you have the funds flush with capital. They have to be out there putting their money to work. They are… -
Back to Being An Entrepreneur
15 Apr 2013 | 2:27 amI had a bunch of discussions recently with folks asking me how things were going since I've left the VC space. I had originally planned to write about this down the road.....a couple years down the road but maybe now is an opportune time. It's been over a year now that I left the VC gig and went back to being operational. You may find my thoughts interesting, regardless of whether you are in the VC space or considering your own startup. What's the main difference between being a VC and being an entrepreneur? Well it's hard to pinpoint one specific thing but I'd say it's the sporadic nature… -
Always Go Prepared
10 Apr 2013 | 11:47 pmToday I'm quite pissed at myself. I made an amateur mistake of going into a meeting this week where I wasn't properly prepared. I didn't do enough homework on what had happened to date before said meeting and I didn't prepare a list of goals or things I wanted to achieve with this meeting. I'm using myself as an example because I shouldn't of made this mistake. It's one of those things where you have no one but yourself to blame for most likely being lazy or not putting enough weight on a meeting. The meeting itself was a typical sales call and there were enough people involved where one…
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DealBook
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Why Did Citigroup Try to Overturn an Overhaul?
24 May 2013 | 3:45 pmCitigroup's direct involvement in shaping a House bill suggests it feels that it should work behind the scenes to shape legislation for its benefit. Fears about its bottom line may have been what stirred it. -
Week in Review: Wall St. Finding Washington a Friendlier Place
24 May 2013 | 12:55 pmBanks’ lobbyists help in drafting bills on finance. | Brazil is luring the millisecond investor. | In a plus for electrics, Tesla repays a big federal loan early. | After a vote, Jamie Dimon moves to mend bank’s fences. | Andrew Ross Sorkin asks: didn’t Yahoo try a deal like this before? -
An Ackman Investment Scorecard
24 May 2013 | 9:59 amThe departure of Robert McDonald as Procter & Gamble's chief executive was yet another victory for the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman. But how is the activist investor doing in his other big bets? -
Bausch & Lomb Said to Be Near $9 Billion Sale to Valeant
24 May 2013 | 9:51 amIf completed, a transaction would be one of the biggest health care deals of the year. And it could reap a sizable profit for Bausch & Lomb's current owner, Warburg Pincus. -
The Security Sideshow in the Fight Over Sprint
24 May 2013 | 9:40 amDish Network's argument that Japanese ownership of the American cellphone operator is a risk to national security is half-baked and shows desperation, the author contends.
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Venture Chronicles
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The Wisdom of Being Safe
22 May 2013 | 7:45 amI was reading this article on the wave of executive departures at HTC on the heals of a successful product, the HTC One, and a clearly unsuccessful launch of the HTC First. The reporting is actually good and highlights the phenomena of the death spiral that many in Silicon Valley are familiar with, as influential people in the company leave a succession of departures is certain to follow and taking with them the ability of the company to seamlessly conceptualize and develop new products that are the lifeblood of technology companies in the consumer space. One quote caught my attention if for… -
My Next Journey: Ping Identity
8 May 2013 | 10:41 amI recently wrapped up my transition period out of Get Satisfaction and immediately swung into a new role at Ping Identity. This was no easy decision for me as I continue to support the mission of Get Satisfaction and have invested much of myself in it over the last 3 years. Life in the Valley can be frenetic and the degree of institutional ADHD we exhibit is something I have long been aware of, and as a counterbalance to this I have strived for a high degree of continuity and stability in my professional life while also pushing myself into the next interesting thing. it’s a tough… -
Windows 8: Return of the Start Menu
22 Apr 2013 | 1:16 pmThe Verge is reporting that the iconic Start Menu will be returning in Windows 8.1. For those of you that don’t follow such things, Microsoft removed the start menu is Win8 in when they replaced the desktop as the primary UX canvas in favor of the new tile interface, called Modern (originally called Metro). Removing the menu would probably have been a non-issue if the user experience of traditional and Modern designed apps were seamless but there is a critical distinction that makes this all but impossible to rectify, the current generation of Modern apps run in a dedicated focus,… -
Lenovo Yoga–Straight up With a Twist
13 Apr 2013 | 11:47 amI have been using a Lenovo Yoga laptop for a month and like it enough to report back on my impressions. This laptop replaces an Asus Zenbook Touch that I had been using and generally liked but in order to maximize the touch aspects of Windows 8 I found that having a touch screen simply wasn’t enough, a full convertible laptop is what makes the experience much more accommodating of touch interactions. Back in January I wrote about my initial reaction to Windows 8 and highlighted a couple of aspects of the hardware experience that needed attention. The Asus Zenbook Touch is a beautiful… -
Ron Johnson Out: The Customer Experience Files
9 Apr 2013 | 7:51 amI was in a cab yesterday with my wife, who works in the fashion industry, and she casually mentioned that Ron Johnson was out at JCP. I can imagine that everyone in the retail and fashion industry was aware of this 12 hours before the rest of us. This morning I was watching Squawk Box on CNBC and Richard Branson along with Virgin America CEO David Cush were being interviewed. Cush was asked about JCP and replied that the key lesson is that you don’t destroy your existing business model before ensuring that the new one works. This is good advice but I think it radically oversimplifies…
