A VC

Happy Birthday Americatribute to parachutists after WW2 Originally uploaded by miss b*. Being in Paris today, I thought this was a fitting picture. It reminds me (and hopefully all of us) that some of our greatest moments as a country have been...
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:45 am

The Scandinavian Startup SceneI spent a day in Cophenhagen yesterday. Got up at before dawn (which is really early this time of year in Paris) and got home after sunset (which is really late this time of year in Paris). But it was...
» 3 Jul 2008, 12:22 am

Bill Gurley Is Blogging AgainIf you asked me who my inspirations were when I started to blog, they would have been: Seth Godin - because his blog was my favorite read at the time (and still is in my top 10) Dave Winer -...
» 2 Jul 2008, 11:32 pm

YHOO and MSFTThis is the soap opera drama that won't go away. Every time you think you've heard the last of it, it comes back again The latest is a WSJ report just out that says Microsoft is trying to rope in...
» 1 Jul 2008, 9:34 pm

The Post American WorldImage via Wikipedia I finished Fareed Zakaria's The Post American World the other day. Which means the Zakaria quotes of the day are history. Hopefully you all enjoyed them. If you did, you should really pickup the book and read...
» 1 Jul 2008, 8:58 am

The Laptop: TV You Can Take With YouIf you look at this picture of my son Josh catching up on his favorite TV shows this morning before breakfast, you'll see a flat panel display in the upper right of the picture. And yet Josh is watching on...
» 30 Jun 2008, 2:15 am

The IPO DebateThe National Venture Capital Association is about to roll out a media effort aimed at getting the word out about the great IPO drought of 2008. The first stop in this campaign was the NY Times: Matt Richtel wrote about...
» 29 Jun 2008, 2:34 pm

Zakaria Quote Of The Daythe American system ... proved to be flexible, resourceful, and resilient, able to correct mistakes and shift its attention. A focus on American economic decline prevented it. The problem today is that the American political system seems to have lost...
» 29 Jun 2008, 10:23 am

Heading For The Exit LaneVruz sent me a copy of this CIBC research report called "Heading For The Exit Lane." I read it this morning and I've been thinking about it for most of today. So I uploaded it to Scribd and reblogged my...
» 28 Jun 2008, 9:50 am

Zakaria Quote Of The DayDespite a seventy-year long decline in its relative economic place, London played its weakening hand with impressive political skill. Its history offers some important lessons for the United States.
» 27 Jun 2008, 12:01 pm

100 Comments or BustI've written about "social media optimization" in the past. This is the crude social media dashboard I have on the bottom of every blog post. I wish the technorati link and the outside.in link would show how many links there...
» 27 Jun 2008, 6:09 am

American Venture Magazine

Companies Selected to Present in Statewide Venture ForumAlbany, NY – The final slate of presenting companies has been chosen for the Eighth Annual SmartStart UNYTECH Venture Forum, presented by the Center for Economic Growth in...
» 7 May 2008, 1:56 pm

dCUPERTINO, CA. -- Iamba Networks, provider of Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) solutions today announced the company has closed a $7 million round of financing. Investing firms in this round include iamba's investors from previous...
» 7 May 2008, 12:25 pm

Fresh venture capital money for Clean Technology with less dealsAccording to an Ernst & Young report (with data from Dow Jones VentureOne), eventhoug the number of venture capital deals for cleantech companies were down by 11 percent, venture capital investments in these companies grew to $571.6 million in...
» 7 May 2008, 12:24 pm

Parature Secures $16 Million in Venture CapitalVienna, VA (Vocus) May 7, 2008 -- Parature announced today that the company has secured $16 million in Series B venture capital financing. This round was led by, Palo Alto, CA based Accel...
» 7 May 2008, 12:05 pm

SmartStart& UNYTECH Venture Forum 2008SmartStart UNYTECH is the premier Upstate NY venture forum where VC firms look to see the best...
» 7 May 2008, 12:03 pm

OtoMedicine, Inc. is eighth investment for the Southwest Michigan First Life Science FundKALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Southwest Michigan First Life Science Fund has announced OtoMedicine, Inc. as its eighth investment.OtoMedicine is a bioscience company that has developed a proprietary product, AuraQuell(TM) to prevent noise-induced...
» 7 May 2008, 7:51 am

The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine secured $40 M in venture capital funding.AVM May 1, 2008 - According to PE Hub and Venture Beat, Turbine Inc. has obtained $40...
» 1 May 2008, 12:37 pm

William Bing Gordon joins KPCB venture capital firmMENLO PARK, CA -  Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers today announced that William "Bing" Gordon will join the firm as Partner in June 2008. Gordon...
» 1 May 2008, 12:20 pm

New Relic Secures $3.5 Million VC Investment From Benchmark CapitalMENLO PARK, CA, May 1 -  New Relic, Inc., a leading provider of Ruby on Rails application performance management solutions, today announced it has received $3.5 million in first-round...
» 1 May 2008, 12:12 pm

