Venture Capital

• 
  TechCrunch

• TED: Now with More Elitism?

  Sarah Lacy

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:33 pm

  Let me say upfront: I have never been to TED, mostly because I have never been invited and I can’t imagine a world where I justify paying $6,000 for a conference. But I live in Silicon Valley so every year leading up to the star-studded event, I have to hear about it from nearly everyone I know: People who love it and people who hate it. For the last few years, these conversations have gotten ugly. What I’ve seen and heard from the outside depicts the sad transition from what used to be an inventive, elite industry conference that cross-pollinated experts from the worlds of technology,…

• Microsoft Slams Google Buzz

  Michael Arrington

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:20 pm

  “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefitted from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.” – Microsoft statement on Google Buzz. When one of the big guys launches a new product, competitors generally just sit it out and let the press do its thing. But Microsoft made a point of reaching out today with the quote above, criticizing Google Buzz as “another social network” and noting that Hotmail has aggregated Flickr,…

• Yahoo Not Pleased With Google Buzz’s Buzz

  MG Siegler

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:18 pm

  Google officially unveiled Buzz, their major step into social statuses through Gmail today at an event held at 10 AM PT. Within the hour, Yahoo PR was set in motion to let everyone know that they actually did this first, almost a year ago. Here’s the humorous email that was sent out: It’s been almost a year and a half since we first launched Yahoo! Updates – a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities and stay connected to what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo! and across the Web – and we wanted to share the latest on what’s…

• Sergey Brin Used Google Buzz To Write His NYT Op-Ed On Google Books

  MG Siegler

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:54 am

  During the Q&A session today following the Google Buzz event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed something both humorous and interesting. When asked a question about practical uses for Google Buzz, Brin noted that he actually used the service to help him write his op-ed about Google Books that ran in the New York Times last year. Brin noted that he was having difficulty with the article because it’s just his one point of view. So he put out his draft on Google Buzz (which Google was testing out internally within the company at the time), and quickly got dozens of comments. Brin…

• Screenshots: Google Buzz In Action

  MG Siegler

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:17 am

  Now that the Google event is over, the company has started turning on Buzz for Gmail users. Here are some quick screenshots of it in action. CrunchBase InformationGoogle BuzzInformation provided by CrunchBase

• 
  The Funded

• Vector Capital: Bottom Feeders, but Proud of It

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:28 pm

  This firm focuses on distressed companies. You don't ever want to get a term sheet from them, but if you do, you should be thankful they gave you one. They have been successful at the turn around game.

• TheFunded.com Discussion: NYC: Feb. 11 (Thurs) Networking at Live Bait After the Funding Post Showcase Event

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:18 am

• Vision Capital: Endeavour Vision in Europe

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:10 am

  | Fund Rated 2.5 | 103 Chars in Private

• Hyde Park Angels: Welcome to Mba School

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  | Fund Rated 2.8Well like many funds, this one uses associates to vet out potential deals. The additional part is that they are all MBA students at The Booth School of Business at the Univeristy of Chicago. It can take 4-6 months to get conference call with the screening committee, and even then you feel like your more the topic of a classroom discussion than that your are talking with investors. Can't say what they are like if they fund you, or their terms, on paper they look quite impressive with their membership and expertise, but it did feel unprofessional dealing with MBA students that…

• NEW Capital Management Inc.: Good Luck

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:29 am

  Finding money in NE Wisconsin is tough. NEW Capital is the only organizaed angel group in the area. I believe they are pretty much done at this time, and that they may have one deal left to fund.

• 
  Demo.com

• DEMO Spring Preferred Registration deadline extended to 2/12

  DEMO Staff

  2 Feb 2010 | 2:27 pm

  Attend DEMO in 2010 and get involved early with the next round of companies shaping the industry. DEMO's focus on seven sectors: Social and Media, Health and Life Science, Clean and Sustaining Tech, Cloud, Enterprise, Mobile and Consumer has generated interest from hundreds of companies around the world looking to launch at DEMO this spring.  Read more

• DEMO Spring 2010.. 7 key tech verticals to take center stage

  DEMO Staff

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:44 pm

  The DEMO Spring 2010 class of demonstrators and alphapitch companies is quickly coming together.  Attend DEMO and be there to see the latest innovation across seven different categories, both B2B and B2C, including: Read more

• DEMOfall 09 demonstrator Micello's products now available

  DEMO Staff

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:38 pm

  The Micello Indoor Maps application is now available for download on the Apple iTunes store! www.micello.com.  Watch more on how Micello extends Google's navigation to indoor spaces  http://bit.ly/4Sa2A4  Read more

• DEMO Conference, in 20th year, Gets Straight A’s from Participating Technology Start-Ups

  DEMO Staff

  13 Jan 2010 | 7:13 pm

  In observance of its 20th year as the industry’s premier forum for launching IT-enabled products, DEMO Conference organizers commissioned a survey by BluePoint Venture Marketing of all previous demonstrators to determine the conference’s impact on early-stage companies and gauge company success rates. Over 100 senior executives participated in the survey, and the results revealed that DEMO presenters achieved above-average success rates overall and nearly a quarter were able to obtain funding within one year of presenting. Read more

• Want to launch at DEMO? Join us at an open house at Kleiner Perkins

  Matt Marshall

  11 Jan 2010 | 10:27 am

  If you’re considering launching your company’s product at DEMO conference this year, you’re welcome to join us at an open house at one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. On Feb. Read more

• 
  Both Sides of the Table

• How Do You Reference Check a VC?

  Mark Suster

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:57 pm

  This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. I often tell people that raising money is worse than getting married.  I have to be careful in how that sounds because I love my wife and am happily married.  But the truth is that in marriage if you’re unhappy you can at least get divorced (in most countries).  Not so in venture capital.  You’re tied at the hip to your VC. So my first advice is not to rush in the fund raising process.  Get to know VCs over a long period of time so that when you’re ready to get engaged you feel you know their character.  As…

• Domain Experience Gives Entrepreneurs an Unfair Advantage

  Mark Suster

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:34 pm

  This is the final part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks.  OK, it’s not really my final part. I started with a Top 10 list for Nivi (at VentureHacks), but I couldn’t cram it into 10 so it became a Top 11 list.  I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.”  If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11.  But Nivi envisioned it being the “Top 10 things I needed to see before I wrote a check.”  I think the title sounded better to him This…

• Entrepreneurs Don’t “Noodle” They Do

  Mark Suster

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:59 pm

  This is part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks.  I know this series has been running for a while (and is getting long in the tooth) – I promise it’s nearly over.  I started with a “top 11″ list – only because I couldn’t fit them into a top 10.  But in the end I ended up with 12.  So only two more after this. I’m not anti VC.  Obviously.  I am one.  But there are a lot of things that become norms in the VC industry that always drove me crazy from entrepreneur’s side of the table.  They still…

• The Danger of Crocodile Sales

  Mark Suster

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:30 pm

  This is part of my series on Startup Advice. When I worked in London there were a ton of Aussies.  I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California.  Pretty laid back and non-hierarchic.  I also loved learning all of their sayings. My favorite was when a guy told me to beware of Crocodile Salesmen. What’s that?  ”You know, big mouth and no ears.” That’s always stuck with me.  Crocodile Salesmen are people who are always talking.  They’re pitching to you.  They don’t take the time to…

• How to Not Suck at a Group Presentation

  Mark Suster

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:30 pm

  Most people suck at presenting to big groups.  It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA.  Francisco Dao came up with the idea of letting 10 companies that weren’t selected for Twiistup to do a presentation the night before to a group of people and let the audience pick one company to win the final slot at Twiistup.  I was the judge.  It was…

• 
  VatorNews.tv

• Vator Box - Splash culminates with Splash Box

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:18 am

  Investors from Greycroft, Venrock, NEA and Ackrell Capital analyze RentCycle - Splash overall winnerMore than 175 companies, more than 3,000 people voting, and one company left standing onstage.The Vator Splash competition culminated at the Splash event, with the final round to find the overall winner consisting of voting among the 375 attendees gathered at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco.  The overall Vator Splash winner was Rentcycle, a startup that wants to be the OpenTable for rentals. Rentcycle beat out the other nine startups who gave three-minute pitches to the audience. These…

• Google Buzz brings the social Web to Gmail

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:05 am

  New social product integrates content-rich feed directly into GmailGoogle, in an effort to bring the ultimate social experience to Gmail, just announced Google Buzz, a social stream directly integrated into Gmail, alongside the user's inbox.Buzz, launching today with its own tab under "Inbox" on user Gmail accounts, delivers a stream of content similar in structure to Facebook's own news feed, but it actually has much more in common with FriendFeed. If you've shared content on any social networking site before, you essentially know how Buzz works. Click in a status update box, type a message,…

• Motorola invests in TuneWiki

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:47 am

  Social media music player looking to expand and build an upcoming gameMotorola Ventures, on Tuesday announced it's invested into digital music startup, TuneWiki.  The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but Motorola was joined by new investors Intellect Capital Ventures, TeliaSonera, HillsVen Capital, Novel TMT and previous investors Benchmark Israel.  TuneWiki offers its users a social media music player.  Beyond a simple music player, the online application displays the lyrics of the song you're listening to and watching the video of.  Originally only a Web…

• Social media marketing, Part 3

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:16 am

  Outline a strategy and an objectiveIn our first post in this series, we discussed the underlying basics of social media marketing.  And in the second post, we covered the avenues you should use when executing a social media marketing strategy.  In this, our third and final post in this series, let’s go through a couple of examples to help spark some more ideas. What follows is a few sample business types with a list of items for them to tweet, post, blog and provide guides and tools about, while also encouraging community comments, photos and participation. As you’ll see from…

• OpenView embracing social media companies

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:56 am

  Social analytics, social monitoring, social gaming should continue to attract capitalAt Vator.tv's first-ever Vator Splash event on Thursday, February 4 at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco, Reena Jadhav, founder and CEO of NuAlerts caught up with Kobie Fuller, a venture capitalist at OpenView Venture Partners, an expansion-stage venture firm based in Boston.OpenView invests between $5 million to $50 million in companies that typically have recurring revenue and are well-established. Despite what seems to be saturation of investments in social media companies, Kobie expects more "social…

• 
  VentureBeat

• Mayfield & First Round Capital Host Entrepreneur Event

  Sponsored Post

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:37 pm

  Mayfield Fund has partnered with First Round Capital to host a networking event with the theme Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs.   The two firms have assembled a dream team of founders including Jay Adelson/Digg, Caterina Fake/Flickr, Aaron Patzer/Mint, Gina Bianchini/Ning, Max Levchin/Slide and Mark Pincus/Zynga who have donated mentoring sessions, which will be raffled off at the event. To participate in the raffle, entrepreneurs need to go to www.mayfield.com/raffle and fill out a short online application.  Raj Kapoor and Emily Melton of Mayfield and Josh Kopelman and Rob Hayes of…

• Google takes another stab at location-based services with Buzz

  Anthony Ha

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:07 pm

  Many of the rumors and now the news coverage of Google Buzz, the search giant’s new social sharing tool, has focused on the web capabilities through its integration with Gmail. But the new mobile features are also an important part of the announcement, because they add a compelling location-based component to the service. Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra said Google Buzz is being integrated into three of Google’s mobile websiites and applications — Google.com, a new Buzz.google.com website, and the Google maps mobile application. If a user visits the main…

• iTunes music: Higher prices result in slower sales growth

  Paul Boutin

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:03 pm

  On this morning’s earnings call for Warner Music, CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr said that the company’s $1.29 tracks — a 30 percent price boost over Apple’s standard 99 cents — have been a “net positive” for the company. Yet as media pundit Peter Kafka observed, the entire music industry’s iTunes sales growth is slower than a year ago, when consumer confidence and willingness to spend were much lower: Industrywide, year-over-year “digital track equivalent album unit growth” was at five percent in the December quarter, down sequentially from 10…

• U2 gets behind carbon trading, raises money for geothermal

  Tom Slater

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:47 am

  Known for its international relief efforts, rock band U2 is now raising funds in Turkey to pay for the country’s Dora-1 geothermal plant. It is also selling carbon offset credits for $1.89 a pop. The credits will go toward purchasing clean power to neutralize the 127 kilograms of greenhouse gases each of the band’s fans, on average, generates to see the band play. Incidentally, the Dora-1 project could save as many as 30,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year. A modest facility by most standards, the geothermal plant is designed to generate 7.9 megawatts of power. In Turkey, however,…

• How Sergey Brin uses Google Buzz as a business product

  Anthony Ha

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:29 am

  Google Buzz, the social sharing tool that Google just announced at a press event in Mountain View, isn’t just for the fun. The company said it’s going to be launching a version of Buzz as an enterprise product, as a part of its Google Apps bundle of business applications. During the presentation, Google was pretty vague about Buzz in a business context, both in terms of how it might be used and when it will launch (“soon” is all the company would say). During the question-and-answer session, Google co-founder Sergey Brin offered one example: When he was writing his New…

• 
  A VC

• Twilio

  Fred

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:45 am

  While everyone was on the holiday break at the end of last year, Twilio wrote a blog post that very few people noticed. They announced that our firm, Union Square Ventures, had become an investor in Twilio. Twilio is not a services for the masses. Yet. It's a service that web developers can use to build telephony apps or build telephony into their app. This image on Twilio's home page says it all. In the "Areas of Interest" post that I wrote at the start of the year, I wrote: Developers are the new power users. If you cater to them, you can build a large user base with…

• Flash, HTML5, and Mobile Apps

  Fred

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:12 am

  About a year ago, I wrote a post about Apple's "blind spot" for Flash. I took more heat for that post than anything else I've written here other than political posts. It opened my eyes to the fact that Flash vs HTML5 is one of the most politically heated topics in the tech business. The third rail, as it were. The choice of what technology web developers use to produce rich browser based applications is a big deal with a lot of important ramifications for companies, investors, and most importantly users. Jeremy Allaire, creator of ColdFusion and Brightcove, addresses this…

• Lightweight Advocacy

  Fred

  6 Feb 2010 | 4:15 am

  I was at a board meeting of a non profit this week and the talk turned to "advocacy" and whether or not the non profit should be doing any of that. I had to ask what the definition of advocacy was just to be clear what we were talking about. It's not something I've traditionally been involved in. When I think of advocacy, I think of politics, lobbying, public relations, and a bunch of other "heavyweight" behaviors that I abhor. Wikipedia's definition of advocacy is: Advocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes — including public-policy and resource…

• NYC BigApps Winners Announced

  Fred

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:38 am

  I've posted about the NYC BigApps contest a few times here. And you all helped me with my chore of judging all 85 apps. Thank you for that. Last night I walked up The Highline to IAC Headquarters to attend an event where the winners were announced. I also manned the "Investors Bar" where a number of fellow venture and angel investors sat and talked to the entrepreneurs in attendance. Kind of like the genius bar, but the geniuses were on the other side lining up to talk to us. The winners were (cutting and pasting from the NY Times here): WayFinder NYC: An application…

• Quirky and The Cone Of Silence

  Fred

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:04 am

  My family is tired of hearing me talk about "The Cone Of Silence". This is an electronics product I'd love to have. I am not sure if it can be built with the current state of noise canceling technology, but here is how it would work.The Cone Of Silence is a small electronics product that you can bring to a restaurant in your pocket, place on the table, and create a "noise cancelled zone" around the table you and your friends are sitting at. I've talked to a number of people about this idea in the past year. My dad is a former engineering professor. He thinks it…

• 
  Union Square Ventures

• Twilio

  USV Administrator

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:45 am

  Twilio provides a web-service API for businesses to build scalable, reliable communication apps.

• Twilio

  Albert Wenger

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:11 am

  One of the great promises of cloud computing is to make things that were previously difficult easy. Complexity is hidden and a service can be accessed through a simple API and purchased with a credit card. When that can be achieved, the results are magical. This is true for consumer services, such as Google maps, but it can also be true for developer-oriented web services. A great example of this is Twilio. Twilio hides all the complexity of telephony behind an API that is so simple (only 5 verbs do the bulk of the work) that many applications can literally be created in minutes. Here are…

• Flurry

  USV Administrator

  15 Jan 2010 | 3:31 pm

  Flurry offers cutting-edge analytics, deployment and monetization tools for mobile application developers. Its services platform is offered free to application developers allowing them to better save money, increase revenues and improve their products. Flurry's platform is built by developers for developers, based on its pioneering experience as one the first developers to build, deploy and market direct-to-consumer applications.

• We need an independent invention defense to minimize the damage of aggressive patent trolls

  Brad Burnham

  11 Jan 2010 | 1:36 pm

  Almost a third of our portfolio is under attack by patent trolls. Is it possible that one third of the engineering teams in our portfolio unethically misappropriated technology from someone else and then made that the basis of their web services? No! That's not what is happening. Our companies are driven by imaginative and innovative engineering teams that are focused on creating social value by bringing innovative new services to market. Our companies are being attacked by companies that were not even in the same market, very often by companies they did not even know existed. The problem is…

• Introducing Tracked.com

  Brad Burnham

  21 Oct 2009 | 6:29 am

  At Union Square Ventures, we seldom invest in a company before it launches publicly. The exception is when we have the opportunity to back an experienced entrepreneur with a strong team and a strong product vision. That is exactly what happened with Tracked.com. So we now find ourselves in the unusual position of announcing the public launch of an investment we made some time ago. A year ago, Mike Yavonditte, a web veteran based in New York who had worked at Ziff-Davis, Juno, Alta Vista and Interactive Corporation, and who had most recently gone wire to wire as the CEO of Quigo, began…

• 
  Xconomy

• M/C Gains in NuVox Sale

  Wade Roush

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:21 pm

  IT, deals, VC Wade Roush wrote: Boston’s M/C Venture Partners is the big winner in the $647 million sale of NuVox, a Greenville, SC-based provider of business telecommunications services, to Windstream Corporation (NASDAQ: WIN), a deal announced yesterday. In a press release yesterday, M/C said that it became NuVox’s largest shareholder after NuVox absorbed M/C portfolio companies NewSouth in 2004 and Florida Digital Network in 2007. Little Rock, AR-based Windstream, which provides phone, Internet, and digital TV service to customers in 21 states, paid $280 million in cash and…

• Sequenom Gets Rights to Genetic Test for Vision Disorder

  Bruce V. Bigelow

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:47 am

  Licensing Agreement, Genetic Testing, Macular Degeneration Bruce V. Bigelow wrote: San Diego-based Sequenom (NASDAQ: SQNM) says it has obtained rights to develop and commercialize a diagnostic test from New Haven, CT-based Optherion to predict a patient’s genetic predisposition to late-stage, age-related macular degeneration, a progressive eye disorder that can lead to a loss of central vision. Financial terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed. Once the test is developed, Sequenom says it plans to market the new test next year under its SensiGene brand for genetic tests.