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Frederic Destin
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Shame on France : the Yahoo – DailyMotion debacle
7 May 2013 | 4:30 amI was on the board of DailyMotion for many years, starting with the first round of financing in 2006 and ending with my resignation off the board in January 2013. We made many mistakes along the way but we survived and finally thrived. The company is a great success; 200 million uniques a month, a big revenue number and profitable, and a top 30-35 global slot amongst the largest websites in the world. More importantly, it's a company that was built on product excellence and managed to make in the face of full frontal competition from the biggest internet juggernaut ever to… -
Men on Mars : The Reinvention of Atlas Venture
1 May 2013 | 7:31 amI joined Atlas Venture 9 years ago. At the time we had 5 offices, 22 partners, 7 board rooms, a team of over 60, over two billion in assets managed. And boy, were we making life difficult for ourselves. Today: one office, 7 partners. We still have two board rooms, but our startup companies seem to like that :-) Between 2005 and 2012, we went back to our roots. 2013 03 13 10 48 54 Complexity kills What is true for startups is true for VC firms. When I joined Atlas in 2003 we had way too much geographic and sector complexity. Picture this: London, Boston, Paris and Munich get on a… -
Zombie VCs Take II – How to Spot an Active Firm
7 Apr 2013 | 5:29 amAn entrepreneur called Danielle Morrill just kicked up a bit of a shitstorm with a nicely titled "Zombie VC" post. It's a nice pendant to her recent Zombie Startups post in which she deals with her own fears of becoming a living dead company after pivoting her startup, Referly. In it she tries to define rules for entrepreneurs for spotting Zombie firms. Rise of the Zombie Firm Entrepreneurs should be aware the we are, indeed, surrounded by Zombie Firms. The largest shakeup ever in the venture industry in resulting in: firms whose numbers will never allow them to… -
Boston VC community breaks with killjoy roots, will actually party
7 Mar 2013 | 3:28 pmIn a striking development from a long legacy of discretion and backhanded compliments, the New England VC community has decided to award itself a bunch of awards and actually, possibly, have some fun. After years of being forced into clumsy genuflections at the foot of Waltham's money hill before being allowed into plush, Four Season-esque offices, select entrepreneurs will even be allowed to cast their vote on who the best venture firm in town might be. No word yet on what weighting their vote will carry in the final algorithm, but hey, Rome was not build in a day. "I heard they were… -
LunchBeat Boston #1
6 Mar 2013 | 10:43 amWe're all heads down building our startups and sometimes we forget to have fun. No more. Edition 1 of LunchBeat Boston got 150 odd people dancing at the HackReduce space, and with that massive endorphin rush I bet we upped everyone's productivity this afternoon. Lunchbeat is dead simple : grab a bottle of water and a sandwich and dance for an hour. Beats were provided by the excellent Glow Kids & Fuse, organization by Dmitri Gunn, Rebecca Corliss at Hubspot and your truly. See you at the next one !
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GenuineVC » GenuineVC
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Myth Busters: Debunking Seven Conventional Wisdom Maxims of Venture Capital
20 May 2013 | 5:44 amCompared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. For that reason, it’s often said that VCs learn the business best through an apprenticeship model, under the wing of a more experienced pro. The art of venture capital also means that for entrepreneurs raising it, there isn’t one definitive playbook which can be used as a guide. Rather, over time, a series of collective experiences has solidified into a set of conventional wisdom which is shared repeatedly. Many common rules of the thumb are absolutely true (maximize the… -
Driving to Conviction (Not to a Term Sheet)
29 Apr 2013 | 5:25 amPosts in the blogosphere, conversation on panels of/about VCs, etc. all talk about the best way for entrepreneurs to optimize their fundraising process with the end-goal of receiving a term sheet. It’s often spoken as if the second that magical term sheet document is in hand, the process is over. Unfortunately, that’s an oversimplification which should be recognized by savvy entrepreneurs.The goal of any VC fundraising process is in reality a bit more nuanced, as there are two key events an entrepreneur should be working towards:Partnership Conviction – having not just the sponsoring… -
Startups Seeking Sherpas
4 Apr 2013 | 7:25 amAfter we sold our startup Sombasa Media just over a dozen years ago, I embarked on two distinct “journeys.” The first was a month-long 1500+ mile cycling trip from the southern tip of England to the northern tip of Scotland (“Land’s End to John O’Groats”). The second was a trip where we hiked the “Inca Trail” in Peru to Machu Picchu. Both trips “rhymed” with each other in that the point intentionally was about the experience of the voyage rather than merely the destination itself. I think that the reason founders are attracted to entrepreneurial endeavors often stems from… -
Why I Like Our Investment in Triple Lift
4 Mar 2013 | 3:01 pmThe web has become increasingly visual.Of course the same broadband penetration trends which catapulted the rise of online video over the previous decade also empowered delivery of image-heavy web pages. But more importantly and more recently, the proliferation of high-resolution screens epitomized by Apple’s Retina display means that today’s web browsing experience can be far more visually stunning than ever before.And so the past few years we’ve seen glossy graphically-rich sites which are image-centric become commonplace. The endless scroll of Pinterest, Polyvore, The Fancy, Behance,… -
Back to School – VC Homework Assignments
11 Feb 2013 | 5:06 amVCs like to give out homework. They won’t call it that, though. But rather they use words like “diligence” and “information requests.” Just like in school, the homework can actually be productive, as in this case it can lead to a new customer or advisor. But just like bad teachers did in grade school, VCs sometimes assign completely useless busywork.Receiving a homework assignment or two after initial meetings with a venture capitalist is generally a good sign – it signals that the potential opportunity is interesting and exciting enough to engage further. They’re often…
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Mark Peter Davis
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When You Should Chase Small Investors
21 May 2013 | 5:20 amAn interesting phenomenon exists in the process of raising venture capital. While larger investors are typically the focus throughout the majority of the fundraising process, at the last minute, entrepreneurs are incentivized to attract smaller investors into their round. Investors who write large checks are typically perceived to be more attractive to entrepreneurs raising a round from venture capitalists. (In the current market, to me a “large” seed stage investor is one who writes at least $500K and more typically greater than $1 million checks. For series A rounds these are… -
Welcoming Coinbase to Interplay Family
14 May 2013 | 6:11 amI’m excited about what Bitcoin might do to the global economy. If it succeeds it could become a global currency – the Internet uniting our world in yet another dimension. As a result, when I had the opportunity to participate in Coinbase’s recent round I jumped. Coinbase seeks to provide the payment infrastructure necessary to make transacting in Bitcoin easy. It’s a big task, but the company’s founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam are the right guys for the job. I’ve known Fred for quite awhile. He’s a wall street wiz-kid who jumped from foreign exchange trading at… -
Why You Shouldn’t Raise VC
8 May 2013 | 8:29 amIt seems like nearly every entrepreneur is on a crusade to raise venture capital. Among the ranks of Ramen-eating, credit-card-maxing founders, venture capital is revered as a start-up panacea. With venture capital, it seems, you can live lavishly, hire a platoon of PhDs, and virtually guarantee an IPO. Chances are, though, you shouldn’t raise venture capital money. Simply put, most start-ups aren’t poised to grow big enough to satisfy the needs of venture capital funds. And, if your smaller company does raise VC, it typically won’t be the best way to maximize your… -
Book Launch: The Fundraising Rules
1 May 2013 | 4:48 amFor the past five years, I’ve been chipping away at a book designed to illuminate the arcane venture fundraising process. I’m excited to announce today that it is now available as a resource to entrepreneurs everywhere. The book is called The Fundraising Rules and you can find it on my blog or on Amazon. The book is constructed as a handbook for entrepreneurs who are raising venture capital, structured in the chronological order of the fundraising process. You can either read it front to back or flip to chapter 4 on preparing your fundraising materials when you’re ready to do that. -
Seeking Partner for Interplay Ventures
24 Apr 2013 | 8:47 amWhile I announced Interplay Ventures only a few weeks ago, it’s been in development for the better part of 6 months. At this point, I’ve covered a lot of ground and am approaching the next step – expanding the partnership. When Dan Primack of Fortune covered Interplay a week ago folks started to reach out, expressing interest in joining the team. His coverage hit a few weeks/months before I had planned to bring on a partner, but the quality of the folks reaching out has catalyzed the process. As a result, I’ve decided to open the doors to interested parties to…
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Jason Ball's TechBytes
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The Desktop is Dead
29 Apr 2013 | 12:25 amJust to qualify the title, the desktop is dead if you’re under 20 years old. Screens are migrating from living room to desktop to tablet to mobile. Depending on which generation you belong to, one of those screens is your home screen. I made a heretical statement 2 years ago in this post - “Facebook is going to be irrelevant in 10 years”, which was true, but the unspoken part which was omitted was “Facebook ON THE DESKTOP is going to be irrelevant”. FB positions itself as a mobile company – they are doing their best to remain relevant in a post PC world. -
It’s not easy being green
26 Mar 2013 | 12:05 amThis may seem odd, but one of my favorite new companies sells laundry detergent. As an entrepreneur (or investor) there’s a lot to be learned from the Company… First a preface: I’m not a crazy tree-hugger, but I’m fortunate enough to live in a place where being green is relatively straight forward- central London. I don’t own a car (it’s impractical), I ride a bicycle and take public transportation, there are recycling containers in my apartment building, most of the lights in the house are eco lights, I shop locally and try to buy local, in season foods,… -
The Perfect Pitch
10 Feb 2013 | 11:16 pmLast week I posted on how you can meet VCs- this week it’s how to get the most out of that meeting. What format should you use for the first presentation? This is the template that I developed over several years, and recommend whenever an entrepreneur asks what format to use. It’s a time tested format I’ve used for multiple pitch events that I’ve run- it works. The most important part of this pitch is your demo. Make sure that it’s flawless. The objective of your first meeting is to get to a second meeting. You will start to drill down on one or two points of the… -
3 Steps to Meeting Investors (at Events)
3 Feb 2013 | 11:30 pmYou’re at a big event, lots of investors are there – how do you optimize your chances of getting an investment from a VC or angel investor? Follow these three steps (and do not stray). Your goal is to get a meeting. You’re not going to close a deal right there on the spot- understanding that and what you’re trying to achieve is essential. Securing funding is a multi-step process- you only need to take one step at a time. Step one is getting that meeting. So, on to the process: 1) Do not, and I repeat, do not walk up randomly and pitch them on the spot. (Aka Don’t… -
What’s next in Mobile?