• Novatel Claims First LTE Data Call

  Bruce V. Bigelow

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:57 am

  Wireless Networks, Mobile, LTE Bruce V. Bigelow wrote: In what may be a pre-emptive announcement before next week’s GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, San Diego’s Novatel Wireless (NASDAQ: NVTL) says it has successfully made a data transmission call using Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G technology. LTE is one of several next-generation wireless technology standards that promise increased capacity as cell phone users increasingly download data, photos, and video from the Internet. Novatel says LTE can provide data rates as high as 50 megabits per second on the uplink and 100…

• Advertisement:

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:57 am

• Battle of the Tech Bands 3: Boston vs. Seattle—A Video and Photo Extravaganza

  Wade Roush

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:15 am

  Xconomy, events, music Wade Roush wrote: It’s not every day you get to see three great East Coast rock bands on the same stage with two amazing West Coast bands—so we made a point of documenting our big fundraiser last Thursday, the Battle of the Tech Bands 3: Seattle vs. Boston. Today we want to share the amazing footage and images captured at the event by our volunteer videographer, Mark Woit, and our photographer Kevin Vogelsang. CLICK HERE FOR SLIDE SHOW (18 images) Our video is below. And for even more great photos, you can check out Boston24.com’s awesome coverage of…

• 
  Ross Mayfield's Weblog

• Channels for Business Content on SlideShare

  Ross Mayfield

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:37 am

  As an advisor to SlideShare, I've been proud to watch it grow into the world's largest professional sharing community. Traffic grew 400% last year to 25 million unique monthly visitors, the majority of which are business decision makers. And guess what, its mostly people (and increasingly companies) pitching each other. So over the past couple of months the team has rolled out a line of business products to make it more efficient. Today SlideShare launched Channels, giving businesses the opportunity to associate themselves with a topical aggregation of business content or have a…

• Links for 2010-01-19 [del.icio.us]

  20 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am

  How Registration Forms are Killing B2B SoftwareMarketing Survey Says: 75% IT Pros Won’t Register for White Papers

• Links for 2010-01-13 [del.icio.us]

  14 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am

  Jaron Lanier on the Internet: World Wide Mush - WSJ.com While I don't agree with it, I appreciate Jaron's view

• Links for 2010-01-01 [del.icio.us]

  2 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am

  The Listorious 140 - Who's Been on Twitter the Longest? I'm the 92nd person who joined Twitter

• Links for 2009-12-25 [del.icio.us]

  26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am

  Op-Ed Columnist - A Most Meaningful Gift Idea - NYTimes.com Inhabiting the virtual city: Sociable information spaces Judith Donath's thesis from back then

• 
  Web 2.0 Venture Capital Update

• Imperative Health Receives $4MM – formerly MiLife

  brian@longest.com (Brian Longest)

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm

  Imperative Health B Round: $4,000,000 Founded: 01/2008 Industry: Services More Here Imperative Health received $4 Million [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Impact Radius Received $6 Million for Advertising Platform

  brian@longest.com (Brian Longest)

  29 Nov 1999 | 1:00 pm

  Impact Radius A Round: $6,000,000 Founded: 01/2007 Industry: Mobile More Here Impact Radius provides an advertising [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• BrightRoll Receives $10 MM More So you Can Have Video Advertisements

  brian@longest.com (Brian Longest)

  29 Nov 1999 | 1:00 pm

  BrightRoll Seed: $5,000,000C Round: $10,000,000 Founded: 01/2007 Industry: Mobile More Here BrightRoll is a video advertising [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Sway Received Funding for Shoutlet

  brian@longest.com (Brian Longest)

  29 Nov 1999 | 1:00 pm

  Sway A Round: $2,000,000 Founded: 01/2008 Industry: Mobile More Here Sway is a social media consulting [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Koofers Academic Site Receives $1.5 MM

  brian@longest.com (Brian Longest)

  29 Nov 1999 | 1:00 pm

  Koofers A Round: $1,500,000 Founded: 01/2008 Industry: Directories More Here Koofers is an academic community for [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  DEMO Conference Blog

• DEMO Spring Preferred Registration deadline extended to 2/12

  DEMO Staff

  2 Feb 2010 | 2:27 pm

  Attend DEMO in 2010 and get involved early with the next round of companies shaping the industry. DEMO's focus on seven sectors: Social and Media, Health and Life Science, Clean and Sustaining Tech, Cloud, Enterprise, Mobile and Consumer has generated interest from hundreds of companies around the world looking to launch at DEMO this spring.  Read more

• DEMO Spring 2010.. 7 key tech verticals to take center stage

  DEMO Staff

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:44 pm

  The DEMO Spring 2010 class of demonstrators and alphapitch companies is quickly coming together.  Attend DEMO and be there to see the latest innovation across seven different categories, both B2B and B2C, including: Read more

• DEMOfall 09 demonstrator Micello's products now available

  DEMO Staff

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:38 pm

  The Micello Indoor Maps application is now available for download on the Apple iTunes store! www.micello.com.  Watch more on how Micello extends Google's navigation to indoor spaces  http://bit.ly/4Sa2A4  Read more

• DEMO Conference, in 20th year, Gets Straight A’s from Participating Technology Start-Ups

  DEMO Staff

  13 Jan 2010 | 7:13 pm

  In observance of its 20th year as the industry’s premier forum for launching IT-enabled products, DEMO Conference organizers commissioned a survey by BluePoint Venture Marketing of all previous demonstrators to determine the conference’s impact on early-stage companies and gauge company success rates. Over 100 senior executives participated in the survey, and the results revealed that DEMO presenters achieved above-average success rates overall and nearly a quarter were able to obtain funding within one year of presenting. Read more

• Want to launch at DEMO? Join us at an open house at Kleiner Perkins

  Matt Marshall

  11 Jan 2010 | 10:27 am

  If you’re considering launching your company’s product at DEMO conference this year, you’re welcome to join us at an open house at one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. On Feb. Read more

• 
  Yahoo! Finance: Venture Capital News

• Milagro Exploration Announces the Completion of Restructuring Transaction (Business Wire)

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:44 am

  HOUSTON----Milagro Exploration today announced completion of its corporate restructuring.

• CORRECTING and REPLACING Viryd Technologies Adds Investment to Commercialize Advanced Wind Turbine Technology (Business Wire)

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:22 am

  CEDAR PARK, Texas----Please replace the release with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions.

• Bibby Financial Services Sees Success with Special Factoring Programs Aimed at Young and Growing Apparel Companies (Business Wire)

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:02 am

  LOS ANGELES----Apparel companies, which are starting to see increasing demand for their products after a nearly two-year drought, are seeking accounts receivable financing under special funding programs offered by Bibby Financial Services aimed at young, rapidly growing companies.

• AMD Canada Slated to Receive $56 Million CAD Grant from Ontario Government (Business Wire)

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:17 am

  MARKHAM, Ontario----AMD today announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, under which the Ministry will award a five-year grant of $56.4 million CAD to AMD Canada under Ontario’s Next Generation of Jobs Fund.

• SEPATON Exits 2009 with Product Leadership, Customer Expansion and Growth Outpacing Overall Market (Business Wire)

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am

  MARLBOROUGH, Mass.----SEPATON, Inc. the leader in enterprise-class disk-based data protection solutions, today announced that it extended its record for the sixth consecutive year of delivering product excellence, broadening new customer adoption among the world’s most recognizable enterprises, and reaffirming existing customer commitment by expanding protected data capacity across its install base.

• 
  Venture Hacks

• In a board room, somewhere in Silicon Valley…

  Nivi

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:20 pm

  … a founder, a VC, and his Associate negotiate a down round. Very NSFW. Video: Old Face Andre talks economics with Omar Another business lesson from The Wire — about intellectual property: “It ain’t about right, it’s about money.”

• StartupList: Day 1 — Thank You

  Nivi

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:07 am

  We’re blown away by the support for StartupList and AngelList. Thank you to TechCrunch, Business Insider, and ReadWriteWeb for describing these lists better than we could. Thank you to the well-known investors, successful entrepreneurs, and up-and-coming entrepreneurs discussing these lists on Twitter. Widget: Twitter discussion about AngelList and StartupList New angels on AngelList 75 new angels have applied to AngelList. We’re going through the applications one-by-one. I added some great investors today: Chris DeVore from Founders Co-op Robin Klein in London Thomas Korte, an…

• Launch: StartupList — a new way to reach angels

  Nivi

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:27 am

  Yesterday, we launched AngelList, a curated list of angel investors, representing $80M going into early-stage startups this year. Today, we’re launching a cool new way to get intros to these angels: StartupList. It’s a weekly email we send to AngelList, with 3 high-quality startups who want intros. Here’s how it works: you send us your pitch, we review it and, every Monday, we email the best 3 startups of the week to AngelList. StartupList is already getting meetings for startups I’m psyched because StartupList is already working. We released it on Twitter a few weeks…

• Launch: AngelList, a curated list of angel investors

  Nivi

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:05 am

  I’m psyched to announce AngelList, a curated list of super high-quality angel investors. And how to reach them. Investors like Jeff Clavier, Dave McClure, Rob Hayes, Aaron Patzer, Brad Feld, and 50 other investors have already joined. I want to thank all of the angels for taking the time to fill out these extensive profiles. And it’s not fair for me to list just a few of the investors here — they’re all awesome. You should click and browse the entire AngelList. Together, they represent $80M that will be invested in early-stage startups this year. Angels: How to join…

• When you’re raising money, the competition isn’t the competition

  Nivi

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:23 am

  Simeon Simeonov: “You have to understand that you are not competing with an abstract notion of what a good investment is. You are competing with the other teams that saw the investor that week.” This is why investors often don’t have good reasons why they’re passing. Maybe your company is good, but the competition is simply better. It’s really hard to understand this until 20 companies pitch you in one week. Simeon continues, “To an investor, it costs about the same in terms of time to make a big or a small investment. Given the same risk/return…

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  Venture Capital

• LensVector gets funding for camera autofocus technology

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:48 pm

  LensVector targets its technology for millions of cameras

• Harris: Coulomb Technologies gets funding for electric car charging stations

  4 Feb 2010 | 5:36 am

  Coulomb envisions a landscape transformed by a kind of "smart grid" of Web-networked charging stations that will communicate with drivers about their availability.

• Ustream gets $75 million in venture funding for live video streaming

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:49 am

  Ustream, a Silicon Valley startup that specializes in Internet video streaming services, on Tuesday announced it had secured $75 million in second-round funding, topping a flurry of venture capital deals this week for valley companies involved in a range of technologies.

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  Venture Capital Access Online

• VCPro Database 2010 ***NEW Edition***

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pm

  2010 Edition Now Available! VCPro Database 2010 (13th Edition) is a downloadable venture capital and private equity directory with complete profiles of over 4,200 venture capital firms worldwide. Compiled by a veteran VC researcher, VCPro Venture Capital Database is available in both Windows and Macintosh formats. (includes a FREE mid-year update in July 2010) Click the above link to learn more.

• U.S. Venture Capital Investment Finishes Year Strong with Flurry of Deals in 4Q; The Year Sees Investment Down 31% From 2008

  21 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pm

  NEW YORK, January 22, 2010-- An overall bad year ended on a high note as venture deal activity increased in the fourth quarter of 2009. Venture investors put $6.3 billion to work in 743 deals in the most recent quarter, up slightly from the $6.1 billion invested in 619 deals during the same period in 2008, according to statistics released today by Dow Jones VentureSource. In total, 2009 saw 2,489 deals completed and $21.4 billion in venture capital invested in U.S. companies, a 31% drop from 2008 when $31 billion was invested in 2,817 deals. Click the above link to read the news story.

• 2009 Venture Investment Declines to Lowest Levels in More Than a Decade

  21 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pm

  WASHINGTON, DC, January 22, 2010-- Venture capitalists invested $17.7 billion in 2,795 deals in 2009, marking the lowest level of dollar investment since 1997, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data from Thomson Reuters. Venture investments in 2009 represented a 37 percent decrease in dollars and a 30 percent decrease in deal volume from 2008. It was the second consecutive year of annual deal and dollar declines. Investments in the fourth quarter of 2009 totaled $5.0 billion in 794 deals, a 2 percent…

• A New Addition to VC Bookstore

  20 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pm

  Active Private Equity Real Estate Strategy By: David J. Lynn (Author) Click the above link to learn more.

• A New Addition to VC Bookstore

  20 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pm

  Private Equity: History, Governance, and Operations By: Harry Cendrowski (Author), James P. Martin (Author), Louis W. Petro (Author), Adam A. Wadecki (Author) Click the above link to learn more.

• 
  VC & Angel Investor Profiles

• Investor Profile: Pyramid Technology Ventures

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  Alexander Rhea, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Pyramid Technology Ventures Alexander is a proven CEO and repeat entrepreneur who came to venture capital 10 years ago. From 1995 to 2000, Alex successfully led the development of the US investment practice at Part�Com, an $800 million VC firm based in Paris, by being an early investor in companies such as Phone.com, InterWAVE, Signalsoft and Be. Earlier in his career, Alex was hired by GET Capital, a private equity fund, as a turnaround CEO for one of its portfolio companies. Alex�s management skills were first proven when he was…

• Investor Profile: The Florida Value Fund

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  Gil Hermon, Managing Director, The Florida Value Fund Between 1996 and 1998, Mr. Hermon was a Senior Associate with the investment banking department of Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York where he advised Fortune 500 clients in a broad range of industries. Between 1998 and 2001, Mr. Hermon was a partner with the investment partnership Shaykin & Co. in New York. Between 2001 and 2003, Mr. Hermon served as partner at the Challenge Funds which manage over $250 million of capital and have investments in over eighty portfolio companies. Mr. Hermon earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Labor…

• Investor Profile: Formative Ventures

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  Clint Chao, General Partner, Formative Ventures Clint Chao is a founding general partner at Formative Ventures. Clint invests in emerging technologies start-ups in areas such as communications, wireless, and next-generation Internet solutions. Clint is an experienced technology executive who brings more than 20 years of start-up operating experience including marketing, sales and business development to Formative Ventures. His investments and board leadership include Mashery, Marketocracy, Silicon Clocks, Smalltown, SOASTA, and Zyray Wireless (acquired by Broadcom in 2004). Prior to…

• Investor Profile: New World Angels

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  Jonathan Cole, Angel Investor, New World Angels Jon has 37 years of experience with venture capital, leveraged acquisitions, and emerging technology companies, particularly in optical and wireless networks, software, biotech and life sciences and information technology. He is a frequent lecturer at national and international conferences on entrepreneurial venture finance, the venture capital industry and the life sciences capital markets and related transaction structures, strategic alliances and mergers and acquisitions. Jon is a "lifer" at the Firm, having joined the Providence office…

• Investor Profile: Golden Seeds

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  Peggy Wallace, Portfolio Manager, Golden Seeds Peggy Wallace, General Partner of the Golden Seeds Fund, is the Portfolio Manager for Golden Seeds. Peggy's 20 + year career prior to becoming an investor was in financial services. The majority of her career was with J.P. Morgan/Chase where she specialized in structured finance, risk management, and financial services M&A. Peggy retains a board position with private company Chromis Fiberoptics. She holds a B. A. from The George Washington University. Peggy participated in the FundingPost event: Perfect Venture Conference V on November 12, 2009…

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  VentureWoods

• Koovs.com - Buy in Group and Get Best Deals

  Amit Raj

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:02 am

  Koovs.com is an online platform to find and buy all kind of products at discounted prices. This service aims to bring people with similar interest together at one place and facilitate them getting the best price from the service provider using the power of group buying. Each day, koovs features a deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in your city. The deal is only valid if the minimum numbers of people sign up within a certain time period. If it happens then they will charge you and your printable Koov coupon will become available under “My Coupons” section which you can…

• Building the Green Entrepreneurial Ecosystem city by Indian city

  Sanjoy

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:12 am

  “The nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. “ This is what President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address. Building the clean energy economy is not easy. Entrepreneurs have to start building businesses, investors will have to understanding them and professionals will have to get excited about the opportunities. Transitioning to a cleantech economy means creating an entirely new entrepreneurial ecosystem. TiE Bangalore, CIIE and New Ventures India collaborated in hosting the Cleantech Mentoring Workshop in Bangalore,…

• IBF Media event on Cloud Computing

  Alok Mittal

  26 Jan 2010 | 11:39 pm

  IBF Media, through Capital Connection, is organising an event around Cloud Computing on February 25, 2010 at Ista Hotel, Bangalore The Latest Trends in Cloud Computing: An Operators and Investors Perspective This event showcases some of the latest trends in cloud computing and looks at some of the successful business models and companies in this emerging technology area. The panel will be composed of successful venture investors from the Indian venture capital industry as well as technology executives from companies in India that are succeeding in this space. There has been strong investment…

• Sneak Preview: Proto.in Mumbai - January 30th, IIT Bombay

  Ravi

  26 Jan 2010 | 7:55 am

  Like any Start-up before it’s big release, we at the Team Proto have been extremely busy with the big event which is coming to town. As some of you should be aware, Proto.in is taking place on the 30th of Jan in IIT Bombay. For Start-ups, Investors and the Audience alike, we have an action packed day - one like never before at any of our events. If you haven’t checked in for the event already - do register on http://register.proto.in If there’s one thing, that’s come to the fore during our selection process - it’s that innovation in India is certainly alive and…

• ZumoDrive expanding team in Asia

  Sunil Bhargava

  25 Jan 2010 | 6:15 pm

  One of our startups - Zumodrive is expanding its operations to Singapore. It is still a very small team and this is a fun opportunity for a couple of people who could move to Singapore to join the team. Kevin West their CTO will be relocating and will build a small team in Singapore. If you are interested and a fan of Zumodrive here is the link to the jobs. Zumodrive started as a YC company and then we partnered with them. On another note, A couple of our other companies and I presented at Berkeley Business School a few months ago. They have put the video up in which Sarah from Juice Box…

• 
  topix: venture capital news

• Redpoint Closes $400 Million Early-Stage Fund

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:37 am

  Redpoint Ventures said Monday that it has closed a new $400 million fund, which will target early-stage investments in social networking, and mobile products, cloud computing and clean technology.

• Essex Woodlands Partners With Dan Lemaitre to Target Growth Equity...

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:23 pm

  White Pine Medical is led by CEO Dan Lemaitre, former President and CEO of CoreValve, which was acquired by Medtronic in April 2009.

• Veracode pulls in $12.3M in VC financing

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:08 pm

  Security software developer Veracode Inc. has raised $12.3 million in venture capital.

• The Biggest Challenges Facing Biotechs

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:48 pm

  It's clear to most health-care investors and industry insiders that biotech drugs are the future of the pharmaceutical industry, but those tiny biotechs that seem so promising need a lot of support from the government and venture capitalists.