29 Jan 2013 | 12:00 amI joined Qualcomm Ventures 5 years ago because I thought the newly released iPhone would herald in an era where the web met wireless – and what a 5 years it’s been… The first wave of companies, when I first started, were “mobile only” plays – they were remnants of the dumbphone age. I couldn’t have cared less – I was only interested the next wave: web services where the handset was the window into the service. One investment based on this thesis was we7 – a cloud based music service which became “a personal DJ in your pocket” a…
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VC Adventure
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The ten year entrepreneur
8 May 2013 | 2:57 pmIt’s easy to get lost in the celebration of high flying companies that quickly take an idea to market, scale and sell. It’s exciting, financially lucrative and makes for great reading. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a few companies like that in the Foundry portfolio (Zynga, AdMeld and Gist all went from idea to sale/IPO in a relatively short period of time). But the reality is that most companies take years (and years and years) to develop – the average time from company founding to exit event is now approaching 10 years. And in many respects, being a great entrepreneur… -
Boulder is for Media
6 May 2013 | 4:37 pmRecently Boulder based Datalogix announced that they had raised 25M to accelerate the build-out of its online ad targeting data business. The Datalogix story is one of perseverance and adaptation and it’s great to see them taking off. TechCrunch reported on the financing here. One thing caught my eye in the story and got my hackles up. In the very first paragraph about the financing Josh Constine said the following: Since it’s based in Denver you don’t hear a lot about Datalogix, but the 250 employee startup is crucial to the future of advertising Living in Boulder and being… -
Measuring customer satisfaction
17 Apr 2013 | 5:36 pmThere was a great thread this week on the Foundry CEO email list about Net Promoter Score and how companies are using it to measure the satisfaction of their customers (specifically in the case of NPS, their propensity to recommend the product or service to others). NPS can be a useful tool when used properly (which was much of the discussion on the email thread – who to measure, how often, etc.). But NPS can be cumbersome to measure, hard to understand granularly and not very helpful in letting you know what any given customer is really thinking about their interactions with your company… -
#3010: The Video
27 Feb 2013 | 10:03 amI blogged last year about the amazing 40th birthday trip my wife Greeley sent me and 9 friends on – cycling through Slovenia and Italy (original blog post along with a bunch of pictures here). We had a video put together of the whole experience that I thought I’d share. Thanks to Mike Shum for the video production! -
The Democratization of Entrepreneurship
20 Feb 2013 | 10:58 amOne of the great trends we’ve been witnessing over the past decade, and in particular the past 5 years, has been what you might call the “democratization” of entrepreneurship”. It’s a powerful trend and one that I think will have a huge impact not just on the US economy and workforce, but perhaps even more intensely on other areas of the world – particularly developing economies. There are several underlying factors that I think underpin this sift that are worth noting: - The breaking down of geographic boundaries that confined entrepreneurial communities. Fundamentally…
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Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed
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Twitter Digest: 2013-05-24
25 May 2013 | 4:00 amArcade Fire covers The Guns Of Brixton – http://t.co/bIFqk7nQLp -> In case wonders what happens when a medicated billionaire tweets post-surgery, I give you @elonmusk tonight -> [Video] Estimating the Historical and Future Probabilities of Large Terrorist Events http://t.co/HeXNtdpiLc -> How Wall Street is literally writing America's laws now – http://t.co/iL9ZMd9yFb /v @nntaleb -> -
Twitter Digest: 2013-05-23
24 May 2013 | 4:00 amExploring the deep mysteries of Gilligan's Island with the offspring http://t.co/vWUfkuORwR -> The astonishing power of swarms – http://t.co/ZgeLnEU8nw -> Money doesn̶'̶t̶ buy you happiness – http://t.co/tKWh7ePhTo -> 5 live Sport Special: German Football on Eve of UEFA Final [Audio] http://t.co/RNY1tVJjKo -> -
Twitter Digest: 2013-05-22
23 May 2013 | 4:00 amSome appealing features of a parliamentary system | MinnPost http://t.co/4RJSNgEHc3 -> Harassing @TWC about their dumb decision not to carry Premier League Extra Time & NBC LIve Extra next EPL season. -> Wildfires ahead: SoCal vegetation moisture levels in some inland areas are driest in 100 years – http://t.co/bfFGi0KwRC -> Vanguard graphic arguing that “low-cost portfolios” is an innovation seeing rapid adoption http://t.co/bo8f6g5x78 -> .@BrianNorgard US DOE made only two loans to startups under ATVM: one was Fisker; other was Tesla. Not bad for a failed program. -
Twitter Digest: 2013-05-21
22 May 2013 | 4:00 am“He proposed a centi-million dollar dome over downtown”. Who is, Don Atchison. -> I’ll take “CRAZY CANADIAN MAYORS” for $1,000, Alex. I’m aces at that category. -> JotD (Job of the Day): Heard by millions of people each week, you’ll get to say, “This is NPR” each day. https://t.co/VHXJANiaFB -> Poll: Teens migrating to Twitter — Facebook has too much "drama" http://t.co/12BVkrZD36 ->
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Start-ups & VC
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Loyalty marketing solution co LoyalBlocks raises $9m
24 May 2013 | 4:40 pmThe proceeds will be used for further development of the company’s loyalty marketing platform and for expanding US operations. -
Terra Ventures to donate carried interest to Tmura
23 May 2013 | 12:13 pmThe new model will replace the current method in which start-ups donate to Tmura options exercisable in the event of a sale or IPO by the company. -
Jeff Pulver raises $350,000 for Zula via OurCrowd
22 May 2013 | 4:04 pmZula has developed a mobile communications platform for teams. -
Waze trumps Google on Ayalon closure
21 May 2013 | 3:22 pmWaze updated its app in advance about the closing of the Tel Aviv highway, while Google's app continued to direct drivers to it. -
Bladder treatment co TheraCoat raises $7m
21 May 2013 | 2:31 pmThe company will use the proceeds for R&D, clinical trials, and the launch of sales.
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BeyondVC
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Branding first starts with your team
17 May 2013 | 7:07 amExternal branding starts with developing a consistent, internal message first. When you think of branding and positioning, remember that your first line of offense and the most important representation of your company comes from your employees. Make sure you have a succinct, crisp and clear 2-3 sentence pitch on what you do and that everyone from the CEO down to the engineer or QA can repeat the same mantra. Whether your employees are doing sales pitch or at a conference or cocktail party, they should all be starting with the same message. The more it is said the easier the… -
Camping out and closing deals
15 Jan 2013 | 6:12 amI am sure you can see a common thread in many of my recent posts – Sales, Sales, Sales! I don’t care how great your product is because without an ability to articulate the value proposition succinctly, tell the world about it in a capital efficient manner, and sell the damn thing, you are SOL (yes, shit out of luck!). Pitch11x14 original So what does camping out have to do with selling? Let me explain. In sales I am sure you have heard about all of the various models to prospect, push leads through a funnel, and get to closing. One underestimated method is the… -
Cutco Knives and startups
28 Sep 2012 | 6:18 amWhen I worked for Cutco Knives one summer in college selling the world’s finest cutlery, my dream was to sell the Homemaker +8 at every meeting. It was the Rolls Royce of knife sets and in every sales call I had, I always tried to flog the deluxe set. Of course, more often than not, I left with selling a spatula spreader or much smaller set. Many a memory was brought back yesterday as my wife and I went through a sales pitch for Cutco knives from an enterprising college student. His pitch was great…and entertaining…and the same from 20+… -
Startups and Intellectual Property (IP)
16 May 2012 | 8:02 amLately questions about Intellectual Property or IP have been cropping up left and right. Eliot Durbin (my partner at BOLDstart Ventures) and I had a long discussion this morning in preparation for his panel today about IP and patents. Last week, we met with a company and when we asked about their core IP, they launched into a 5 minute discussion about the various patents they filed. Do startups really think patents are going to make or break their business? Yes, having core tech or IP matters but patents are a different question altogether. Your best protection… -
What entrepreneurs can learn from Jeff Spicoli
25 Jan 2012 | 9:28 amI know I may be dating myself here, but over the past few weeks I couldn't help but think about the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and one of the standout characters, Jeff Spicoli. When asked by Mr. Hand, his teacher, why he keeps coming late and wasting his time, Spicoli answers, "I don't know." I Don't Know Fast Times at Ridgemont High at MOVIECLIPS.com In several meetings with entrepreneurs during the past few weeks, they would have been better off answering like Spicoli rather than giving me some hollow bull shit answer. I want to make it very clear that I don't expect…
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VC Cafe
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FFF and 31 Crowdfunding Platforms To Raise Money for Your Startup
22 May 2013 | 6:57 amCrowdfunding is rapidly growing in the UK and elsewhere. No longer restricted to Friends Family and Fools, founders can [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Mobile Game Monetization – It’s the UI, Stupid
19 May 2013 | 1:41 pmThe Smartphone Era has been good to games. This category captures more than 80% of mobiledownload revenue (AppAnnie) but earns even more from from in-app purchases and advertising. This post covers the main drivers for gaming ROI and adoption. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Words of Encouragement for European Startups
15 May 2013 | 8:44 amThe Eurozone is in crisis - GDP numbers point to the worst recession since 1999 and major economies are shrinking. That said, the startup ecosystems are growing and have lot to be optimistic about. I urge founders to also consider the good news and take on a more positive outlook based on "this is water"' by David Foster Wallace. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Invest in Israel – May 2013 Edition
14 May 2013 | 6:36 amAs every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. For the Invest in Israel archive, click here. This edition doesn’t [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Video: How can your startup make use of Campus London?
14 May 2013 | 6:28 amI had a great pleasure to host Don Dodge at Campus last month for our one year anniversary to speak with the venture community in London about Campus, startups and Google. Don is a senior developer advocate with years of experience as an influential Microsoft startup evangelist (like Guy Kawasaki did [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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SAI
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In Case You Wanted The Visual, This Is What A 'Glasshole' Looks Like (GOOG)
25 May 2013 | 6:27 amYou should watch this video, which comes to us via CNET. There are only so many Google Glass units out there now, but imagine a world where they're even more plentiful than the smartphone – to not have one is to be less than whole. Then you might very well have people using them so casually that they lose self-consciousness and get lost in the moment of just trying to take a good photo. The guy in this video is happy to demonstrate for you. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story » -
How North Korea Became A Hacking Superpower
25 May 2013 | 6:23 amSEOUL, South Korea — This year, North Korea has been flaunting its nuclear hardware in an effort to extort concessions from the United States and South Korea. But the tactic has failed to provoke panic for one key reason: Officials doubt that Pyongyang would be stupid enough to start a nuclear war. While nukes are better seen than used, and thus of limited blackmail value, dictator Kim Jong Un possesses a quieter weapon that’s more readily unleashed — and has already become a serious nuisance: cyber war. Experts say Pyongyang typically deploys it about once a year, although… -
The Porn Industry Has Already Dreamed Up Some Awesome Ideas For Google Glass (GOOG)
25 May 2013 | 5:21 amI can't prove it, but I bet that on a long enough timeline a majority of technology gets reappropriated for our sexual gratification. Some products get into the erotic side of things later in their life cycles, but some get heaps of sexy attention right away. Given all that, is it really any surprise that we wondered how Google Glass will change porn? We talked to some active professionals working in the pornography industry to get their opinions on how Google's face-based computer will factor into (and maybe even change) the business of dirty pictures. Since it records video from the… -