• Ustream gets $75 million in venture funding for live video streaming

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:39 pm

  Ustream, a Silicon Valley startup that specializes in Internet video streaming services, on Tuesday announced it had secured $75 million in second-round funding, topping a flurry of venture capital deals this week for valley companies involved in a range of technologies.

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  VCCircle Feeds

• MakeMyTrip To Buy Bus Ticketing Site Ticketvala.com

  Sarimul I Choudhury

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:21 am

  MakeMyTrip (MMT), India's largest online travel company, is reportedly in the final stage of discussions to buy Ticketvala.com, a Mumbai-based provider of online bus ticket reservation services, according to a report in Medianama. Ticketvala.com is the flagship brand of Travis Internet Pvt Ltd. When contacted by VCCircle, Deep Kalra, founder and CEO of MakeMyTrip, declined to comment on the development. Ticketvala.com had raised venture capital funding of $2 million from Footprint Ventures, a Bangalore-based venture capital firm, in 2007. Apart from bus services, Ticketvala also…

• ICICI Pru, Realty Fund Invest Rs 40Cr In Shriram Project

  Madhav Chanchani

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:07 am

  Deals in the property space are trickling in. Bangalore-based Shriram Properties Ltd, part of the diversified Shriram Group, has raised Rs 40 crore from ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited and India Opportunities Real Estate Fund (Mauritius) for their 16-acre residential project in Yelhanka, the northern suburb of Bangalore. With this investment, ICICI Prudential and the realty fund would hold a 49% stake in the Rs 280-project that is targeting the mid-income housing segment. Shriram Properties managing director M Murali told VCCircle that the project, Shriram Sahaana, with a…

• Radifinity Gets On Board Aditya Birla Minacs

  Sarimul I Choudhury

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  Aditya Birla Minacs (ABM), the business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd, has brought Bangalore-based startup Radifinity under its fold. Radifinity, which provides technology solutions in radio frequency identification (RFID), smart cards, global positioning system (GPS) and GPRS, will now become a new business unit within Aditya Birla Minacs. The financial nature of this transaction could not be ascertained. Radifinity is an incubatee company of NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM, Bangalore. The founders from Radifinity have been…

• NetAmbit Gets Rs 50 Cr From Helion, Bessemer

  Madhav Chanchani

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:56 am

  NetAmbit InfoSource & e-Services Pvt. Ltd, a financial products distribution company, has raised Rs 50 crore in a second round of funding led by Helion Venture Partners. Bessemer Venture Partners, which invested in the company in 2007, has also participated in this round by investing Rs 10 crore. The funds will be used by NetAmbit to expand into newer markets through diversified distribution channels. The investment is the first by Helion in the financial services sector. The deal is one of the largest standalsone investment by Helion, said Rahul Chandra, director with Helion in an…

• Karuturi Arm In PE Deal Talks To Raise $100M

  Madhav Chanchani

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:46 am

  Karuturi Overseas Ltd, a subsidiary of world's largest rose exporter Karuturi Global, is in advanced level of talks with private equity players to raise up to $100 million to fuel its expansion plans in Africa. Banking sources told VCCircle that Standard Chartered Bank's Africa private equity arm and a unit of Reliance Capital are in talks to invest in the Dubai-based Karuturi Overseas. Several other PE players and hedge funds are also in the reckoning to buy stake in thesubsidiary. Karuturi Overseas is the holding company for the Karuturi Group's Africa operations, which has interests in…

• 
  Seeing Both Sides

• Curt Schilling Earns (an Expensive) Harvard Business School MBA

  bussgang

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:54 am

  In his storied baseball career, Curt Schilling has rarely found himself at a loss for words.  So it was great fun to watch him sit speechless for an hour as Harvard Business School students dissected his entrepreneurial venture and some of the choices he was making as a manager, leader and strategist. The setting was akin to sitting around the living room analyzing last night's World Series pitching performance.  Judging from the rigor of their analysis, the students would have put a bevy of ESPN and newspaper sportscasters to shame. The two classes I taught this week at HBS, based…

• A Lost Generation of Entrepreneurs?

  bussgang

  27 Jan 2010 | 2:51 am

  I've been worrying lately that we are suffering from a lost generation of entrepreneurs.That was my first reaction when I read what Sequoia's Doug Leone said a few weeks ago about innovation and age at a recent talk with MIT Sloan students visiting Silicon Valley, where Leone claimed that only people under the age of 30 are truly innovative.  Over 30 folks can manage innovation, Leone observed, but you need to be under 30 to create it.  Examples cited included Jack Dorsey, Twitter's founder who was 30 at the time that he started the service.Now you can argue whether this is…

• The Five Domains of High Performance

  bussgang

  18 Jan 2010 | 4:55 pm

  I'm pleased to have a guest blog post by Kevin Oakes, CEO of my portfolio company i4cp (the Institute for Corporate Productivity) and a leading thinker in leadership and high performance.Pick a leader - any successful leader. Then search Amazon and see how many books and other publications come up on that person. Abraham Lincoln? 83,642. Gandhi? 61,923. Even Barack Obama, who was widely introduced to the world just five years ago, has 8,670. People love studying successful people.In the same way that many people have an insatiable appetite to study successful leaders, we in the business…

• Why Invest in oneforty and the Real-Time Web?

  bussgang

  14 Jan 2010 | 6:40 am

  Today's announcement of our investment in oneforty is a useful prompt to talk about why I'm a big believer (and now investor) in the real-time Web.The real-time Web (i.e., the overwhelming stream of instant, free flowing information available digitally) is clearly hitting the mainstream. One can declare this confidently when even CNN calls it a "top 10 trend" for 2010.The recent debate over Twitter's traffic volume (as played out in TechCrunch and betaworks' John Borthwick's blog, "Charting the Real-Time Web"), suggests that the real-time Web…

• Where Have All The Good Mentors Gone (from Boston)?

  bussgang

  10 Jan 2010 | 6:17 pm

  I confess to being a Shrek fan. My kids made me (well, sort of) buy the music CD to Shrek 2 and my favorite song on that CD is the Jennifer Saunders song - "Holding Out For A Hero". When they were little we would play it over and over again in the car. I had that song ringing in my head as I joined a few other start-up mavens at a recent gathering last week organized by Scott Kirsner at the Microsoft NERD Center in Kendall Square.  One of the topics we discussed was: where have all the good mentors and angels gone from Boston?  Unlike in Silicon Valley, where successful…

• 
  Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

• From MSFT evangelist to Mac enthusiast - the other side of the road

  DonDodge

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:50 am

  For five years I was a Microsoft evangelist to the startup and venture capital community. That ended a couple months ago. I am now a Developer Advocate at Google and I love it. After years of defending Microsoft against the Apple fanatics I decided to go to the other side of the road to see for myself. Microsoft frowns on employees using competitive products, and there isn't much time or budget to do it anyway. So, the move from Microsoft gave me the opportunity to try lots of new things. The move from Microsoft was complete. From Windows to Mac, from Outlook to Gmail, from Explorer to Google…

• Google Apps announces de-support of IE6

  DonDodge

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:30 pm

  Internet Explorer 6.0 launched in August of 2001, more than 8 years ago. Microsoft’s current version is IE 8. Web developers have complained for years about needing to support multiple versions of browsers and the security risks in older browsers. Older browsers don’t support new features, particularly around voice and video. In a move to encourage users to upgrade to modern browser versions Google Apps announced they will stop supporting IE 6 effective March 1, 2010. The feedback from developers was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. Microsoft itself will end support for IE 6 on July…

• How Google sets goals and measures success

  DonDodge

  28 Jan 2010 | 7:05 am

  Google sets impossible bodacious goals…and then achieves them. The engineering mindset of solving the impossible problem is part of the culture instilled in every group at Google. Tough engineering problems don’t have obvious answers. You need to invent the solution, not just optimize something that exists. Every quarter every group at Google sets goals, called OKRs, for the next 90 days. Most big companies set annual goals like improving or growing something by x%, and then measure performance once a year. At Google a year is like a decade. Annual goals aren’t good enough. Set…

• SeedCamp European startups visit NYC and Silicon Valley

  DonDodge

  21 Jan 2010 | 3:55 pm

  SeedCamp is a European based startup incubator similar to Ycombinator or TechStars here in the USA. Google hosted the top startups from the program in New York City and Silicon Valley this week. Each startup pitched to an audience of VCs, Angels, and startup mentors. Here is a short overview of each company written in real time as they presented. Please forgive the brevity…they talk very fast. Advertag - Tag based search for advertisements for job listings, stock photos, etc. Companies looking to hire people tag their ads with Advertag. Then the ads show up on their destination site. Sort…

• What do Mark Cuban, Dan Farber, Steve Ballmer, and Mary Jo Foley have in common?

  DonDodge

  21 Jan 2010 | 7:00 am

  Doing what you love to do is a special privilege. Many people trudge through life working jobs they don’t like, or in these times, struggling to find a job at all. This week I had the chance to spend time with Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Dan Farber, Editor in Chief of CBSnews.com, and Mary Jo Foley, author of Microsoft 2.0, and writer of MicrosoftWatch. During our conversations Microsoft and Steve Ballmer usually came up. On reflection it became clear to me what all of these people have in common; they love what they do. Steve Ballmer and Mark Cuban are billionaires many…

• 
  Bizjournals.com: Venture Capital

• Miami man convicted in loan brokering scam

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:13 pm

  A Miami man faces up to 60 years behind bars after being convicted in a loan brokering scam.

• AG blocks 3 from debt-collection business

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:45 am

  The state Attorney General has obtained court orders barring the three principals of a Western New York debt collection operation from having involvement in such businesses and secured restitution for victims by that company’s scare tactics.

• James named Regal Financial CEO

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:06 am

  Randy James has been named to replace Jesse Tam as permanent CEO of Regal Financial Bank.

• S&P revises BofA, Citi’s outlook to negative

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:55 am

  Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service said Tuesday that it downgraded its outlook on Bank of America and Citigroup to negative from stable. (BAC) (C)

• Venture capital investments in clean tech fell by half in 2009

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:28 am

  Venture capital investment in clean-tech businesses fell by 45 percent between the third and fourth quarters and by half in 2009, according to an Ernst & Young LLP report. (DOW)

• 
  PE Hub Blog

• Q&A On M&A: Roark’s Steve Romaniello Talks Restaurant Deals

  Erin Griffith

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:56 am

  For the restaurant industry, a recession can mean feast or famine. For Roark Capital, the plan is to chow down. The Atlanta-based buyout firm looking both for new restaurant acquisitions and add-on to its FOCUS Brands platform, which already includes Carvel, Cinnabon, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Schlotzsky’s, Seattle’s Best International and McAlister’s Deli. Roark’s $1 billion fund, which closed in 2008, is 30% deployed. I spoke with Steve Romaniello, a managing director with the firm, on being “on-trend,” bidding for cheese, deal multiples, and…

• “The Bachelor” Dumped by Facebook Employee

  Connie Loizos

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:53 am

  We’ll never know if Ali Fedotowsky was really falling in love on this season’s “The Bachelor.” In the middle of the show’s filming, the perky advertising accounts manager at Facebook was told that if she wanted to hang on to her job, she’d better get back to it, tout de suite. It was a devasting turn in the “journey” of limo-business-owning pilot, Jake Pavelka, who stars in the show’s seventh season. Fedotowsky was among the final four contestants chosen by Pavelka. In fact, she broke the news to him on the heels of a “hometown date”…

• New Fund Performance Data from UTIMCO

  Dan Primack

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:22 am

  A large number of public pension funds now report fund-by-fund private equity performance (if you ask nicely), but they also report on a lag. The CalSTRS website, for example, only reports data through the end of March 2009. CalPERS does one quarter better, while Mass PRIM only releases 12/31 data – which means we won’t see those numbers until May or June. Oregon and Washington are among the best, with their websites currently showing data through the end of Q3 2009. But Oregon and Washington are not the gold standard. That would be the University of Texas Investment Management Co.

• peHUB First Read

  Dan Primack

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:55 am

  * HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah: 9 quick tips learned while raising $33 million in venture capital * Sorkin hedges a bit on his criticism of the recent HCA dividend, letting an analyst report titled “Shell Game” draw most of the blood. * Google is expected to roll out its Twitter killer today, but Nicholas Carson (correctly) says it needs to play nice with Twitter (and Facebook) in order to succeed. Also: Dave Winer gives his wishlist for what Google’s service could/should offer and Scoble thinks Twitter and Facebook will be just fine. * Morning Call: U.S. futures lifted by…

• LPs’ $400 Million Vote of Confidence: Redpoint Ventures Raises Fund IV

  Connie Loizos

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:55 pm

  At an annual investors’ meeting in the wake of the dot bust, several LPs in Redpoint Ventures growled that Geoff Yang — who while golfing with John Walecka in 1999, decided to form Redpoint — was spending too much time on the links. (They had looked up his tee times at the Sharon Heights Country Club in Menlo Park.) No one is complaining about Yang’s favorite pastime anymore. Tonight, Redpoint announced it has just closed a $400 million fund, reward in part for a number of the envy-inducing exits it saw last year, at the height of the worst recession in decades, including: the…

• 
  Technosailor.com

• Do Not Lock In To One Device Lest You Kill Your Company

  Aaron Brazell

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:26 am

  It’s funny. Comical even. A few weeks ago, I wrote that The iPhone is to Smartphones as IE6 was to Browsers. Most of the readers of that article agreed with me but almost all had a “but, but, but…” argument. This is because the iPhone is one sexy beast to users, even though AT&T can’t seem to support the iPhone, as we also noted. This is a comical observation because my position was endorsed (if not directly) by Peter-Paul Koch who daintily comments that “[He] will shout at web developers who think that delicately inserting an iPhone up their ass is the…

• HipHop, PHP, and the Evolution of Language

  Aaron Brazell

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:37 am

  A lively little discussion developed over the past few days on the DC-PHP developers mailing list. We have a very active developers group here in the DC area – much larger than most cities, in fact. Part of what makes our group great is the diversity of background and experience that is in the group. This was front and center over the past few days when one of our members, Hans, offered his opinions on Facebook’s new HipHop for PHP product. We have already expressed our intent to help make WordPress compliant with HipHop, something that will be beneficial to major WordPress sites…

• Facebook’s HipHop and What it Means to WordPress

  Aaron Brazell

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:42 am

  This was originally posted on my company blog and reposted here for posterity. By now, the news has hit the street about Facebook’s new PHP pseudo-compiler technology that is looking set to change the PHP world once again. It is called HipHop for PHP. Here at Emmense, we build on PHP and more specifically, we build on WordPress. The PHP community as a whole continues to innovate the language and Facebook has been a longstanding member of that community. WordPress stands on the shoulders who have gone before, and there are certainly instances of large-scale installs of WordPress that…

• WordPress Bible Release

  Aaron Brazell

  28 Jan 2010 | 7:52 am

  Last night, I got home to find my copies of the WordPress Bible at my door. This was tremendously exciting as I have been waiting for 8 months for this day. It was exciting and the buzz on Twitter has been tremendous. Pre-sale numbers were huge. The sharing and re-sharing of information about this book has been deafening. Below is a video of the unboxing. And of course, you can order the book today from Amazon and I hope you do. If not for the book, to support my efforts. Thanks to everyone who has stood by me during this process!

• The Greater Good: Entrepreneurship, Open Source, and a Better World

  Aaron Brazell

  22 Jan 2010 | 1:22 pm

  Last night, I was catching up with a friend who is as far from me in lifestyle outlook as you could possibly be. She is a extremely left wing type working for an environmental advocacy organization in DC. I, on the other hand, am an entrepreneur with one foot planted firmly on the right and one foot firmly planted on the left. The conversation came to an issue that I’ve only marginally thought in great detail about. I had made the comment about how I am potentially looking to leave the DC area because, as I put it, it’s not my scene. I feel like a square peg trying to be fit into…

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  LINKEDIN ANSWERS: VC AND PRIVATE EQUITY

• How can I conceptualize the strategic scientific interests in terms of relative social benefits for taxpayers of the various kinds of research sponsorship done publicly (government), rather than privately (foundations, corporations, etc.)?

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:13 am

• Who are the best bloggers / blogs covering the Indian Startup Scene ?

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:56 am

• Who are the best bloggers / blogs covering the Indian Startup Scene ?

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:55 am

• What VC's should i be looking at for greentech?

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:28 pm

  <br>Clarification added February 1, 2010 9:14 AM: Targetting specifically high efficiency solar cell production. Highly niche technology

• If I Sell 100,000 untis of My New Product To Target, What Companies Out There Will Fund The Purchase Order Until Target Pays In Full?

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:12 pm

  If Target is to buy 100,000 units of my new product, that will make my business, but also make us broke. No bank will lend us that kind of money for a purchase order. Are there companies out there that will take purchase orders from retailers and take the risk that they will actually pay in full? If anyone knows someone, can you please lend me an into.?Thanks so much.

• 
  GigaOM

• Google Launches a Serious Case of Facebook Envy

  Liz Gannes

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:10 pm

  Google Buzz and the services it supports at launch I was totally on board with Google Buzz, the company’s late entry into the modern-day social web launching today, until it became dramatically evident how freaked out Google is by Facebook. Despite multiple questions from journalists at today’s press briefing at Google’s HQ in Mountain View, Calif., today about the elephant in the room, the buzz product team and executives couldn’t manage a single utterance of the word “Facebook.” Such silence has two implications: One, it speaks to defensive and reactive…

• Startup Nasuni Targets Primary Storage in the Cloud

  Derrick Harris

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:15 am

  Cloud storage startup Nasuni entered public beta today, bringing with it a new, but familiar, approach to storing primary data. Instead of competing in the already overpopulated cloud storage-provider market — where offerings generally target backup operations and simple file storage — the Natick, Mass.-based startup sells software that looks and acts like a traditional file system but stores data in cloud offerings from Amazon, Rackspace, Nirvanix and Iron Mountain. For $250 a month plus capacity fees (Nasuni covers data transfer costs), customers can use Nasuni to house their…

• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Location

  Liz Gannes

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:38 am

  It’s clear that location is an opportunity ready for its time, but making technology smarter by knowing where we are needs to happen as part of a platform, not be an end unto itself. That’s why I found — and I think many entrepreneurs, developers and investors will find — Phil Hendrix’s new report for GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d) particularly useful. There’s a lot going on here and it’s helpful to get all the pieces in one place. “Location: The Epicenter of Mobile Innovation in 2010” is immr founder Hendrix’ 56-page primer on the…

• TweepML Shows Risks of a Twitter-based Startup

  Mathew Ingram

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:01 am

  It sounded like a great idea when TweepML launched last September: an easy way to manage lists of Twitter users, including sharing them with others, allowing anyone to follow all the users on the list with a single click. Unfortunately, it was such a good idea that Twitter launched something almost identical a month or so later, and TweepML founder Marcelo Calbucci has now put the company up for sale on the Flippa auction site. You can put in a bid for the company, or you can buy it right now for $79,000 and get all the code, accumulated data and any associated domains. Calbucci, who started…

• 10 Questions for Greentech Investor David Gelbaum

  Katie Fehrenbacher

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:22 am

  The famously private investor David Gelbaum, founder of The Quercus Trust, and who by his own estimates has between 40 and 50 cleantech investments, as a rule hasn’t done interviews for years. According to the last comprehensive story on him, published in the LA Times in 2004, the former math whiz, hedge fund manager and philanthropist, is so anonymous he’s sometimes mistaken for his gardener. But this afternoon, on the heels of Gelbaum accepting the role of CEO of one of his portfolio companies Entech Solar (the first time he’s taken over as CEO), Gelbaum got on the phone…

• 
  EzineArticles.com

• Rule #3 When Raising Private Money - Get More Than You Need

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:42 pm

  There's an old rule of thumb when it comes to raising capital: always ask for more money than you need. This is for two reasons.