A Day In The Life Of A Tumblr Employee Is Pretty Enviable
25 May 2013 | 5:14 am:Danielle Strle joined Tumblr in January 2011 as a designer. (She signs her emails cleverly, ":D") The Pratt graduate is a member of Tumblr's community team, where she focuses on keeping existing users happy and handling the exploding number people flocking to the site. Her days probably aren't like yours. They involve cats, burgers, and beer. Also: meetings, brainstorming, and a flying plastic elephant. And, of course, checking her Tumblr dashboard. Frequently. A few months after she joined Tumblr, :D photographed her gig on her blog. All in all, not a bad life.This is… -
This Waiting-List Only, Curated Site For Gadgets Just Got $1.3 Million In Funding
25 May 2013 | 5:11 amGrand St. might just be the hippest, most exclusive New York startup we've ever seen. It's a curated, super-thoughtful, new gadget flash-sale site that's currently waiting-list-only for new customers — and it just closed a $1.3 million investment round. The boutique offers new products to members every other day. But, if you want to grab a product you have to move fast, the goods are only sold over the course of a week. Imagine the Wirecutter hooked up with Gdgt, while Gilt watched, you'd have Grand St. (If you don't know what any of those sites are you should…
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Continuations
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Reminder: Net Native Means Previously Impossible
24 May 2013 | 5:09 amAt the height of the re-engineering craze there was one fantastic HBR article titled “Re-engineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate.” In light of the changes in the labor market the choice of “obliterate” may now seem unfortunate, but the basic point of the article was spot on: don’t implement your existing processes in technology, come up with entirely new ones that simply weren’t possible before. Much the same applies to building net native businesses. It is not about building a smoother version of what already exists in the market. That is a… -
Immigration Reform
23 May 2013 | 7:29 amI am an immigrant (from Germany). I work in tech (as an investor and previously as an entrepreneur). I support comprehensive immigration reform. That part is pretty simple — it would be hypocritical to argue that something that I have benefitted from tremendously should be less accessible to others. But I have largely chosen to stay out of this particular fight because the arguments on both sides have been too narrow with a lot of needlessly heated rhetoric. I am quite convinced that the actual impact here will be less than people expect it to be in either direction. The reason is… -
Antifragile by Nassim Taleb (Book Review)
22 May 2013 | 5:29 amOk, so this isn’t so much a review as an exhortation to read Antifragile by Nassim Taleb which I consider one of the most important non-fiction books I have read. Let me start with some disclaimers: 1. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction books, not because I don’t start them but because I don’t finish them. Most aren’t good or important enough and you are often better off reading the blog post or HBR article on which they are based. So you may want to take my claim of “one of the best” with a grain of salt but I don’t say it lightly either. 2. -
Tech Tuesday: Security in Startups
21 May 2013 | 5:44 amLast week in Tech Tuesday I asked for topics to write about in my series on technology in startups. There seemed to be a fair bit of interest in security, so here we go. First off a disclaimer. As with any general purpose advice, you need to think a lot about what it is you are trying to do. The security requirements for a bitcoin startup are vastly different from those for a social media one. When you are just getting going you should treat security the same way as scalability: make sure you have the basics covered but don’t spend too much time on it as your bigger problem is to build… -
Tumblr and Yahoo
20 May 2013 | 5:42 amIt is now official that Tumblr will become part of Yahoo. Marissa announced the news in style with an animated gif. I have been lucky to be part of Tumblr’s journey as an angel investor and as an active blogger on the service since February 2008. I am excited about the combination with Yahoo. When Marissa took over Yahoo, I expected that acquisitions would play a role in her transformation of the company. At the time I wrote that the ideal target would be “startups that have very talented people and also interesting products but could benefit from the scale of Yahoo.” Tumblr…
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articles » Venture Capital News
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29 Year Old Man Raises 33 Million USD
11 May 2013 | 11:35 pmA young man, Mike Brown from Bowery Capital, traveled for the last year all over the country and rural towns. Still, this was neither a vacation nor a fun activity. This is how a less than 30 year old man thinks of launching his own venture capital company. Although it was a very demanding period, this past year paid off, he met with many potential limited partners which he pitched about his idea for Bowery Capital. The company would be an early stage company based in New York and the limited partners eventually enabled him to raise 33 million USD, by offering each 1 million USD. Mike Brown… -
ForgeRock Lands $15 Million Series B Funding
11 Apr 2013 | 4:51 amForgeRock, a start-up San Francisco based company, provider of identity and access management software, closed yesterday $15 million series B round of funding. The venture capital funding was led by Foundation Capital and Accel Partners, a prior investor of the company. Accel Partners was the investor that led the series A round of funding and offered $7 million in 2012. Bruce Golden declared that they are looking forward to helping the company to continue with the expansion of its global presence and disrupt the traditional approaches to IAM by developing a new IAM architecture that solves… -
Handshakez Gets $ 3.6 Million in Series A Funding
8 Mar 2013 | 3:25 amA few days ago Handshakez got a $ 3.6 million in series A round of funding that was led by Austin Ventures. At the funding First Round Capital, CrunchFund, Floodgate and Valhalla Partners also participated. Chief Executive Officer Jason Wesbecher explained that the company was planning to close the series A round of funding before the summer, but it happened earlier than they expected because the executives saw a great momentum at the end of last year so they decided to speed things up a little bit. Jason Wesbecher is an expert marketing executive who worked for Siebel Systems, Tibco and Jive… -
Startup Infinio Gets $ 10 Million of Funding
13 Feb 2013 | 12:48 amStartup Infinio, a developing software company based in Cambridge, recently declared that they raised a series A round of founding amounted at $ 10 million. The round of funding was led by the new investors Highland Capital Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Infinio’s officials declared that the software that it produces is designed to address issues around storage performance, called “the most expensive bottleneck in virtual environments” by the startup. The total amount of Infinio’s funding sums up to $ 12 million since it was founded. Other investors took part in the series A… -