• Business Venture Capital - You're Never Too Small to Raise Money

  1 Feb 2010 | 1:01 pm

  One of the top reasons why new businesses fail is that they have insufficient funding. Because I never want to see this happen to you, I would like to cover some key tips for generating capital for your business, even if your new business venture is only days or weeks old.

• Follow Wal-Mart's Joint Venture Example

  29 Jan 2010 | 1:08 pm

  If you're a business owner or entrepreneur who wants to find a way to increase sales and enter new business arenas, a joint venture is a great way to break into new horizons. An entrepreneur with savvy business acumen can research, find, and negotiate a JV deal with another business that can help achieve new business goals.

• Angel Investor Activity on the Rise - Private Placements Continue to Grow

  29 Jan 2010 | 12:41 pm

  Angel investors are starting to recover from the 2008-early 2009 "Great Recession." This may create an extraordinary opportunity for angel investors to get in on the ground floor of companies that could fuel the recovery and skyrocket investor returns. Cautious signs of recovery seem to abound. Start-up companies can provide the kicker to investor portfolios that will more than compensate for the major market declines of the last 18 months.

• Funding Sources - Part 2

  29 Jan 2010 | 11:44 am

  Find out where to find the big money you need to launch your product or business. There are more ways to find this money than you think.

• 
  Ventureblogs

• The Fathers of the Venture Capital Industry

  David Hornik

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:06 pm

  What we think of as Venture Capital today is a pretty young profession. "Modern" VC firms first came into existence in the 1960s, started by the likes of Bill Draper, Pitch Johnson and Reid Dennis. These visionaries shaped the technology industry, and lay the groundwork for everything that we VCs do today. My friend Paul Holland and the folks at Foundation Capital have produced a new documentary that tells the story of the early days of the venture business. The film is called "More than Money: The Untold Tale of Risk, Reward and the Original Venture Capitalists." Those original VCs…

• My 10th TED Conference

  David Hornik

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:27 am

  I've just arrived in Long Beach for the annual TED conference. When I first started going to TED, it was a relatively small, relatively unknown gathering in Monterey, California. But don't confuse relatively small and relatively unknown for relatively uninteresting. Since its inception, the TED conference has been an amazing gathering of people across a variety of disciplines (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design). And with the advent of TED's fantastic video destination site and a growing number of enthusiastic boosters, the conference has become much larger and much more…

• Four Square Fatigue and the Evolution of Privacy

  David Hornik

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:59 am

  Over the last few weeks I've started to suffer from Four Square fatigue. After all, Four Square is a lot of work. To get the benefits of Four Square, you need to proactively check in wherever you go. And, while each checkin requires a relatively small amount of work, in the aggregate, it takes real effort to make the most of the Four Square experience. Would it be better if Four Square just checked you in automatically any time you lingered at a location for more than 15 or 20 minutes? Or does that cross the privacy line for most of us? The challenges of Four Square have gotten me thinking…

• Is "Value Added Investor" An Oxymoron?

  David Hornik

  29 Jan 2010 | 9:29 am

  I'm always amazed to hear VCs describe themselves as "value added investors." Not because I am skeptical about their ability to add value. More because I think all investors need to be "value added." If the only thing you do as an investor is hand out money, you are in big trouble. There's a lot of money out there. And it isn't that hard to hand it out. If all you are as a venture investor is a money dispensary, you are as fungible as the money that you are handing out. I know that in some entrepreneurial circles there is a reasonable amount of skepticism about the idea that investors can add…

• Facebook, Twitter and P&G

  David Hornik

  22 Jan 2010 | 2:07 am

  This afternoon I attended an event sponsored by Proctor & Gamble called the "Innovation Outreach Venturing Day." The event was an effort by executives at P&G to connect with the investment community in the Bay Area to discuss how P&G might work more closely with the emerging technology companies we all touch every day. The pre-amble to the event was a run down of the scale of Proctor & Gamble's business and the massive amount of technology they already leverage. The scale of P&G is pretty stunning -- P&G has 32 separate brands that do more than half a billion in revenue annually (and more…

• 
  Recent Buzzes - VC Experts, Inc.

• A Correction Program for 409A Plan Documents

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.

• Defensive Language When Pubco Announces Results - Bartlett's 'Get Out of Jail Free' card

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  The proceeding in the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York, which resulted in a not guilty verdict for two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, has been analyzed ad infinitum by the media and legal commentators. There is no effort from this corner to add to that enhanced commentary. Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.

• Deal Protection ? One Size Does Not Fit All

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  As noticeable as it is for its size, the recent Berkshire Hathaway/Burlington Northern transaction is also conspicuous as an apparent example of the parties taking a thoughtful approach to the issue of deal protection in crafting a package of terms that could be viewed as "off-market" individually, but more middle-of-the-road when taken as a whole. Sound off on this week's buzz in the Comments Section.

• Warranty Letter Provides Basis to Reject D&O Defense Obligations, According to Tenth Circuit

  26 Jan 2010 | 11:00 pm

  Policyholders seeking to obtain Directors & Officers ("D&O") and many other types of liability coverage are often confronted with the question of whether, apart from agreeing to the terms of the policy, they should also acquiesce to an insurer's request that they sign a separate warranty letter at the time of policy placement. If faced with such a request, a prospective insured should proceed with caution. Rather than simply restating conditions in the policy, warranty letters are separate agreements that insurers often try to use to impose different, less favorable, conditions upon the…

• Rebalancing Act - A Primer On Leveraged and Inverse ETFs

  25 Jan 2010 | 11:00 pm

  A leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a financial instrument that seeks to deliver a daily return that is a multiple of the return of an underlying index, while an inverse ETF seeks to deliver a daily return equal to the opposite of the return of an underlying index. For example, a 2x leveraged ETF may seek to deliver double the daily returns of the S&P 500 Index, while an inverse ETF may seek to deliver the opposite of the daily returns of the S&P 500 Index. An ETF may be both leveraged and inverse, meaning that it seeks to deliver daily returns that are a multiple of the opposite of the…

• 
  Frank Peters Show

• EBAN President Brigitte Baumann

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:42 pm

  European enthusiasm for angel investing has been growing over the past few years. What's the potential for the future? More growth, according to Brigitte Baumann, President of EBAN. Part of this growth comes from younger angels who may be working the corporate track, but are attracted to eventually become an entrepreneur. But do these younger angels qualify? In the US we use the SEC's definition of an Accredited Investor, but there's nothing like that in Europe. Are these angel groups robbing the cradle? And, besides money, what can these younger angels bring to the table? You'll be…

• Mic Williams, Boston Harbor Angels

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:57 am

  "The fact is, most of these companies will fail, no matter how much due diligence you do," so says Mic Williams. He moved to Boston for love then decided to create the Boston Harbor Angels. Mic shares the stories, the process, the syndication strategies and his refreshing attitudes about due diligence as we discuss getting deals done in New England. Show #272 (42:48) Listen Interested in exotic travel? Come to Istanbul for the EBAN 10th Annual Congress, April 15-16. Then jet-set with me to Austin for the Texas Entrepreneur Funding Symposium, April 21st. Complete the sweep in San Francisco,…

• Scientists and Engineers wanna be Entrepreneurs, too

  27 Jan 2010 | 8:32 am

  Last night I had the honor of speaking at the Entrepreneurship Course for Scientists and Engineers at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCIrvine. It was my 3rd year in a row presenting to this class. My friend Goran Matijasevic instructs and brings in a speaker a week to address the students. I can relate to this audience and we all shared a few laughs. Last night's topic: An Angel in LA, a blend of my entrepreneurial journey mixed with dance photography and stories of the Tech Coast Angels. Check out the schedule; all the guest lectures are free and open to the public. See me in…

• Istanbul bound!

  22 Jan 2010 | 10:04 am

  Got the email this morning: I'm invited to EBAN's 10th Annual Congress April 15-16 in Istanbul to moderate a panel, "One year after: angels reflect on their last investment year", where last year's Business Angels of the Year will discuss their most recent deals. Make plans now to join me.

• San Diego Angel, Vern Yates

  21 Jan 2010 | 10:54 pm

  How did angel investing get started in San Diego? My guest Vern Yates shares the story. I knew we were going to hit it off when I spotted the elaborate model trains on his patio. I can't believe my eyes as I reach for the camera. As we sit down, I know I'm in for a look back at the history of angel investing in San Diego. Vern's been there. How do you succeed in angel angel investing? Start 13 years ago, in the good ole days when Vern describes returns of 40X and 150X. If you do that you'll be playing with house money for the rest of your career. We get started with a few topics from the…

• 
  Feld Thoughts

• Example of Rally Software Building A Great Company

  Brad Feld

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:58 pm

  Lots of little things go into building a great company over the long term.  Rally Software is one that I’m proud to have been involved in from the beginning.  I remember when Ryan Martens, the founder, would sit for entire days in a small conference room near my office covering the white boards on the walls with his scribblings. Today Rally is a 150 person company that plans to add another 75 people in 2010 on the heels of Rally’s $16 million financing led by Greylock.  And – since their birth in 2002, Rally has had 17 babies (well – people that work for Rally have had…

• Open Angel Forum Is Off To A Great Start

  Brad Feld

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:18 pm

  When I wrote my post titled An Angel Investor Group Move That Makes Me VomitI expected to write my little rant and be done with it.  A month or so later Jason Calacanis picked up the mantle and started a Jihad against the idea of angel groups charging entrepreneurs to pitch to them. The result is the Open Angel Forum.  I participated in the second event last week in Boulder.  I thought it was spectacular and the twitter stream from #OAFCO reflected this sentiment.  About 20 active (at least four investments in the past year) early stage investors (angels and seed stage…

• SnapCamp in Boulder – All for Good and Lots of Fun

  Brad Feld

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

  I think Boulder is one of the absolute best places to start a tech company. The depth of talent and overall strength of our tech community here is superb. It turns out that makes it a great place to start a community-based tech nonprofit startup, too. I’ve written before about SnapImpact’s great work in making doing good easy. Having already created the first volunteering app for the iPhone, they’re started taking on some additional challenges. Specifically, their developers got the attention of All for Good, a Silicon Valley-based project that managed to make data-sharing…

• Immigrant Startup Founders – Tell Us Your Story

  Brad Feld

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:55 pm

  As the Startup Visa initiative continues to pick up momentum, we are now collecting stories from immigrants who have either started or tried to start their company in the US.  We are interested in any aspect of your story and – while we’d like to be able to have your contact info – recognize that some people will want their story to be anonymous (which is ok with us.) We’re looking to collect as many stories as we can by February 27th (11pm) so that we’ll be able to put them together in an appropriate format for the Geeks on a Plane trip to DC on 3/4/10 – 3/6/10 which will…

• Learn How Filtrbox Got A Yellow TechStars Shirt

  Brad Feld

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:44 am

  Whenever a TechStars company is acquired, they get a yellow shirt with their number on the back.  Last month Fitrbox, a TechStars Boulder 2007 company, was acquired by Jive Software.  The yellow shirt presentation is in the short video below: FiltrBox #4 TechStars Company to be Acquired from TechStars on Vimeo. On Tuesday, February 9th at the Denver Athletic Club (1325 Glenarm in Denver) Filtrbox’s founders Ari Newman and Tom Chikoore are going to do a presentation titled Filtrbox – A Case Study from Start-up to Exit on the story of Filtrbox.  I expect this will include…

• 
  Ask The VC

• GREAT New Blog – IP Law for Startups

  2 Feb 2010 | 12:11 pm

  Today, I learned that former classmate of mine at the University of Michigan has started a blog for startups dealing with intellectual property issues. Jill Bowman is a great person and her blog is not only informative, but is also written in her voice, not legalese.  (Her husband says it’s too “girly” but I totally disagree).  Jill promises to dish on IP “train wrecks” (her words) that she’s seen over the past decade and hopefully her wisdom can save some folks future headaches. She also promises to talk about costs savings in IP controversies and expose how some big…

• Is An Inside Round Good or Bad?

  30 Dec 2009 | 9:37 am

  Bijan Sabet has today’s Great VC Post titled The Inside Round.  In it, he talks about the pros and cons of an inside round which he defines as: “There are times where a follow on financing does not include a new VC firm. The new round is financed by the current investors. This is known as an “inside round”.” He also summarizes the historical conventional wisdom: “It used to be the case that an inside round often meant something was wrong. It meant the company was unable to raise money with a new outside lead investor due poor operating performance, team, market, whatever. And…

• Looking for Angel Investors for a High Tech Venture?

  22 Dec 2009 | 5:04 am

  Venture Hacks has a great list of high quality angel and seed investors.  I was recently added to the angel list (there goes the neighborhood) and join an active crew of angel and seed stage VC investors that currently includes Rob Go, Ariel Poler, Aaron Patzer, Jason Calacanis, Ho Nam, Georges Harik, Rob Lord, Andy Weissman, Bryce Roberts, Matt Mullenweg, Satish Dharmaraj, Brian Norgard, Mike Hirshland, Roger Ehrenberg, Peter Chane, Josh Felser, Mark Suster, Keith Rabois, Saar Gur, Salil Deshpande, David Cohen, Dave McClure, Bill Lee, Jeff Clavier, James Hong, Auren Hoffman, Jon…

• A VC on Pitching VC’s

  14 Dec 2009 | 10:29 am

  Today’s great blog post – titled A VC’s Advice On How To Pitch VCs - is from Raj Kapoor at Mayfield Fund and is guest posted on TechCrunch.

• Things To Consider About Who You Should Take VC Money From

  5 Dec 2009 | 3:15 pm

  Roger Ehrenberg has today’s best VC post titled Thoughts on Taking Venture Money.  It is a long one, but worth reading slowly as an add-on to Chris Dixon’s post Does a VC’s brand matter?

• 
  Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog

• Interview with Chairman of Crowdstar

  jeremyliew

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:38 pm

  Last Friday Lazard analyst Colin Sebastian hosted a conference call where he interviewed Peter Relan, Chairman of Crowdstar, one of the newer entrants to the top tier of social games publishers. Here are the Lazard notes from the call, republished with permission from Colin: LCM Online Game forecast On Friday we hosted a conference call with Peter Relan, chairman of CrowdStar, which is one of the top social game companies with more than 60M monthly users, primarily on Facebook.  CrowdStar’s games include Happy Aquarium, Happy Pets, and Happy Island. Facebook platform remains the core focus…

• Entertainment commerce

  jeremyliew

  12 Jan 2010 | 6:47 pm

  I’m heading to New York (love Virgin America wifi) to speak at the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” conference tomorrow. As I’ve said before, I’m really excited about the trend towards shopping as entertainment that we’ve been starting to see recently, epitomized by companies like Gilt and HauteLook. I think we’ll see more models of “push commerce” like this and am looking for them at the conference, and in general. If you’re doing things like this, contact me!

• Interview with CEO of Serious Business

  jeremyliew

  6 Jan 2010 | 4:54 am

  In December I posted an interview with the CEO of Playdom that Atul Bagga, the gaming analyst at the investment bank ThinkEquity, recently conducted. Atul interviewed the CEO of Serious Business, Siqi Chen. Serious Business is also a Lightspeed portfolio company. The transcript gives some info on Serious Business’ revenue/DAU, conversion rates, demographics, and revenue split between digital goods and advertising. ____________________ Atul Bagga, ThinkEquity (AB): Please explain your business and why should investors care about Serious Business? Siqi Chen, Founder and CEO, Serious…

• Top 5 trends for enterprise cloud computing in 2010

  ravimhatre

  5 Jan 2010 | 4:25 pm

  by Ravi Mhatre, Lightspeed Venuter Partners Lightspeed has invested across multiple enterprise infrastructure areas  including database virtualization (Delphix), datacenter and cloud infrastructure (AppDynamics, Mulesoft, Optier) and storage virtualization (Fusion I/O, Pliant, Nimble). This year we wanted to profile several important trends that we see emerging for Cloud Computing in 2010: 1. Enterprises move beyond experimentation with the cloud. Enterprises will start to deploy production cloud stacks with thousands of simultaneous VMs. They will increasingly be used as a resource for both…

• 2010 Cleantech Predictions

  Andrew Chung

  18 Dec 2009 | 5:00 am

  Lightspeed has invested across several cleantech areas, including solar (Stion), biofuels (LS9, Solazyme), clean coal (Coaltek), LED lighting (Exclara), and energy storage (Leyden Energy, f/k/a Mobius Power). Peter Nieh and I (Andrew Chung) teamed up again this year to make a few predictions about cleantech in 2010 (see our prior year predictions for 2009 and 2008): 1. There will be increased availability of equity, debt, and project finance capital, along with an increased flight to quality. Despite 2009 being a slow year for venture capital firms raising funds (Q3 featured the fewest number…

• 
  Florida Venture Blog by Dan Rua

• Help Haiti

  VC Dan

  14 Jan 2010 | 8:31 am

  Like many of you, I've been wondering how best to help the Haiti earthquake victims. The following list (thanks Bro!) makes it easy...Disaster relief organizations are mobilizing to aid Haiti - and are asking for help. Funds are needed to provide enough safe water, temporary shelter and vital medical supplies.UNICEF and Save the Children already have emergency teams in Haiti, and the Red Cross has released $200,000 in disaster funds.You can donate to these groups:- Text Yele. Wyclef Jean is urging donors to text 'Yele' to 501501 and make a $5 contribution to the relief effort over cell phone.

• How to Approach VCs

  VC Dan

  10 Dec 2009 | 11:10 am

  I got a great set of questions from an entrepreneur (Delena) on an earlier post, concerning how to approach, qualify and follow-up with VCs. I've heard these tactical communication questions a bit more often in the past year so I thought I'd expand upon at least one of Delena's questions here.Delena asked "How long should one pursue a [VC] firm?" My first answer is to pursue appropriate investors until you no longer need funding, but the devil's in the details.Chum the Water, Before Baiting a HookYou've seen those deep sea fishing shows, right, where they throw meat out well before casting a…

• IZEAFest at SeaWorld Recap

  VC Dan

  9 Oct 2009 | 8:16 am

  After attending IZEAFest @ SeaWorld last weekend, I was planning to share a summary of the event here. However, I see that Convention News TV has already created a very nice video detailing the event, including clips from speakers such as Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan), Aaron Brazell (@technosailor), Rae Hoffman (@sugarrae), and others.IZEA and other attendees did such a good job documenting the event, I'll just share this media feast:IZEAFest video on UStream, Sponzai walk-thru & Murphy/Feldman/Rua interview, IZEAFest video on YouTubeIZEAFest on TwitterIZEAFest on blogsIZEAFest pics on…

• Florida Growth Fund

  VC Dan

  2 Oct 2009 | 10:24 am

  Earlier this week I attended a Florida Venture Forum welcome event for the Florida Growth Fund, a $250 million hybrid fund-of-funds managed by Hamilton Lane for the Florida State Board of Administration. A say "hybrid" because the fund has two missions: 1) invest into Florida-focused venture capital funds and 2) invest directly into Florida companies. It's not clear how much of the fund will go into each of those buckets, but their investment amounts per deal/fund are roughly $5-15 million.A couple of the principals from Hamilton Lane spoke at the event, Greg Baty and David Helgerson, and it…

• Venture Capital Syndicates

  VC Dan

  15 Jul 2009 | 11:17 am

  I've written before about how tough markets like this really separate the wheat from the chaff within a company. As if your company were a foxhole, you get to see who stays to fight by your side and who runs to another foxhole with more protection; or worse, who runs away from the fight altogether looking for a safe desk job far from the battlefield.My past posts were more about people within a company, but a similar test of commitment happens within investor syndicates. Most entrepreneurs I've met focus on picking their lead investor, but spend little attention on the long-term…

• 
  Clean Ventures

• EIB energy head interviewed

  Tim Chapman

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:49 am

  Christopher Knowles is head of energy, environment and investment funds at the European Investment Bank. EIB has emerged as a major provider of project finance to the renewable energy sector, committing Euro6bn in 2009. Deals included the underwriting of Belwind's 330MW offshore wind development off the Belgian coast, the first time that EIB has assumed project finance risk for such a venture.I

• Clean Sweep 76

  Tim Chapman

  25 Jan 2010 | 7:35 am

  A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. DealsBristol-based tidal power developer Marine Current Turbines has raised £3.5m in a deal led by Carbon Trust Investments. Dutch sustainability-focused VC High Tide, Nordic investor BankInvest and utility group EDF Energy also joined the round, along with private individuals. MCT will use the funding to help deploy its

• UK offshore wind developers named

  Tim Chapman

  8 Jan 2010 | 6:28 am

  The Crown Estate, which 'owns' the seabed around the UK, has named developers for the latest round of offshore wind power development. The nine development zones and successful bidders are:Moray Firth Zone, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables – 1.3 GWFirth of Forth Zone, SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables

• Clean Sweep 75

  Tim Chapman

  22 Dec 2009 | 5:19 am

  A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment. DealsAberdeen-based marine contractor Subocean Group has raised £17m from LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, plus £25m debt from HSBC. Founded in 2005, Subocean provides a range of services to offshore operators based on skills and technology developed for the oil and gas sector. The firm is increasingly

• Hermes to head cleantech UKIIF

  Tim Chapman

  9 Dec 2009 | 7:57 am

  Hermes Private Equity is managing a new £125m cleantech fund-of-funds anchored by UK government money.The fund is one of two in the UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF) scheme. The brainchild of science minister and erstwhile tech entrepreneur Paul Drayson, UKIIF aims to attract more institutional money into early-stage venture capital for UK tech companies. The business ministry BIS has put up

• 
  Guy Kawasaki

• How to Avoid Gullibility

  GuyKawasaki

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pm

  We’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice.

• How to Be Empathetic

  GuyKawasaki

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pm

  By definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum.

• How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter

  GuyKawasaki

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pm

  Amber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips.

• The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging

  GuyKawasaki

  27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pm

  Want to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps.

• How to follow the Apple announcement

  GuyKawasaki

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 am

  Follow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.

• 
  deal architect

• 6 billion moving forward150 million holding us back

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:45 am

  There was another flurry of media/analyst/blogger activity around SAP yesterday as Dr. Hasso Plattner explained the way forward after Leo Apotheker resigned. I did not attend that press conference. Just like I did not the 5+ hour media circus around...

• More New Renaissance

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:49 am

  on the innovation blog Renovating American Infrastructure The Web Way to learn a language The high-tech behind paper-shredding Technology at the Bamboo Express

• Enterprise software is entirely bereft of soul

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:53 pm

  I was in a session last year with Dave Girouard of Google, when I asked him if he still believed in the statement he made 3 years prior about enterprise software. Without batting an eyelid, he asked me “Are you...

• Weekend Stuff: The Beagle Super Bowl

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:36 pm

  Our beagle Peanut’s prediction. I am betting against him.

• Weekend Stuff: Thank you, GEICO

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am

  When we added our teenage daughter to our car insurance, the premium tripled. Their rationale was “ it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when” teenagers have an accident. In October, my teenager had a...

• 
  PureVC

• Sharks and their Valuations

  James Chen

  17 Jan 2010 | 11:48 am

  I've had the chance recently to watch that relatively new TV show called "Shark Tank". For those of you not familiar with the show, it's essentially a pitch show where entrepreneurs pitch their business to 4 or 5 investors for potential investment. The "angel" investors are called "sharks" and thus the entrepreneur walks into the shark tank to get grilled as they give their pitch. The investors are successful entrepreneurs who founded the Corcoran Group, Fubu Clothing, and some other companies. For the aspiring entrepreneur I highly recommend the show…

• CXO - Another Productive Year

  James Chen

  30 Dec 2009 | 9:47 pm

  Dear Readers,As we close out 2009 we wanted to thank you for your continued support of CXO Ventures and CXO Private Equity. Despite seeing one of the most dynamic public and private markets in history, our firm had another successful year for our private funds and investment and advisory activities. An additional achievement in 2009 was the growth of our public audience through this blog. Blog highlights include: -The publication TechCrunch recently ranking purevc.com the #53 top venture capital blog based on Google reader subscribers. -One of our posts, entitled "Don't Bite The…

• If You're Not Ready for Debt, Your're Not Ready for Equity

  James Chen

  27 Dec 2009 | 6:44 pm

  One of the challenges of raising capital is being in tune with both private and public market dynamics. If the public markets are frothy and money is easy, then private capital is probably cheap and equity is easily raised. If you've just had the worst recession since the Great Depression, then the climate is obviously different. Credit is tight, lending standards are onerous, and investors have the upper hand. For investors willing to shoulder risk, they require very favorable terms. Those who are more risk averse may only want to purchase notes and invest in debt that is secured. After…

• Trading Currency For Yield

  James Chen

  30 Oct 2009 | 7:51 pm

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

• Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds

  James Chen

  13 Jul 2009 | 1:26 pm

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

• 
  VentureWoods

• Koovs.com - Buy in Group and Get Best Deals

  Amit Raj

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:02 am

  Koovs.com is an online platform to find and buy all kind of products at discounted prices. This service aims to bring people with similar interest together at one place and facilitate them getting the best price from the service provider using the power of group buying. Each day, koovs features a deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in your city. The deal is only valid if the minimum numbers of people sign up within a certain time period. If it happens then they will charge you and your printable Koov coupon will become available under “My Coupons” section which you can…

• Building the Green Entrepreneurial Ecosystem city by Indian city

  Sanjoy

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:12 am

  “The nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. “ This is what President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address. Building the clean energy economy is not easy. Entrepreneurs have to start building businesses, investors will have to understanding them and professionals will have to get excited about the opportunities. Transitioning to a cleantech economy means creating an entirely new entrepreneurial ecosystem. TiE Bangalore, CIIE and New Ventures India collaborated in hosting the Cleantech Mentoring Workshop in Bangalore,…

• IBF Media event on Cloud Computing

  Alok Mittal

  26 Jan 2010 | 11:39 pm

  IBF Media, through Capital Connection, is organising an event around Cloud Computing on February 25, 2010 at Ista Hotel, Bangalore The Latest Trends in Cloud Computing: An Operators and Investors Perspective This event showcases some of the latest trends in cloud computing and looks at some of the successful business models and companies in this emerging technology area. The panel will be composed of successful venture investors from the Indian venture capital industry as well as technology executives from companies in India that are succeeding in this space. There has been strong investment…

• Sneak Preview: Proto.in Mumbai - January 30th, IIT Bombay

  Ravi

  26 Jan 2010 | 7:55 am

  Like any Start-up before it’s big release, we at the Team Proto have been extremely busy with the big event which is coming to town. As some of you should be aware, Proto.in is taking place on the 30th of Jan in IIT Bombay. For Start-ups, Investors and the Audience alike, we have an action packed day - one like never before at any of our events. If you haven’t checked in for the event already - do register on http://register.proto.in If there’s one thing, that’s come to the fore during our selection process - it’s that innovation in India is certainly alive and…

• ZumoDrive expanding team in Asia

  Sunil Bhargava

  25 Jan 2010 | 6:15 pm

  One of our startups - Zumodrive is expanding its operations to Singapore. It is still a very small team and this is a fun opportunity for a couple of people who could move to Singapore to join the team. Kevin West their CTO will be relocating and will build a small team in Singapore. If you are interested and a fan of Zumodrive here is the link to the jobs. Zumodrive started as a YC company and then we partnered with them. On another note, A couple of our other companies and I presented at Berkeley Business School a few months ago. They have put the video up in which Sarah from Juice Box…

• 
  allensblog

• Starbucks, et al.

  Allen Morgan

  26 Jan 2010 | 12:43 pm

  I recently spent several hours in a Starbucks in NYC working between meetings.  Along the way, I kept one ear out to other conversations and activities. Maybe I'm a newbie, but it was amazing how much "business" gets done at Starbucks. Seems to me that this would be a good magazine article for Wired or similar magazine: "A Day in the Life of a Starbucks: business life in the 3rd space."

• Starbucks, et al.

  Allen Morgan

  26 Jan 2010 | 12:42 pm

  I recently spent several hours in a Starbucks in NYC working between meetings.  Along the way, I kept one ear out to other conversations and activities. Maybe I'm a newbie, but it was amazing how much "business" gets done at Starbucks. Seems to me that this would be a good magazine article for Wired or similar magazine: "A Day in the Life of a Starbucks: business life in the 3rd space."

• 25 Dec 2009 | 3:07 pm

  Allen Morgan

  25 Dec 2009 | 3:07 pm

  Interesting how languages, like English, that have no "Academy" to determine proper usage authoritatively are very much like open source software communities.

• Convergence on Two National Newspapers: Liberal or Conservative?

  Allen Morgan

  29 Aug 2009 | 4:51 pm

  As the WSJ and NYT become our only surviving national US newspapers (leaving out USA Today and Washington Post), which is advantaged in reaching a large national audience: the clearly liberal NYT or the clearly conservative WSJ?  Maybe the industry will segment along current political lines, much as it has in other countries historically.

• IT Glory Days

  Allen Morgan

  12 Aug 2009 | 10:38 am

  Interesting column in last Sunday's NYT by Randall Stross.  Continues a debate fomented by Larry Ellison (good summary of it here in the context of the Oracle/PeopleSoft merger) about whether IT is a "mature" industry (as opposed to a growth industry).  This is a hot topic in the VC world right now (e.g., is Saas going to save enterprise software investing because it's outgrowing the general market for IT spending?), and has implications for entrepreneurs - large VC funds can't make money investing in successful, but small-to-medium size outcomes.More to come as…

• 
  Southeast VC

• Bring Your VC Questions and Come Friday to Carrboro Creative Coworking

  Jason Caplain

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:50 pm

  Thanks to Brian Russell, owner/founder of Carrboro Creative Coworking for inviting me to speak to the entrepreneurs at their office this Friday at 10am. All entrepreneurs in the community are welcome to join and participate. I will bring the coffee & bagels and will answer any questions you may have about venture capital. Just to make sure we have enough room to accomodate everyone, please email me - jason AT southcap.com and give me some heads up that you'd like to come.

• Triangle StartUp Factory May Give Boost to NC Tech Community

  Jason Caplain

  22 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

  The startup tech community in North Carolina could get a much needed boost soon. Chris Heivly is working on launching Triangle StartUp Factory (TSF), which is based in Durham. TSF wants to be a startup accelerator for internet and software companies. First time entrepreneurs from all over the country could apply with the very best selected for the three month program. TSF would inject the business with a very modest amount of seed capital (20k), give the new company office space/tech infrastructure, surround the company with active mentors and take an active role in helping the new…

• Venture Capital Conferences to Attend in 2010

  Jason Caplain

  18 Jan 2010 | 8:45 am

  If you are thinking about raising capital, here is a list of some of the upcoming venture conferences in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic: Florida Venture Forum's - 2010 Venture Capital Conference, February 2 & 3, Champions Gate, FL Southeast Venture Conference - February 24 & 25, Tysons Corner, VA CED's Venture Conference - April 20-22, Pinehurst, NC MAVA's Capital Connection '10 - May 19 & 20, Baltimore, MD Don't feel you have to apply and be selected to formally present your company to make one of more of these work for you. We know a…

• Increasing Company Transparency

  Jason Caplain

  13 Jan 2010 | 2:00 pm

  I really embrace transparency from our companies. I think most VCs encourage it. But one of our companies took an extra step recently and I thought I'd share it here since it is different, more structured and more importantly the idea originated from the management team, not investors. But first, I need to provide some background.  In most of the board meetings we are part of, we hear a lot from the C-level people on the management team. If the company is smaller (say south of 2m in revs), usually the CEO is the one communicating 75%+ of the board package. But as the company grows,…

• VC Predictions 2010

  Jason Caplain

  30 Dec 2009 | 11:59 am

  I asked a few VCs I know to make a prediction or two for 2010. I did something like this in past years too. Thanks to Tim, Jeff and Matt for spending the time on this. Happy New Year! "Global venture capital investing will double from 2009 levels. Optimism, innovation around the world will  continue to improve. Frugality lessons will be learned and technology businesses will become more profitable and grow significantly to improve lives. Jobless rates will stabilize as entrepreneurs start hiring again. And finally, 2010 will be he vintage year for at least 30 Fortune…

• 
  Israel Venture Capital 2.0

• Predictions 2010 The Israeli Version

  Daniel Cohen

  16 Jan 2010 | 12:21 pm

  As I promised last week, I am keeping my tradition (second time in a row) and trying to lay out some predictions towards the new year. Since so many people give predictions for the industry as a whole (check out my favorite: Jeremy Toeman), I am going to focus on Israel: VC Consolidation will continue BUT some funds will be raised for local VCs. As we enter 2010, there is still a big (global) question mark around the venture capital. Some are still believers, but others keep talking about the broken model. In 2010 we will see a trend similar to the US, where we some funds are over subscribed…

• Summary 2009 The Late Version

  Daniel Cohen

  3 Jan 2010 | 12:30 pm

  A year ago (on the day), I made some predictions regarding 2009. The fun about predictions is the ability to look back and compare them to the reality. Here are my 6 original predictions, with the relevant scorecard: No new VC entrants: That was an easy one. There were absolutely no new US VCs in Israel this year. Norwest opened their office, Battery expanded, but all these are old news. Expectations to see an Index/Accel/KP office resulted in nothing. I get full score here (10), but it was truly an easy prediction. Cleantech is Semiconductor 2.0: I thought that 2009 will be the year of…

• Why?

  Daniel Cohen

  24 Nov 2009 | 6:53 am

  Every time I evaluate a company for a potential investment, I ask the founders (and myself) tons of questions. Still, I think there is one question that is critical, and that needs to be answered in every startup company. The question is Why? Why did the founder(s) start this company? There are many potential answers to the Why? question. “Make money”. “Be Famous”. “Make a difference”. “Prove something to myself”. “Prove something to someone else”. Maybe every entrepreneur has its own unique answer. There is no right or wrong here, but the true answer can have a huge…

• Founder CEO, CEO Founder

  Daniel Cohen

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:47 am

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

• Self Interview

  Daniel Cohen

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

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

• 
  Sarah Tavel / Adventurista

• Facebook Taking Over the World

  19 Jan 2010 | 12:39 pm

  Google: $187B market cap.Amazon: $55B market cap.Yahoo: $22.5B market cap.Facebook: $14B market cap in SecondMarketTwitter: ~$1B post-money.But this chart, which shows the worldwide search volume for facebook vs. yahoo vs. google vs. amazon vs. twitter boggles my mind.And here you can see it for just the US:Granted, each of these sites have extremely different business models (or in Twitter's case... no proven business model), and as @adrian_h rightly points out, this graph’s Google data is skewed because most people don’t use Google to search for Google. But if we look at traffic (in…

• Google, Facebook Connect and the New Old Generation of Web Apps

  13 Dec 2009 | 1:17 pm

  Many web brands from Bessemer’s portfolio companies Yelp and LinkedIn, to up and coming companies like Milo and Fixya, have built their brands by acquiring a large percentage of traffic for free thanks to high and broad organic ranking in Google. Now, whereas the first generation of web 2.0 apps relied on Google for user traffic, a new generation of web apps is emerging that leverage Facebook Connect and Twitter’s “sign in with Twitter” to provide a large percentage of the initial user experience. Though this shift is in its early infancy, I believe increasingly we will come to expect…

• Random Thought: Venture Capital's Freemium Model

  23 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm

  Recently, Bessemer published an update to our well known “Ten Rules to Being SaaSy” (this time entitled, “Bessemer’s Top 10 Laws of Cloud Computing and SaaS"). If you haven’t already read it, check it out. It's really a great read.I sent the white paper to an early stage SaaS portfolio company of ours that I work with, and laughed when I got the following response: “This is great. Why are you giving away all the secrets?!”My answer: It's our freemium model (or rather, venture capital's freemium model). The difference is, we’re trying to give you a taste of what we've got so…

• Measuring churn for recurring revenue businesses

  10 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm

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

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

  28 Sep 2009 | 6:09 am

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

• 
  Babbling VC

• Company Cars and Start-ups

  Paul Jozefak

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

  This post is going to be quite short. If you're a start-up and launching discussions with VC's, don't have Maseratis, Porsches, Ferraris, Bentley's or what-not as company cars. I don't care even if you started friggin' Google or Skype! Sports cars have no business being expensed to a start-up. Maybe it's just me but this seems like common sense. At the same time, over and over again during due diligence we find small start-ups with these types of cars on their books! If you want my take on it, these are deal-breakers. I simply will not invest in your business if you think it astute to have…

• Venture Industry Doomed....again.......and.........again!