Transaction that Will Produce More than $2 Million in Funding
3 Feb 2013 | 2:17 pm(General Metals Corporation) announced recently that they entered into a letter of intent with Open Gold Corp ] in order to raise capital and thus provide greater access to their capital needs in the future. As per the terms, more than $2 million are expected to be raised. The completion of the transaction depends on the final agreement between the two companies. Open Gold should issue shares of the common stock to General Metals so that them and their shareholders will own more than a half of Open Gold’s shares, that include the ones issued for the capital raise. As this will be completed,…
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OpenView Blog
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4 Tips For Recruiting Business Development Representatives
24 May 2013 | 7:30 amCreating an inside sales team of outbound prospectors, also commonly titled, “business development representatives,” can be invaluable to driving sales leads and vetting prospects. If you are in your early stages of building or just considering adding an outbound lead generation function, please check out our eBook, Get More Customers: How to Build an Outbound B2B Lead Generation Team that Drives Sales, for more comprehensive info. In this post, I’d like to focus on recruiting. Although training, management, process and goals are all necessary items of a successful lead gen team,… -
How to Handle a Failed Product Offering: Lessons from Windows 8
24 May 2013 | 5:30 amWindows Blue Rides To The Rescue, Will Microsoft’s Customer’s Forgive Them For Windows 8? Backtracking Gracefully from a Failed Product Offering: Lessons from Microsoft Every company has a failed product. Apple had the Newton, Microsoft had Vista and now Windows 8. General Motors nearly sank their Cadillac division with too many half baked products. It happens to everyone, but what is the best way to handle the ensuing fallout? We have a good case study from Microsoft’s experience with Windows 8. Windows 8 has been universally panned in the news for being too disruptive to… -
The Truth Behind the “Where Else Are You Interviewing?” Question
23 May 2013 | 6:30 am“Where Else Are You Interviewing?” This was a question I was taught to ask when I worked for a recruiting agency. I have been doing some serious thinking about this question, and I wonder — what value are we really getting from asking this? Should we add it to the list of bad interview questions and cut it out of all together? The Truth Behind “Where Else Are You Interviewing?” Not many people may realize this, but in recruiting agencies, asking where else a candidate is looking actually serves one purpose — to help the recruiter find out who is hiring so he or she… -
How to Do Market Research in 5 Minutes
23 May 2013 | 4:30 amAs a B2B market researcher, I spend a lot of my time speaking with extremely targeted, senior decision makers at Fortune 500 companies. Image provided by: Campaign Asia Or at least, I spend a lot of my time trying to speak to these people. The truth is, I spend only a small portion of my time actually speaking with them. There’s a good reason for this discrepancy. Senior decision makers are very difficult to get a hold of and have a high opportunity cost for the time they spend dropping knowledge. If a CFO makes $800k per year, they’re not likely to be enticed by a $10 Starbucks gift… -
The Benefits of a Challenge: A Lesson from Japanese Fishermen
22 May 2013 | 12:36 pmWhat do keeping employees motivated and fresh fish have in common? I just got back from my first trip to Asia, where I learned an interesting story about Japanese fishermen that directly correlates with business principles for employee motivation. The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But over the past several decades it has become increasingly difficult to find fish in close waters. Fishing boats have gotten bigger and ventured farther and farther out into the ocean. Of course, the farther the fishermen go, the longer it takes to bring back the fish, and soon people began to complain…
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EZebis
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Design with IDEO: Designing Sustainable Human Centered Business Models @Investors Circle Forum
20 May 2013 | 9:00 amFocused on innovative social design as IDEO discusses ways that their firm gains insights about customers & uses prototype based experiments to help evaluate & explore business model options for business ventures. Facilitators: David Aycan, Design Director IDEO & Joe Gerber, Business Designer IDEO @Investors Circle Spring Forum You can …
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Boston Business News - Local Boston News | Boston Business Journal
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Epizyme expected to hold IPO during week of May 27
24 May 2013 | 3:00 pmEpizyme Inc., a venture-backed biotech based in Cambridge, Mass., with ambitious plans for seeking drug approvals, is set to go public during the week of May 27, according to Renaissance Capital. The initial public offering of about 4.3 million shares, plus another 643,000 in over-allotments, could raise as much as $74 million at the top of the share price range, which is $15, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Epizyme plans to list on the Nasdaq market under the… -
NuoDB co-founder and CTO departs, succeeded by early employee
24 May 2013 | 2:32 pmCambridge-based NuoDB, developer of a database built to work in the cloud which aims to power the Web of the future, says co-founder Jim Starkey has retired from the CTO position at the firm. He has been succeeded in the role by company developer Seth Proctor. Starkey had spent three decades working in databases, starting at Digital Equipment Corp. and going on to found Interbase Software and Netfrastructure. Starkey co-founded NuoDB with CEO Barry Morris in 2010, and will remain involved with the… -
FINRA raps LPL with $7.5M fine
24 May 2013 | 10:59 amThe Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined LPL Financial LLC $7.5 million for dozens of email failures and for making misstatements to regulators during a recent investigation. LPL’s email system seems to have been an afterthought during the firm’s rapid growth over the last five or six years, according to FINRA, Wall Street’s self-regulator. The firm’s failure to update its email systems made them “increasingly complex and unwieldy for LPL to manage and monitor effectively,”… -
Interleukin on track to commercialize periodontal disease test
24 May 2013 | 10:41 amIt was a close call for Interleukin Genetics Inc. (OTCQB:ILIU), but the company said it is on track. The Waltham, Mass. diagnostics company received word that its University of Michigan study has been accepted for publication with just a week to go. The study, which showed the value of PST - a genetic test that measures the risk of developing periodontal disease - was the last piece the company needed to be able to move forward. The study showed the test guided better prevention of dental disease… -