  Paul Jozefak

  22 Jan 2010 | 2:22 am

  This is becoming an almost annual post I guess. Venturebeat and a couple other blogs are commenting on NVCA numbers out of the US where it's clear venture investing plummeted in 2009. Is anyone surprised? This was clearly discussed as inevitable at the beginning of the year. Yes, the industry is contracting (as well as evolving). Am I surprised? No, there simply was too much money chasing too few deals. In Europe, the decline is probably steeper but I do not have exact numbers to compare. Yet, we're all still here. We're doing deals and our dealflow has significantly become better in the…

• Don't Shop Your Business Plan Around

  Paul Jozefak

  13 Jan 2010 | 2:46 am

  To those of you not familiar with the term "shopping around", it basically means bombarding your targets with your product, in this case a business plan. It's common knowledge that when you go out to raise money you don't send your business plan to any and every VC. You pick wisely a small group whose portfolio you might fit into and try to get intros to them. It's highly unwise even within this small group to just send your business plan blind. I've written about this many times before. Even worse though is shopping your business plan around within a firm and our network. I have this happen…

• Time and Momentum in Venture Capital

  Paul Jozefak

  5 Jan 2010 | 1:08 am

  This is more of a reminder than anything else. I have posted similar items in the past but it bears repeating every now and again. I see entrepreneurs so often drop the ball when it comes to time and momentum. What I mean is that so often momentum is lost because people simply take too much time. A sense of urgency is always necessary. Getting bogged down in analysis ("analysis paralysis") is oftentimes your worst enemy. Always remember that momentum is on your side when it comes to financing rounds and general day-to-day with VC's. As a VC, I tend to like positive momentum. If a deal "feels…

• Angel, Super Angel or just Investor

  Paul Jozefak

  31 Dec 2009 | 1:24 am

  It's funny how much time people actually can spend categorizing things. At the same time, I believe this discussion is relevant from an entrepreneur's standpoint as you want to know whom you are dealing with. Brad has an interesting post about what defines a business angel. He's also bringing up the term "Super Angel" which I don't believe he's coined but I am hearing ever more. Most recently at the Seed Summit held by Seedcamp, the topic indirectly came up in a discussion amongst a fairly large group of angels gathered in London. What defines an angel and what are these new super angels…

• 
  Buzztracker.com

• Foursquare Signs a Deal With Zagat

  Foursquare, the hip social network whose software is on the phones of many young urbanites, is branching out.

• Mark Cuban says rookie guard Beaubois basically off limits for trade

  Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said before Monday night's game at Golden State that upstart rookie guard Rodrigue Beaubois is basically off limits right now during trade talks as Dallas approaches the Feb.

• Reports: Orioles sign LHP Startup to minor league deal

• DotNetNuke Scores Another $8 Million In Series B Funding

  DotNetNuke Corporation, the owner and maintainer of the open source web application framework that goes by the same name, has raised $8 Million Series B funding from new investor UV Partners and prior ...

• John Thain Makes Bold Promise He Most Likely Can't Keep

  As you're aware, John Thain has a substance abuse problem. The substances are fabulous chaise lounges, antique desks, and curtains that cost $1,000/yard.

• 
  DealBook

• Study: Short Sale Disclosures Could Disrupt Market

  By ZACHERY KOUWE

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:30 pm

  A new study commissioned by the hedge fund industry's chief lobbying group has concluded that forcing investors to disclose their short positions in certain stocks could lead to less liquidity and wider price spreads, ultimately making trading more expensive.

• For L.B.O.'s, the Key Is Less Risk, Not None

  By RHEA WESSEL

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:03 pm

  The head of ICG told an audience at Super Return 2010 that for leveraged buyouts, lenders are looking to simplify risks, but aren't shying away from them.

• S.&P. Issues Negative Outlooks for BofA and Citi

  By DEALBOOK

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:53 am

  Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating outlooks on Bank of America and Citigroup to negative from stable on Tuesday, saying the government appears less likely to provide a further bailout if either bank needs it in the future.

• Opel's Strategy Has Fewer Jobs and Less Capacity

  By DEALBOOK

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:39 am

  Adam Opel, the European unit of General Motors, announced an ambitious turnaround plan Tuesday, vowing to become profitable in 2012 by cutting capacity by 20 percent and reducing its work force by 8,300.

• For Private Equity, a Time for Wary Optimism

  By RHEA WESSEL

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:30 am

  It's time for "paranoid optimism" about the economy as the world maneuvers its way into a new balance of power, John Micklethwait, editor in chief of The Economist, argued at the Super Return 2010 conference on Tuesday.

• 
  Ann Arbor USA Blog

• Ann Arbor gears up for Fuller Station work this year

  admin

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  Building a multi-modal transportation station on vacant land in front of the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor isn’t as easy as slapping up a bus/train station and a prefabricated parking garage. City and university officials believe it will take a few years to make the proposed Fuller Station fully operational, but work could begin later this year. The city and the university have authorized design teams to jointly make the project a reality. The university is handling the design of the facility while the city handles utility relocation, such as the moving of a 60-inch sewer…

• The pros and cons of a hotel in downtown Ann Arbor

  admin

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  Now that is appears a hotel/conference center is destined for the Library Lot in downtown Ann Arbor, local residents are going to have weigh the pros and cons of such a development. City officials have narrowed the field of six projects to two. The others have been put on hold, meaning they haven’t been dismissed but don’t hold your breath waiting for them to see the light of day. The leading projects come from Valiant Partners and Acquest Realty Advisors, which call for thousands of square feet of conference center, commercial space and hotels between 8-15 stories built over the…

• New Ann Arbor B&B plans to rebuild historic house

  admin

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  A new type of demolition/rebuild is about to take place just north of downtown Ann Arbor, turning a little house into an ultra-sustainable bed and breakfast. Lansing-based Against The Grain has made plans to convert a late 19th Century home on Fourth Avenue near Wheeler Park into a greener-than-thou bed and breakfast this year for the woman who lives there. “It’s a very cool house,” Belous says. “We’re going to save as much as we can. What we can’t save we’re going to reuse.” The 1,800-square-foot farm house was moved to its current location in…

• Ann Arbor DDA moves forward on way finding, parking

  admin

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  When it comes to getting around downtown, Ann Arbor’s Downtown Development Authority is finishing off one project and beginning another. The DDA has installed almost all of the components of its $XX way-finding program. The signs are currently up and installed. The last thing the DDA needs to do is clean up the map stations and install the actual “You Are Here” maps throughout downtown. That is expected to be done this month. Downtown parking issues will now be moving to the front burner. The DDA is in the midst of conducting a downtown parking study at the request of city…

• City considers pedestrian bridge design for Ann Arbor-Saline Rd

  admin

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  The city of Ann Arbor is getting ready to make a decision on what kind of pedestrian bridge it wants to build alongside the Ann Arbor-Saline Road. City officials are trying to decide whether to build a box-culvert adjacent to the road or a steel bridge a few feet off of it. They plan to hold a public meeting on Tuesday evening to see what direction local residents want to go. “Design will begin as soon as we have a decision,” says Nichole Woodward, utilities engineer for the city of Ann Arbor. “The end goal is to get this open to the public by the beginning of the football…

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  Venture Chronicles

• Buyers Remorse

  Jeff

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:52 pm

  In 2008 the sight of a Toyota Prius sporting an Obama hopey changey bumper sticker rose to the level of being a cliche and the Prius itself became a social statement, outselling other hybrids based on existing gasoline powered models. Well the former hasn’t exactly turned out like everyone thought and now Toyota is launching yet another recall, this time for 270,000 Prius cars with faulty brakes. There’s some poetic irony in there somewhere, but in each case there is little humor to be found as the consequences are quite dire.

• 20 Things Going Wrong with the U.S. Economy

  Jeff

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:17 am

• Digital Medical Records, A Modest Proposal

  Jeff

  28 Jan 2010 | 11:34 am

  For years and years (and years) there has been talk about the digitalization of medical records to enable portability. There are three primary problems that obstruct this vision, the first being a somewhat murky legal and regulatory environment with regard to what are the implications of the many laws dealing with privacy, data, and medical records, the second is a process issue dealing with how doctors work and their reluctance to embrace technology solutions that they perceive as inefficient, and lastly, it’s not clear that once you have your medical records how you will benefit from…

• The iPad is Steve Jobs’ Waterloo

  Jeff

  28 Jan 2010 | 7:41 am

  Jobs has put together a remarkable track record at Apple over the years, not only releasing a string of hit products (overshadowing the few duds… like Apple TV) and making the company solidly profitable with a plurality of analysts rating it a solid buy even with a P/E of 20:1. Having said all that, Jobs is still a mere mortal and the iPad is a dud which will seriously deflate his carefully crafted image as a hitmaker with a Midas touch precisely because he himself has publicly attached so much significance to the iPad product, which by the way is simply an awful product name that has…

• Chavez Backtracks, Venezuelans Still Suffer

  Jeff

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:35 pm

• 
  Fred Destin

• In search of Stillness, or why personal high availability is a (generally) a bug

  FredDestin

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:55 pm

  These days, 2.3 seconds seems to be the average time between sending out an email and getting a response.  We live in a world of immediate interaction and a general information immersion and real-time availability.  Generationally I am pre digital native but I embraced the new communication and media consumptions paradigms early on, and though I have never had the patience or passion to be a bleeding edge adopter, I am a fast follower.   End result is a blog and an active Twitter presence and all the trappings of the world weary tech world participant (the multiple filtered gmail…

• Moving to Boston !

  FredDestin

  19 Jan 2010 | 9:39 am

  Over the summer I will be moving over to Boston to join my partners there.  I found a house in Brookline which I am hoping will be a great place to raise all three of my kiddo's and for my wife to find her next gig.  The garden is big enough to do nice dinosaur hunts (a favourite with my son),which was their main concern, so they've OK-ed the move.   Only downside: I will now have to live in the shadow of Fred and just be ... the Other Fred ? EuroFred ? :-) The Rationale As a team, we made a decision that it was time for us to be all in one location.  The logic behind…

• Communist China, the misbehaving superpower

  FredDestin

  14 Jan 2010 | 7:10 am

  On the back of the Google - China standoff, I am taking the liberty of recycling content from the oft brilliant Mark Anderson at SNS.  This is a short digest of the excellent article that you can find at: www.abrightfire.com.  Whilst I think we have to watch the Western tendency to take advantage of the rule of law when it suits our purpose but neglect it at other times (recent wars come to mind...), I do think this article raises the stakes on the China debate in a smart way.  Whilst China is trying to gain moral kudos and intellectual leadership on issues like global…

• Investment and innovation themes from the Defrag conference

  FredDestin

  23 Dec 2009 | 2:57 am

  I am lucky enough to work with a guy who, on top of  (or in spite of) his aristocratic good looks, is also a very smart cookie and former entrepreneur called Max  Niederhofer (aka Graf Max).  As he likes to spend our hard earned management fees on long distance flights, it was natural for him to check out Defrag 2009.  My recent rant on Twitter reminded me of this interesting writeup he sent.  So with some delay, I thought I would share with you the insights he gleaned from the conference.  Here are some the themes: Making email better. Email still the center of…

• Take guidance, not orders

  FredDestin

  18 Dec 2009 | 8:14 am

  Repost of my post at Nivi and Naval's great VentureHacks.  Every entrepreneur should get VentureHacks for Christmas.   There is a behaviour I witness in some first-time CEO's that I meet, not necessarily the younger and more mavericky generation, that I do not think is necessary nor helpful.  It's an insidious but frequent tendency to let the board decide rather than advise or approve. It goes like this: Because VC's have blocking rights on some important decisions (approving the budget, your comp, raising money), they are often able to wield way more power than their 20%…

• 
  Genuine VC

• Seven Lessons I've Learned Organizing Events

  15 Jan 2010 | 11:12 am

  For the past five years, I’ve been organizing a regular event here in Boston called the Web Innovators Group (aka “WebInno”). Every couple months, 700-1000 web & mobile entrepreneurs, techies, startup junkies, and investors gather for one big meetup of the community. It’s been personally fulfilling to start something which begun as a small informal gathering grow into a real component of the local startup scene (and now drawing people from New York and Washington DC). I had no intentions of becoming a large event organizer (nor do I now have aspirations to become one more than I…

• Two Decade-Defining Acquisitions? Then (Google) & Now (Apple)

  7 Jan 2010 | 2:51 pm

  Back in 2003 Google acquired Applied Semantics for just over $100M. This startup had a little technology called AdSense which allowed for the presentation of contextually relevant ads on a set of distributed publisher sites. Obviously this moniker lives on in Google’s ad network, Adsense for Content, which serves as a base for a significant chunk of Google’s revenue today. In a decade in which we saw the web become increasingly distributed with a proliferation websites and content, this acquisition served as a foundation to empower Google to move beyond their core search Adwords product.

• Majority of both Drivers and VCs are Above Average

  5 Jan 2010 | 7:35 am

  Whenever I am navigating through the notorious Boston traffic, I am often reminded of the cognitive bias of illusory superiority. That is, the “above average effect,” which “causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others.” The Wikipedia article on the subject cites the classic study where a full 93% of U.S. drivers put themselves in the top half of the driving population. I can assure you that that percentage of drivers here in Boston I wouldn’t even consider “good,” let alone impossibly above the median.

• Why AOL's "About.com 2.0" strategy will work... for a while

  23 Dec 2009 | 12:10 pm

    It’s been almost month or so since the covers have been lifted on the newly public AOL and their newly refocused strategy under the helm of Tim Armstrong.  In a CNBC interview a few weeks ago he explained his vision: “We’re building the world’s largest niche, you know, media business. And niche meaning at scale. We wanna have a lot of properties with a lotta users on them. And then, the second piece is really that fragmentation is our friend. As the internet becomes more fragmented, when– if you can produce great content in niche areas and then really…

• Has the tide turned for YouTube/Google? (ComScore says so but doesn’t scream it) The next phase of online video

  14 Jul 2008 | 1:32 pm

  Over the past year, I’ve kept my eye on ComScore’s monthly press releases of the Video Metrix service which outlines the market share of online videos. It’s been amazing to see Google (98% of its video traffic comprised of YouTube) steadily increase its market share for six months straight (see chart below where I aggregated the info from a few months of ComScore press releases). It seemed as though this juggernaut was defying a strong current internet trend – the deportalization of content. Whereas “traditional” traffic has been continually flying towards the ethers of the…

• 
  Get Venture: Venture Made Transparent

• Not All Data Is Created Equal

  Mark Davis

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:25 am

  The five key types of IT data do not necessarily each contribute the same amount of value to your company (value here being defined as enterprise value, or the value of the company at sale). Each type of data creates either linear or exponential enterprise value for your company. Either an additional data point increases the value of the company by the same amount or each additional data point increases the value of the company by more than the last data point. The distinguishing factor between whether each type of data creates value linearly and exponentially is the extent to which the data…

• SBA Loans

  Mark Davis

  4 Feb 2010 | 5:26 am

  The Small Business Administration is a government organization charged with stimulating small business activity in the United States. If you plan on starting your company in the US, you may want to consider the SBA as a source of alternative capital, mentorship, a directory of third-party resources and general support. SBA programs are not for every company, however, as there is an application process for funding and the programs are not always the best fit for high-growth technology companies. While the SBA does provide grants to some startups, the organization generally provides capital to…

• Key Types Of IT Company Data

  Mark Davis

  2 Feb 2010 | 5:27 am

  Tech-lite companies often rely on data to create value and barriers as they scale. Being able to structurally think about what data your company is and is not leveraging may enable you to deliver more value and create additional barriers from the data that you are currently mining or identify other types of data that you can and should be capturing. While no framework is without exception, I have attempted to create a structure that should help you take inventory of your data. The diagram below illustrates how I segment the world of data into key types: identity, descriptive, subjective,…

• Types Of Barriers: Static Advantages

  Mark Davis

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:20 am

    There are some barriers that arguably don’t change in their ability to deter competition as the relative scale of competitors changes. This category generally includes protected intellectual property in the form of trade secrets and patents. These barriers have proven to be critical for numerous companies, especially in the analog world of physical products. Pharmaceutical startups rely on patents and Coca Cola on trade secrets. In the information technology world, however, intellectual property related barriers often play a less central role as there are often numerous ways to skin a…

• Types Of Barriers: Scale Advantages

  Mark Davis

  25 Jan 2010 | 5:22 am

  While barriers that erode as your competitors scale usually relate to the process of a company entering a market, there is a category of barriers that can play an important role in determining the relative success of competitors after they have entered a space. Many of these barriers are scale advantages. This category broadly includes brand, resource advantages and other scale related barriers. In the information technology sector, these advantages often take the form of data scale and network effects. For an example of data scale let’s consider Yelp. When a customer goes to a user review…

• 
  Will Price

• The Protocol Society

  Will Price

  12 Jan 2010 | 2:41 pm

  When Alabama and Nick Sabean won the BCS National Championship, ESPN called the win the revenge of the grinder.  The recap story noted that Nick Sabean focuses on process and the "Alabama system."That is not to say that winning is not important, but rather that Sabean knows that successfully defining and repeating processes is the key to predictable outcomes versus random acts of athleticism. Moreover, the better the system is codified, the more sustainable the athletic advantageThe logic is that by building discipline around core processes and protocols - how to block, how to run, how…

• 2009 Redux

  Will Price

  30 Dec 2009 | 11:36 am

  Year-end is a natural time for reflection on events of the past year and a time to plan goals for the year to come.As I think back on 2009, I am struck by a few observations.The year began with the macro overhang of the economy and the recent failings of the US financial markets. The world lost its orientation and no one knew if we would continue to free fall or if we had hit bottom and that a recovery was the next natural phase.  The ability to navigate is premised on the ability to orient - to know where one is in relation to one's destination. In a global panic, bearings are not…

• Why Blog?

  Will Price

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:57 pm

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

• Scott Cook - Wisdom

  Will Price

  7 Oct 2009 | 11:01 am

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

• Last Child in the Woods

  Will Price

  28 Sep 2009 | 5:32 pm

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

• 
  Red Herring

• Flixster Reels In $12.5 Million

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am

  Popular movie theater listings and flick ratings destination hauls in funding from investors, a move that comes on the heels of its acquisition of reviews site Rotten Tomatoes.

• Factual: $1 Million From Angels

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:51 am

  Startup attracts marquee investors to its database that promises easy access to information for use by developers in building applications.

• BrightRoll Scores $10 Million

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:01 am

  Funding comes as expectations run high for the video advertising network to grab a sizable chunk of the $70 billion television ad market.

• Glam Media Attracts $50 Million

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:05 am

  Women-focused network of Internet publishers snags pile of funding from private equity investors.

• AT&T Bolsters Network

  29 Jan 2010 | 3:34 am

  Phone carrier is boosting its network, particularly in congested areas such as San Francisco and New York City, to address problems of dropped calls and slow data delivery.

• 
  Jason Ball's TechBytes

• Age of Abundance (The Dedicated Device Rule)

  Jason Ball

  26 Jan 2010 | 7:07 pm

  There's a fresh article in this month's UK Wired- "Watches are the ultimate proof that we are not rational", which applies directly to me (and an increasing number of my VC friends.) It reminded me of a discussion that happened during my MBA - we were asked to envision what "the watch of the future" would be- ideas of mini-computers embedded in watches, internet connected glasses, etc populated the conversation. I suggested that the watch of the future was no watch- time was all around us and on every phone (this was when my Ericsson T29 constantly showed the time, not my black as night…

• Venture's Back II

  Jason Ball

  15 Dec 2009 | 11:19 am

  Last month I posted suggesting that Venture might be back... The post below from trueventures makes a strong case, that yes, indeed, Venture is back.http://www.trueventures.com/blog/2009/12/02/venture-is-back-baby/Also, I was at Noah earlier in the month; company after company spewed out fantastic stats:Betfair- online betting, 6.5m trades per day, 5 bn pageviews per month, 2.5m registered users, 600k active users, £13bn annual deposits, £300m revenues- £150M UK; £150M internationalDelticom - online tire sales (yes, tires) €200M Revenues, €53M gross profit, €15M Ebitda, €10M…

• Venture's Back

  Jason Ball

  9 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

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

• Entrepreneurial Leadership Speaker Series

  Jason Ball

  15 Sep 2009 | 12:24 pm

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

• Feeds 2.0 and the Netflix Prize

  Jason Ball

  19 Aug 2009 | 1:30 pm

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

• 
  Redeye VC

• Sharing and Exchanging...

  Josh

  28 Jan 2010 | 1:02 pm

  Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year.   Not because Steve Jobs unveiled an iPod with a 9 inch screen.  Not because it was Obama’s First State of the Union Address.  Not because of any earth-shaking pronouncement made at Davos.  But rather, because it was the First Round Capital CEO Summit.  It was the one day each year where all of the CEOs/Founders of our portfolio companies come together in one place.   It was an amazing experience for me – to see so many smart people in one room.  Exchanging ideas and sharing experiences.  Doing deals with each other.  Asking…

• Finding the dreamers...

  Josh

  9 Dec 2009 | 1:03 pm

  Susan Boyle was a dreamer.  She believed in her talent -- and just needed a platform to help the world hear it.  This past year we saw what can happen when the right talent is combined with the right platform.  Susan became a viral hit -- with over 80 million views on her YouTube video.  And this past week her debut album smashed all records --racking up the biggest one-week sales total of the year, and the highest debut ever for a solo female artist. Well, Susan's not the only one with talent.  We are fortunate to work with a pretty amazing group of…

• Let's just add in a little virality

  Josh

  29 Nov 2009 | 7:29 am

  It happens all the time.  I’m meeting with an entrepreneur, who is telling me about a really innovative product idea for a consumer website.  And I’m liking it.  We’re going back and forth on product ideas.  And before I know it, we’re approaching the end of our meeting.  I then ask them, “So, how are you going to acquire customers.”  And that’s when it happens.  That’s when I realize that they’ve spent all their time focusing on the product/site, and aren’t nearly as innovative when it comes to their customer acquisition plans.  They view marketing as something…

• VC - Back to the Future?

  Josh

  28 Oct 2009 | 3:35 pm

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

• Company Math vs VC Math

  Josh

  15 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

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

• 
  Seth Levine's VC Adventure

• If you read nothing else…

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am

  I’ve received a few lengthy emails recently that contained the following: IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE READ THIS SECTION While I suppose one could argue that this encourages the reader to skip over the rest of the email, I disagree.  I think it’s brilliant. Each email was full of information – the kind that takes a good chunk of time to parse through and think about. They were the kind of email that ends up in your “read later when you have time” folder which would have been fine assuming that you 1) got back to it at all and 2) got back to it in a somewhat timely manner – they…

• VCIR Success – by the numbers

  5 Feb 2010 | 1:47 pm

  This is a cross post from the VCIR blog. We recently put together an analysis of companies that have presented at VCIR over the last 10 years. And the numbers are pretty impressive – reinforcing why the conference is such a great opportunity to see great companies from around the rocky mountain region. For more information on the conference itself, including how to register, visit the VCIR Winter website. VCIR By the Numbers: Presenting companies: 212 Companies who raised additional funding after their VCIR appearance: 127 Total funding raised by these companies (only includes amounts…

• Oppose HB 1192 – The “Software Tax”

  1 Feb 2010 | 8:43 am

  My longtime friend Marion Jenkins, CEO of IT consultant QSE Technologies wrote what I think is one of the most eloquent and well thought out rebuttals to the proposed Colorado “Software Tax” (HB 1192).  With his permission I’m posting it here in its entirety. If you feel the way I do about this issue, I urge you to take a stand on this issue. I urge you to oppose HB 1192, the so-called “Software” Tax.  It is bad legislation and it will add significantly to non-productive administrative and legal overhead and kill productivity within the technology sector in Colorado…

• iPad Launch vs the State of the Union Address

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:45 am

  Both were compelling for sure, but what did the Twittersphere have to say about it? Buzz monitoring company Retrevo put together some stats which suggest that wile the Apple announcement was big (topping out at 7,000 tweets per minute), the President edged the iPad out (peaking at 9,000 tweets per minute). I’d love to see the graph below with an overlay of what topics caused each of the spikes (they have this for the iPad announcement, but not the State of the Union Address – click through to the article to see the detail).

• Customer Loyalty

  26 Jan 2010 | 3:50 pm

  I travel a lot. It’s mostly to relatively fun places (New York, San Francisco, Seattle, etc), but it’s pretty much all within the US. Living in Denver and traveling to the coasts makes it pretty difficult to rack up frequent flier miles (a round trip to New York is barely 3k miles). So while I feel like I’m constantly on the road (trying to change this habit for this year – more on that in a different post), I’m perennially falling just a little short of reaching 1K status (100,000 flight miles) on United. So when I checked my account balance after my last scheduled business trip in…

• 
  Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed

• Denmark Leads the Household Leverage Sweepstakes

  pk

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:26 am

  Who let four northern European countries sneak past the U.S. in the household leverage sweepstakes? Source: Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption, By Reuven Glick, and Kevin J. Lansing

• Hugh Hendry, Marc Faber, and Nassim Taleb Go to Russia

  pk

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:27 pm

  An alternately sober-minded and gibbering mad – but never boring and mostly riveting -- hour-long what-would-you-invest-in panel with Nassim Taleb, Marc Faber, Hugh Hendry and others from the just-completed Russia 2010 conference:

• More Reading: Niall Ferguson, Euro Depression, Nevada, etc.

  pk

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:10 pm

  A few more things I just had to share:Deliriously bizarre, gossipy, etc. piece about econohistorian Niall Fergson, from footballers to fatwas (Daily Mail)Europe risks another global depression (Simon Johnson)Nevada budget crisis: could lay off all general fund workers and still be in red (WashPost)

• Economists, Crises, and Cartoons

  pk

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:40 am

  Apparently I'm not the only one to notice the rise of economists in cartoons during financial crises. As a related aside, this paper has some fabulous old crisis cartoons. Economists, Crises and Cartoons David M. Levy Center for Study of Public Choice Sandra J. Peart Jepson School of Leadership Studies February 4, 2010 Abstract: Economists have occasionally noticed the appearance of economists in cartoons produced for public amusement during crises. Yet the message behind such images has been less than fully appreciated. This paper provides evidence of such inattention in the context of the…

• Weekend Reading: Greenspan, EM Bonds, Cash-in Refis, China, etc.

  pk

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:31 am

  From my weekly Weekend Reading column, a few articles and papers worth reading: Alan Greenspan fights back against critics (Source) Emerging-Market Bond Sales Stall as BES Scraps Issue (Source) Recovery teeters as debt threat spreads (Source) A Financial Crisis That Just Keeps Moving (Source) Mortgage Bankers Association Sells Headquarters at Big Loss (Source) 'Cash-in' refis growing in popularity (Source) Why a China bubble burst would be quieter (Source)

• 
  Globes

• Data mining co Pursway raises $6m

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:51 pm

  The company is five years old and has customers which include Orange and Vodafone.

• Capital Point co LRS completes orthopedics product test

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:24 pm

  BonFixatore guides nails used in hip surgery.

• Social-networking music start-up TuneWiki raises $7m

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:47 pm

  TuneWiki's application is suitable for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia smartphones.

• Skin treatment co HealOr gets NIS 16.5m grant

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pm

  The Chief Scientist has given the grant to HealOr to develop a psoriasis treatment.

• Judy Shalom-Nir-Mozes, Zaki Rakib launch investment fund

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:59 pm

  The investment fund seeks investments in communications, media, health and lifestyle.

• 
  BeyondVC

• The Gartner Magic Quadrant - a necessary evil in IT

  Ed Sim

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:11 am

  Lately, I feel as if I have been spending an inordinate amount of time with my companies talking about marketing.  Related to this, one of my portfolio companies recently received a number of nice emails from the board related to its new positioning in Gartner's Magic Quadrant.  We were all quite excited since we made demonstrable progress over the last 3 years from niche player to visionary and on the cusp of becoming a leader.  Yes, I know what you are thinking - this is all BS and how much did you pay them over the years.  And where there is smoke there is fire as those statements ring…

• Market positioning for startups - focus, focus, focus

  Ed Sim

  22 Jan 2010 | 9:43 am

  I was on a call yesterday with an inspired and talented management team.  As we walked through the deck, one point particularly struck me as I listened to their well-honed pitch.  The company was trying to boil the ocean and do everything for its customers.  While it was great that the team seemed to understand the market and the problem that their customers had, I must say that I started to lose interest by the fifth differentiating feature of the product/service.  One slide really highlighted the problem for me - it showed a feature list of 10 features and then showed 3 different…

• When to ramp sales

  Ed Sim

  14 Jan 2010 | 6:48 am

  While 2009 was a tough year, I must say that it was nice to see a number of our portfolio companies have blow out 4th quarters for bookings and growth.  Despite that, I am still taking a cautiously optimistic approach to 2010.  There are still conflicting reports on the growth of the economy and it is unclear whether Q4 was the release of some pent-up demand of if it will be more indicative of sustainable new spending on technology.Either way, I would like to caution those start-ups out there who are looking to aggressively ramp up their sales based on a great quarter (more on this from a…

• Startups and financial models for SAAS companies

  Ed Sim

  10 Dec 2009 | 4:11 am

  The other day I met with an entrepreneur I was advising as he prepared to raise his next round of funding.  In the meeting, he wanted me to narrow in and focus on his financial model.  Financial models for startups are important from a big picture perspective, but I never like to get mired in the full details as things always change in the early stages.  So first and foremost, I let him know that while it was nice to have a well thought out spreadsheet, that the most important thing was getting the product developed and the right team in place.  I don't invest based on detailed…

• Google acquires portfolio company Gizmo5

  Ed Sim

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:28 am

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

• 
  Venture Capital and Angel Investor Questions

• Perfect Venture Conference: 11/12/09

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am

  FundingPosts Perfect Venture Conference V will be in NYC on Nov 12, 2009. We will have 20 early-stage Tech companies and over 40 VCs and Angel Investors! No other tickets will be sold for this event, just the 20 companies and the investors will be there for a day of pitching, investor panels, interactive workshops, and private meetings. We will be putting the Right companies in front of the Right VCs and Angel Investors to tell you exactly what it takes to get funded. Every company will pitch multiple times to the Investors. There will be 2-minute elevator pitches to every panel, and even…

• Arizona Venture Capital Event

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am

  Our next Sedona, AZ Venture Capital and Angel Investor event will be on Thursday, December 4, 2009. We expect to have 4-6 VCs and Angels participating in this conference, like the past 2 years! The event is sponsored by and hosted at the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa. VCs and Angels interested in speaking let me know! http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=160 Got a Question, Ask it here

• By far the best company EVER

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am

  I love getting pitches that start with: You probably hear this all the time, but I REALLY have the best business ever! Here is one where the math really works! Just brilliant. Why don't you call me and we can try to work something out in a split business. I got this program. Mabe we can turn it up a knotch? What if I told you that I have a way to get $1 from everery one In the USA and more? Population Clocks. U.S. 307493447. World 6785276531 02:56 GMT (EST+5) Sep 20, 2009 Want in 307493447 People Divided by 4 to a Family = $76,873,361 Possibal Dollars. and No more emails.for you ever to be…

• Most popular VC Term: Capital Efficient

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am

  Whats the most important thing that an Investor is looking for today? The most popular words I'm hearing are: Capital Efficient. We had our Perfect Venture Conference 2 weeks ago and hosted over 60 VCs and Angels. Almost all of them mentioned running a capital efficient business. Investors are concerned about the economy just like everyone else. They want to know that their investment in your company will enable you to grow. That you can operate in a lean and efficient manor and stretch a buck. I got a call from an entrepreneur the other day. His idea wasn't bad, but at the end of his pitch…

• VCs setting your valuation

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am

  In response to the FundingPost email for the event on June 5, 2008: The event will focus on best practices in raising capital.... how they determine your valuation. This one caught my attention... you never let a VC tell you how to determine your valuation. Lol. It's like letting you home buyer tell you how much you should sell the house for!! I notice the tone of this e-mail focuses on Entrepreneur sucking up to VC. I am an entrepreneur and the way I see it is, it's a privilege for VCs to invest in my company that i bust my chops to make it happen (and not the other way around). VC and…

• 
  alarm:clock

• Petra Solar Raises $40M For Utility Pole Panels

  jgb

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:34 am

  Petra Solar out of South Plainfield, NJ has raised $40M in 2nd-round funding. Craton Equity Partners and Espírito Santo Ventures co-led the round and were joined by return backers Element Partners, Blue Run Ventures, OnPoint Technologies and Kuwait's National Technology Enterprises Company. The company's strategy is to partner with utility companies to install solar panels on utility poles. This has two benefits in that the poles are cleared for solar panels so don't have to undergo lengthy public debate and the grid doesn't have to be extended to capture solar energy. Petra Solar will use…

• Brought to You By:

  Pheedo

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:40 am

• Audio Transcription's 3Play Media Seed Funded

  jgb

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:14 pm

  Play Media, out of Somerville, MA, has secured $450K of a $600K seed funding round. 3Play works on transcription, captioning, and audio search. Clients pay 3Play to use technology to convert audio recordings to text and then to clean up the errors with the help of editors. We have been wondering recently why there is not an industry standard service for voice to text. The answer is that quality is poor. So it makes sense that 3Play combines tech and humans. The hard part will be to market the service we think. Many people in different walks of life will want such a service but how do you find…

• Brought to You By:

  Pheedo

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:13 pm

• Indoor Ag's AeroFarms Seeded with $500K

  jgb

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:41 pm

  Ithaca,NY-based Aero Farm Systems has raised $500K in seed funding from The Quercus Trust and 21Ventures. The startup competes in the field of AeroPonics. They sell systems that grow produce without soil or sun, year-round. Their product is a modular, vertically stackable system that is designed for ti sut in vacant urban buildings. Sounds like a eye candy for your urban ganja man. So why aeroponic methods vs. outdoor or greenhouse methods? AeroFarms says: Compared to conventional growing, AeroFarms systems grow the same yield using: +3% of the land + Less than 20% of the water + 2%…

• 
  VC Cafe

• TuneWiki Raises Undisclosed Round From Motorola Ventures

  Eze Vidra

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:27 am

  Motorola Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Motorola, placed a strategic investment in Israel’s TuneWiki Series B (announced Feb 8 2010). TuneWiki’s main investor Benchmark Israel also participated in the round, along with a  few new investors: Intellect Capital Ventures, HillsVen Capital and Novel TMT. Tunewiki will use the proceeds to expand and enhance its product offerings for leading mobile platforms and the Internet. TuneWiki provides an online service consisting of a community-created lyrics synchronization database and an online/mobile community. It allows its users to…

• Battery Ventures Leads Pursway’s Series A

  Eze Vidra

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:59 am

  Israel-based Pursway (formerly known as Datanetis) announced its series A of $6 million led by Battery Ventures office in Israel. Pursway uses patent pending sentiment analysis technology on social networks, enabling clients to identify the influencers and followers for each of their products product within their customer database. They can then create campaigns that utilize this information in a measurable fashion that can be tied to success metrics. The company’s solution aims to increase ROI, cross selling and customer acquisition through better targeting. Pursway has shown very…

• Eyecon’s media companion software gives consumers control over content across media units

  gmugliston

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:45 am

  More and more consumer electronics products now include features which leverage internet connectivity – current generation gaming devices, entertainment systems, and of course smart handsets are a few examples that demonstrate this trend. Despite the powerful new features that are made possible internet connectivity in consumer electronics products, however, consumers have difficulty obtaining unified access to content and playback across devices. Enter Eyecon, an Israeli startup that enables consumers to improve their overall home media experience by providing a central media control point…

• Invest in Israel Newsletter: January 2010 Edition

  Eze Vidra

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:22 am

  As usual, 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 previous editions of the newsletter, click here. ISRAEL RAISES GROWTH FORECAST TO 3.5% FOR 2010 Israel’s central bank has raised its economic forecast for 2010, citing an improved outlook for global growth and world trade. The Bank of Israel now expects the economy to grow 3.5% this year, compared with its previous forecast last September of 2.5%.