Movers and Shakers: A look at who in bio is coming and going
24 May 2013 | 10:32 amThe following personnel announcements at New England-area biotech companies have been made in recent weeks: Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna Therapeutics announced the appointment of John Reynders as the company’s first chief information officer, effective in July. Reynders held several senior leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, and Celera Genomics including more recently serving as vice president of research and development information with AstraZeneca. In his newly-created role,…
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Mendelson's Musings
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Calling All Angels – Fort Collins Version
22 May 2013 | 11:37 amThree keys to a building a strong ecosystem for startups are: (1) entrepreneurs; (2) technology; and (3) investors. For a long time, newer entrepreneurial communities have relied on the first two segments to attract the third. We are now realizing that to sustain and grow a vibrant entrepreneurial community, we need to support all three. Angel investors are typically very bright, successful entrepreneurs who want to give back after they cash out in one or two of their own ventures. Although they understand how to build products and companies, they may not have a lot of experience in… -
CU Boulder’s New Venture Challenge. Come Join Me
16 Apr 2013 | 2:40 pmI’ve seen the “Transactional IQ” – i.e., the level of understanding around startup deal making – rise at CU over the past five years. This fall I finished teaching a Venture Capital course at CU for the fifth time. And in recent years I’ve helped coach CU’s Venture Capital Investment Competition team. It is fun to see what involvement with students over a five year trajectory can accomplish. I’ll be involved in another five year milestone on Wednesday. CU-Boulder’s New Venture Challenge Fifth Annual Championships are Wednesday 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. in the Wittemyer… -
You Love API’s? Here is something for you Boulder / Denver
19 Mar 2013 | 2:50 amIf you are involved in tech and entrepreneurship, there are two upcoming events that you can’t miss, called APIs & IPAs. The events, hosted by Singly, SendGrid and FullContact (all Foundry Group portfolio companies), are on March 27th at Rock Bottom Brewery in Denver and March 28th at Bitter Bar in Boulder. APIs & IPAs is a tech community happy hour, with drinks and appetizers covered by the host companies. We hope to see you there! APIs & IPAs Denver (3/27): http://denverapis.eventbrite.com/ APIs & IPAs Boulder (3/28): http://boulderapis.eventbrite.com/ -
My “First” Rock and Roll Video (a.k.a “Come to VentureScape 2013!)
26 Feb 2013 | 6:53 amFor those of you who know me, I have always loved being a musician. For a while, I thought that I would make my living as a drummer, but the world conspired against me. That being said, I couldn’t be grateful enough that I ended up as a venture capitalist. Last year, I spearheaded the Foundry Group “I’m a VC” Video. It was as ton of fun and I’m certainly proud of it, but musically it’s a parody song and I don’t have the same emotional attachment that I do with the real music that I create, especially those songs that I co-write with my business… -
Colorado Law – Teaching In-House Lawyers How to Run Lean
7 Feb 2013 | 11:29 amIt’s clear that in-house law departments are going through a major paradigm shift. In the same way that manufacturers are testing out technologies that are allowing them to keep up productivity while cutting costs, CEO’s are asking law department leaders to trim as much as possible. Throughout the world, law departments are using manufacturing theories such as Six Sigma to get more from less. On April 8, The University of Colorado Law School will hold a three-day executive training program for Chief Legal Officers and in-house counsel where they will learn from professionals about how to…
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eWallstreeter
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The Porn Industry Has Already Dreamed Up Some Awesome Ideas For Google Glass (GOOG)
25 May 2013 | 5:21 amI can't prove it, but I bet that on a long enough timeline a majority of technology gets reappropriated for our sexual gratification. Some products get into the erotic side of things later in their life cycles, but some get heaps of sexy attention right away. Given all that, is it really any surprise that we wondered how Google Glass will change porn? We talked to some active professionals working in the pornography industry to get their opinions on how Google's face-based computer will factor into (and maybe even change) the business of dirty pictures. Since it records video from the… -
A Day In The Life Of A Tumblr Employee Is Pretty Enviable
25 May 2013 | 5:14 am:Danielle Strle joined Tumblr in January 2011 as a designer. (She signs her emails cleverly, ":D") The Pratt graduate is a member of Tumblr's community team, where she focuses on keeping existing users happy and handling the exploding number people flocking to the site. Her days probably aren't like yours. They involve cats, burgers, and beer. Also: meetings, brainstorming, and a flying plastic elephant. And, of course, checking her Tumblr dashboard. Frequently. A few months after she joined Tumblr, :D photographed her gig on her blog. All in all, not a bad life.This is Danielle. Here's what… -
This Waiting-List Only, Curated Site For Gadgets Just Got $1.3 Million In Funding
25 May 2013 | 5:11 amGrand St. might just be the hippest, most exclusive New York startup we've ever seen. It's a curated, super-thoughtful, new gadget flash-sale site that's currently waiting-list-only for new customers — and it just closed a $1.3 million investment round. The boutique offers new products to members every other day. But, if you want to grab a product you have to move fast, the goods are only sold over the course of a week. Imagine the Wirecutter hooked up with Gdgt, while Gilt watched, you'd have Grand St. (If you don't know what any of those sites are you should check them out, but still,… -
9 Things Windows Phones Can Do That The iPhone Can't (MSFT, AAPL)
25 May 2013 | 5:00 amMicrosoft's mobile operating system for smartphones, Windows Phone 8, has a unique approach to the traditional smartphone. Instead of showing you rows of static icons like you see on the iPhone, Windows Phones have "Live Tiles" that update with real time information from your apps. But that's just scratching the surface. Windows Phones offer several features you won't find on the iPhone.The operating supports phones with bigger screens. The biggest iPhone only has a 4-inch screen. Windows Phones can be 4.5 inches or larger. They can run Microsoft Office apps like PowerPoint and Word. -
Video Of The Week: My Talk With John Battelle at CM Summit
25 May 2013 | 3:54 amIf you want to watch here, hit play and go to 47 minutes in. Or click on this link which will take you to you YouTube and get you to 47 minutes in.