• First Bitesize of 2010

  Eze Vidra

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:54 pm

  Information overload! That’s the only way to explain the “January Effect” of tech and VC news since the new decade began a week ago. Here’s a few links worth clicking on: Microsoft’s research and development center in Israel is set to hire dozens of new employees SAPIR extends the power of web searches beyond centralized text and metadata searches to include distributed audio-visual content Why Do VCs Blog (and Tweet)? A directory of the top angel and seed investors in Silicon Valley. And how to reach them. Boxee, Waze and RedBeacon in Robert Scoble’s list…

• 
  Silicon Alley Insider

• Disney Works For The White House (DIS)

  Gillian Reagan

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:12 pm

  Disney is getting involved in the White House's new "Let's Move" campaign. Their goal: Cure the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation.  For their part, Disney is creating a series of public service announcements which will feature Disney characters encouraging kids to get active and eat healthy. Read the rest of this story »See Also:Disney: "No Decisions Have Been Made" On Hulu PremiumABC Affiliates Raging Against ESPN For Stealing Sports BroadcastsDisney CEO Bob Iger Is At The Apple Tablet Event

• The 5 Types Of IT Company Data You Should Pay Attention To

  Mark Peter Davis

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:50 am

  Mark Peter Davis is a New York City VC and member of the DFJ Gotham Ventures team. This post originally appeared on his blog, and it is republished here with permission. Tech-lite companies often rely on data to create value and barriers as they scale. Being able to structurally think about what data your company is and is not leveraging may enable you to deliver more value and create additional barriers from the data that you are currently mining or identify other types of data that you can and should be capturing. While no framework is without exception, I have attempted to create a…

• Yahoo: We've Had Our Own Google Buzz For Over A Year (YHOO, GOOG)

  Nick Saint

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:26 am

  Yahoo (YHOO) didn't wait for Google's (GOOG) press conference announc Google Buzz to end before sending us an email on Yahoo Updates -- the Yahoo product that does almost exactly the same things, and has been around for over a year. Here's the email: Read the rest of this story »See Also:The Truth About Google Buzz: It's Late, Boring, And LameWatch A Demo Of Google BuzzGoogle's Lame Facebook-Killer Is Called "Google Buzz"

• The Truth About Google Buzz: It's Late, Boring, And Lame (GOOG)

  Dan Frommer

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:15 am

  Google just unveiled its most ambitious attempt to build a social networking site, called Google Buzz. Read the rest of this story »See Also:Watch A Demo Of Google BuzzGoogle Wants To Kill Foursquare, Too!Google's Lame Facebook-Killer Is Called "Google Buzz"

• Brooklyn Decker's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Teaser Videos

  Gillian Reagan

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:04 am

  Brooklyn Decker is splayed across Sports Illustrated' 2010 Swimsuit Edition this year. The 22-year-old model has been in the magazine in 2006. But this is her first cover shoot. Read the rest of this story »See Also:CNBC: Our Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Special Is 'More About Business Than Boobs'Sports Illustrated's 2010 Swimsuit Cover Girl: Brooklyn Decker, Andy Roddick's WifeSports Illustrated Blasted For Featuring Lindsey Vonn In Sex Pose

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  The Private Equity Data Center Buzz

• Private Company Valuations: Tesla Motors, Inc.

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:04 pm

  Tesla Motors, Inc. recently filed a Form S-1 Registration Statement for a proposed IPO. This week we are going to take a look at their last round of financing from August 2009. Tesla Motors, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California. The company engineers and manufactures electric vehicles. In September 2009, the company closed on a Series F round of financing in the amount of $82.5 MM. Some of those participating in this round were Blackstar Investco LLC (an affiliate of Daimler AG), Al Wahada Capital Investment LLC, and Fjord Capital Partners.

• Private Company Valuations: Silver Spring Networks, Inc.

  27 Jan 2010 | 2:21 pm

  SmartGrid technology companies are making the news more and more these days. There has been quite a bit of funding to this portion of the CleanTech sector as well. One company in particular, Silver Spring Networks, Inc, has received a substantial amount of funding over the years. This week we are going to take a look at this company’s latest funding that came in late Q4 2009. Silver Spring Networks, Inc. is a SmartGrid solutions company, headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company enables utilities (electric, gas, & water) to rapidly and cost effectively deploy a broad…

• Private Company Valuations: EmSense, Inc.

  20 Jan 2010 | 9:34 am

  Imagine knowing what a consumer is thinking when they view a product. One company has developed the technology to obtain this information, and help their clients get an advantage in marketing their products. This week we are going to take a look at the latest round for EmSense, Inc. closed in Q4 2009. EmSense, Inc, headquartered in Monterey, California, was founded in 2004 by technologists from Hewlett Packard and MIT. The company is committed to bringing advancements in neuroscience to the market research community. Through their EmBand product, they allow marketers to measure brainwave…

• Private Company Valuations: Square, Inc.

  13 Jan 2010 | 2:22 pm

  Everyone has heard of Twitter, but have you heard of Square, Inc.? Square, Inc. was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, and the company first launched its services to the public in late Q4 2009. This week we are going to take a look at their first round of financing. Square, Inc. was founded in San Francisco, California. The company provides a software application and card reader that plugs into a mobile device. The reader allows the user to swipe a credit card (or debit card) through it to process a payment transaction via a mobile device. The company has stated that it has…

• Private Company Valuations: RockYou, Inc.

  6 Jan 2010 | 12:34 pm

  Hope everyone had a great holiday! We are back in the office and ready for a new year. Recently we have received several requests for information on the latest round of funding announced by RockYou, Inc, so this week we are going to take a look at this latest round that was announced last quarter. RockYou, Inc. (formerly netPickle, Inc.) is headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company creates and distributes web applications and widgets that users can use to customize their profiles across numerous social networking applications. The company announced in a press release in November…

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  DubaiBeat.com

• Abu Dhabi Investors acquired 15% stake at Gatwick airport

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:28 am

  Abu Dhabi investors of sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) had bought a 15% stake in Britain's Gatwick Airport. Two sources close to the deal told Reuters that Adia would pay around $196 million for a 15 percent stake in Gatwick, confirming an earlier report in The Times newspaper. They bought this stake from Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) which acquired Gatwick last year for 1.5 billion pounds. (To see more Abu Dhabi investors like ADIA check our investors directory) The Bloomberg news release follows

• 131 UAE private equity firms have $34 billion in capital

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:05 am

  The UAE Ministry of Economy has released figures showing that 131 private equity firms were operating in the UAE at year-end 2009, with capital of $34.5 billion, ($31.8 billion as paid-up capital). A total of sixty-nine companies with paid-up capital of $5.2 billion were operating across a number of sectors in Abu Dhabi, while Dubai registered 47 companies with paid-up capital of $26.6 billion. You can find major private equity firms in the UAE listed in the Middle East Investors Directory Their full press release follows

• Dubai's Istithmar to sell ISS - asking for $700 million

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:20 am

  Dubai-based investment firm Istithmar aims to sell port and shipping agent Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) for up to $700 million, and has drawn interest from private equity firms - the FT is reporting. Advent International, Cinven, Montagu Private Equity, and TPG Capital are among the buyout firms working on bids. The Financial Times reported that Charterhouse Capital Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co were also working on potential bids for London-based Inchcape, which is one of the world's biggest marine management firms with some 200 offices globally. Istithmar bought Inchcape for…

• Qatar royal investor buys hotel in Turkey for $15 million

  31 Jan 2010 | 7:29 am

  A Qatar royal family member has bought a five-star hotel in the Turkish town of Marmaris on the southwestern province of Mugla for $15 million - reports Trade Arbia. Al-Maselah Construction and Industry Company, owned by Qatar's Amir Sheikh Ahmad Ali al-Thani, has bought the Munamar Hotel in Icmeler hamlet in Marmaris. Munamar Hotel has totally 180 rooms including 13 suites and 2 king suites, the report said, adding the restoration will be launched at the end of the month. (To see more investors from Qatar check the Middle East Investors Directory)

• State of Venture Capital in the Middle East

  30 Jan 2010 | 7:42 am

  The brilliant Tom Gara of The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi has a good summary of interviews with four venture capital firms in the Middle East. The Middle East venture capital firms interviewed are Riyada (now part of Abraaj), Foursan, IV Holdings and Diwanee. A must read for people in seek of venture capital from the Middle East. (To see similar investment firms in the Middle East, check our investors directory)

• 
  Unstructured Thoughts by Taylor Davidson

• Closing tabs, opening minds

  Taylor Davidson

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:11 pm

  Fighting a backlog of interesting things to comment on, dealing by quoting bits that resonated with me… Michael Lewkowitz, Into 2010: Looking back at last year, it’s clear I can’t predict what will come of the year ahead, but I am pretty sure the direction it will follow. Thankfully it will be a journey of many. Without that, it wouldn’t be much fun. Hopefully it will make the world better. Without that, it wouldn’t be worth doing. Certainly it will be an adventure. Without that, it wouldn’t be much of anything. I know the feeling… Grant McCracken, Recycling: adding…

• “Be a hub” in your niche (an interview with Ellen Boughn about photography and creative content business models)

  Taylor Davidson

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:30 pm

  Quoting myself from part 1 of an interview I did with Ellen Boughn about photography, business models, social media, and how to “be a hub”. Part 2 (to be posted later) will be about how photographers can market authentically by creating stories and “embedding humanity” into their businesses. From Part 1 of an interview I did with Ellen Boughn about photography, business models and social media, “Be a Hub” – Taylor Davidson: “The economics of new technologies gave anyone the tools to create, but didn’t guarantee that they would profit from…

• Be on Point: How to stop doing things that don’t matter

  Taylor Davidson

  1 Feb 2010 | 9:12 pm

  Thoughts from a year chasing split ends, random projects and fractured priorities, from IgniteNOLA, Feb 1, 2010. Below are the slides from a little talk at IgniteNOLA on Feb 1, 2010, about how to stop doing things that don’t matter. In short, follow your passion. Better in person, I hope… Be On Point: How to stop doing things that don't matter View more presentations from Taylor Davidson. Links to the items screen-captured in the presentation: Slide 2: Social capital isn’t new, but everything about it is. Slide 3: A Freemium Life Slide 4: Tweet to request help to prep for…

• Where Meaning Meets Business

  Taylor Davidson

  27 Jan 2010 | 5:51 am

  “Where meaning meets business” is a simple construct that can help us allocate our money, time, attention and love; why should we do things that don’t matter? Capitalistic Lives, Jacksonville, Florida Roger Martin, in the Harvard Business Review, The Age of Customer Capitalism: Modern capitalism can be broken down into two major eras. The first, managerial capitalism, began in 1932 and was defined by the then radical notion that firms ought to have professional management. The second, shareholder value capitalism, began in 1976. Its governing premise is that the purpose of…

• 58 Companies, Organizations and Programs Driving the New Orleans Startup Movement

  Taylor Davidson

  26 Jan 2010 | 5:11 am

  Highlighting 58 companies, organizations and programs driving the New Orleans startup ecosystem, and a call to help us improve this list. Inspired by Michael Karnjanaprakorn’s detailed post outlining the New York Startup Movement and David Crow’s post about the Canadian tech scene, Chris Schultz and I decided to outline the New Orleans startup ecosystem. We started by looking at a couple sources: Chris’s previous posts from August 2009 and September 2008, news articles in the NY Times, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN and Air Tran Magazine, All Day Buffet’s New…

• 
  Continuations

• Email Killer Feature: Reply Processing

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:28 am

  If you needed yet another reason to switch from operating your own MTA for transactional email to using a service provider, SendGrid recently introduced a killer feature: reply processing.  No more need to send emails from “no-reply@thatsoundsrude.com.”  Instead, let people take actions simply by replying to emails.  This is a feature that I have absolutely loved about disqus from day one: being able to reply to comments by replying to the email I get from disqus.  Tons of others should do this.  Accept a friend request?  Just reply “yes” to the notification email. …

• The EBook Wars

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:37 am

  I was away last week and so am late to the party when it comes to commenting on the fight between Amazon and book publishers. Here are a couple of observations. First, I was surprised it took so long for this fight to start.  It is a great example of what I call “fighting over the digital pie.”  What was most fascinating about it is that none of the publishers even made a mention of how much authors would receive.  At present, this is all about trying to support the existing cost structure of publishers with strong parallels to the fight between networks and cable. Second, there has…

• What Do AAPL and AMZN Have, that GOOG, Twitter and FB Need?

  29 Jan 2010 | 7:09 am

  Each has more than 100 Million credit cards on file to enable 1-click purchases of content, apps, and virtual goods.  When I compare doing anything involving payment on other platforms the experience is cumbersome to the point of being useless.  My 10-year old son had no trouble hijacking my Kindle, finding the store and getting a book for himself.  And that’s on the Kindle!  On his iPod touch he blew through the app budget we had set for the month within the first two days of having it.  It will be interesting to see who figures out how to catch up with Apple and Amazon and how they…

• iPad: First Overhyped, Now Underestimated

  28 Jan 2010 | 5:16 am

  Yesterday’s “reveal” of the iPad was predictably anti-climactic. With the hype that had built up, anything short of a mind-reading, teleporting device had to be a bit of a letdown. But we are now likely to enter the phase of underestimating the iPad. People are already obsessing about such flaws as the omission of a camera. Or the lack of support for Flash. Or the absence of multi-tasking. These critiques mostly miss a couple of crucial points. First, this is of course extremely similar to the history of the iPhone - what, no Cut-and-Paste? Apple very quickly came out with significant…

• More Great News for NYC's Startup Ecosystem: NYC SeedStart

  27 Jan 2010 | 9:55 am

  Congrats to Owen Davis and everyone else involved for launching NYC SeedStart 2010.  I have long argued that there is no such thing as too much seed capital and SeedStart is a terrific addition.  It is amazing that until now New York City did not have such a program, given the success of YCombinator, TechStars, Dreamit, Launchbox, SeedCamp, FBFund Rev and others.  I am also thrilled to see that NYC SeedStart has adopted a simple financing model - $20,000/team for 5% of the company.  Now very much looking forward to the first crop of companies!

• 
  VC Deal Lawyer

• Scotty, We Need More Traction! Capt’n, What’s That Mean?

  Chris McDemus

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:45 pm

  The lexicon and jargon of the venture world is a frequent topic of articles and posts.  It changes year-to-year, or with each up and down cycle.  In the mid to late 90’s the buzzwords were ”eyeballs,” “paradigm shift,” “new economy,” “bricks-and-mortar” and the ever present “synergy.”  During the latter half of 2009 up to the present I’ve noticed that many of my conversations with VCs and angels have included the term “traction” when talking about fundability of a company.  At one point this was called…

• Update on Earlier Post: 15 Common But Avoidable Mistakes

  Chris McDemus

  31 Jan 2010 | 1:27 pm

  You may have read my earlier post entitled Doing it Right the First Time:  The 15 Most Common, but Avoidable, Mistakes Made by High Growth Start-ups.  I wanted to add some additional articles/posts I’ve read since then that add some flavor to my post.  Check out the following: When to Fire Your Co-Founders, by Simeon Simeonov (CEO at FastIgnite and former partner at Polaris Ventures); What Constitutes a Start-up Mistake, by Simeon Simeonov; The 18 Mistakes that Kill Start-ups, by Paul Graham – I guess I was 3 short on my list; and How to Pick a Co-Founder, by Naval Ravikant.

• What Should an Executive Summary Look Like?

  Chris McDemus

  20 Jan 2010 | 9:43 am

  Depending on who you are raising money from, your initial contact with the investor(s) will take different forms.  If you are raising friends and family money, then you will most likely use a private placement memo format along with a subscription agreement as your initial contact.  This is so because at the friends and family level, you are proposing valuation and deal terms, not the investors, and all of this information is contained in the private placement memo.  At the friends and family level, you are dealing with investors that know very little about how to structure an emerging…

• If You Provide a Strategic Technology or Outsourced Service, Consider Taking Some Equity in Your Fee Structure

  Chris McDemus

  14 Jan 2010 | 2:26 pm

  I remember the mid to late 90’s well.  Everyone was high on the hog and sniffing Internet glue.  Kids that couldn’t even shave had a paper net worth in the millions, if not billions in some cases.  And some of the most ridiculous deals of the century got funded.  The atmosphere was such that everyone believed they had a billion dollar idea and everyone else was looking for a way to share in it.  If you had a venture backed start-up, your dry cleaner probably offered you a reduced rate in return for some stock options.  Almost every bank, accounting firm, law firm and…

• Doing It Right the First Time: The 15 Most Common, but Avoidable, Mistakes Made by High Growth Start-ups

  Chris McDemus

  7 Dec 2009 | 8:40 pm

  Imagine you are half-way through due diligence on your Series A round and the venture fund’s counsel realizes that you never complied with federal and state securities laws when you raised angel money.  Or, imagine your early CTO hire does not have the level of experience he/she professed in the interview or on his/her resume and the company is going to lose 3 months of product development while trying to fill that position.  Or, imagine that you’ve blown through $150,000 of friends and family money only to realize there are no customers for that great piece of…

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  VentureDen Funding Tips

• Increase Your Funding Success: Avoid 2 Points of Conflict with VCs

  Daniel Cimera

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:06 am

  Why do venture capital firms and entrepreneurs have such conflicting views about each other?It could be experience or reputation.Venture capital firms have seen all types of entrepreneurs and think they can spot a “type” in an instant.On the other hand, entrepreneurs may hold negative viewpoints about a venture capital firm because of its reputation.However, all these expectations cause potential conflict between a VC firm and an entrepreneur. If you want to avoid this type of negative imaging that may cause a loss of venture capital funding, here are two ways you can change your…

• The Three Ps a Successful Entrepreneur Needs to Raise Venture Capital

  Daniel Cimera

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:25 pm

  Who are the successful entrepreneurs who have been awarded venture capital funding?Are they just lucky?Did they hit on a timely idea?Were they well connected?Was it a combination of all three? Neither luck, a great idea, nor networking is dependable enough to set an entrepreneur apart from the rest of the pack.Instead, here are three “p” qualities that an entrepreneur needs to assure at least a modest chance of acquiring venture capital funding. Preparation How will you get your startup company ready to be shown to venture capital firms?The most likely candidate for VC funding is an…

• Why VCs Focus on Certain Geographical Areas

  Daniel Cimera

  15 Jan 2010 | 7:27 am

  Entrepreneurs often complain about how much trouble it is to find venture capital funding.Many venture capital firms are very strict about the geographical area in which they invest – which leaves entrepreneurs with great ideas and potentially successful business plans with fewer startup capital options if they are not in a “hot” region. So why do venture capital firms get choosy about location?There are many reasons, and some venture capital firms may only choose one good reason to stay locally.Here are the three main reasons a venture capital firm will choose certain areas: Visiting…

• The 5 Most Important VC Decision Making Factors

  Daniel Cimera

  8 Jan 2010 | 7:39 am

  How do VC firms decide to provide start up financing to one company and not another?There is no single element that sets a startup company apart, but usually a combination of factors.If you are looking for start up financing, here are five important ways you can position your company in front of VC firms to get a better chance at “yes.” 1. Have an All-Star Management Team VC firms are interested in providing start up financing to new companies with experienced management.Too often a young entrepreneur comes along with a great idea, but no experience in the industry or marketplace.A smart…

• More Questions to Ask Before You Approach VC Firms

  Daniel Cimera

  17 Dec 2009 | 6:04 am

  Entrepreneurs are usually impatient about securing venture capital funding.They have a great idea and want it to get started NOW. However, it is always best to step back and get yourself ready for the venture capital firm hunt.Asking these important questions can save you significant time in finding the right VC firm and getting a “yes” answer. How Much Money Do I Need? This is an important question to know before you approach a VC firm.If you have performed your market research and product development research, then you should have a good idea how big your potential market is and how you…