Pontiflex Inc. Secures $2.5 Million in Series A Venture Capital FundingBROOKLYN, N.Y., - Pontiflex Inc., creator of the online advertising industry's first...
» 1 May 2008, 12:12 pm

Buzzd closes its Series A FundingNEW YORK, NY - Buzzd, a location-based cityguide and social network on the mobile device, announced that it has completed its Series A funding round, led by Greycroft Partners and Monitor...
» 30 Apr 2008, 7:26 am

Ask the VC

Where Are My IPOs?Today's great post of the day is from Fred Wilson titled The IPO Debate.  There were no VC-backed IPOs in Q208 - the first time this has happened since 1978.  The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) is doing a big media push to get the word out about this and what it thinks is the underlying cause and ultimate impact on innovation in the United States.  Fred has some great thoughts on the issue.
» 30 Jun 2008, 5:31 am

How Did We Get Our Idea For Our Startup?Q:  We just started looking for venture funding and I have a question. Why do VC's ask us how our idea came about? Are they looking for an emotional and inspiring story or are they worried that we may have taken our idea from someone else or, what I believe is the case, do they want to see if we were driven by an opening in the market that we observed? Of course, if we are giving our answer in a way that addresses one or two of these issues then you are probably missing the third.  Please help! A: (Jason)  Without sounding too glib the answer is "all of the above and maybe more, probably."  Your guesses as to why are probably accurate and it, of course depends on to whom you are speaking with.  I'll address each of your guesses indivi
» 17 Jun 2008, 11:32 am

I've Got Angels Who Want To Invest But Not Lead - Now What?Q: I have several angels that say the want to invest but non of them wants to lead. In your experience: 1) Is this a "call option" strategy rather than a serious investment intent? 2) any thoughts on how to turn "co investors" into lead? or should I try to get a lead of this "co investors" pack? A: (Brad) While it's hard to tell whether this is a call option or serious investment intent, it is not that helpful in getting the round pulled together.  When doing an angel round, you need two things: (1) a lead investor who is willing to negotiate terms and (2) supporting investors that won't lead but are committed to participating on whatever terms the lead negotiates with you. While you can't contractually commit the supporting investors, y
» 16 Jun 2008, 4:28 pm

What's An Appropriate Equity Package For A Founding Board Member?Q: I am trying to determine the appropriate equity position for my startup's board members.  They are arguing that they are "founding" board members. They have put in a few hours a month of their time for around a year, have been very helpful with introductions, and have sat in on VC meetings.  We are seed stage (pre-A). Can you suggest a range of equity for a "founding" board member? While you referenced the concept in your "Compensation for Board Members" article, you did not detail any specific ranges. A: (Brad) I think their equity as "founding board members" - given your description of what they have been doing for you - should map to the post Compensation for Board Members or Board Member / Advisory Member Compensation.  Specifica
» 15 Jun 2008, 1:27 pm

More Thoughts on Structuring an Angel InvestmentI'm not a fan of convertible notes as the form of an angel investment.  When I'm making an angel investment, I much prefer to price the round and do a "light Series A" (simple terms, but still a preferred instrument.)  Basil Peters has a series of posts up on Angel blog that talks about the problems of Convertible Notes for Angel Investing, suggests Exchangeable Shares for Angel Investors, and even provides a One Page Term Sheet for Angel Investors.
» 8 Jun 2008, 4:29 pm

Founders Termination Clause In Term Sheets?Q: Thank you very much for your term sheet series.  Not being that familiar with "specific" term sheets, I have heard something about VC terms that effectively allow the VC to fire the founder(s) and in the process relieve them of their shares since they had then left the company before liquidity. I have read a previous Ask the VC post about the 'moral' and 'reputation' reasons that VC's will not do this. However I am more interested in the legal binds and would like to know if these sort of terms are something that is standard/negotiable in various term sheets. A: (Jason).  There is certainly nothing in a standard term sheet that specifically addresses this.  I've seen founder / CEO termination clauses in term sheets that effectively
» 8 Jun 2008, 3:59 pm

What Kind of Benefits Can I Expect Working at a Startup?Q:  What kind of benefits do start-ups typically offer? I don't mean salary or equity: about which you already posted a lot of information. I am talking about health and life insurance, disability insurance - all of the typical benefits one receives when working for a large and established business. Do you recommend a particular benefits package configuration to your companies? Are benefits ever a part of your conversations with your companies about the 'costs' of running the business? How do you see startups dealing with a regulatory landscape designed for an entirely different type of organizations? A: (Jason)  In order to best answer your question, I asked Dan Cutler from TriNet to opine.  Dan and TriNet have been great partners to
» 31 May 2008, 6:52 pm

Getting Into The VC BusinessFred Wilson has today's great VC blog post up titled I Got Lucky.  It's the story of how Fred got into the VC business - going back to 1986. I met Fred in 1996 the same day I met Seth Godin at Yoyodyne (which ended up being the first investment out of Fred's new fund - Flatiron Partners.)  Fred and I have been good friends since and I count him as one of my favorite people on the planet to work with.  While it's fun to read the story, the punch line is powerful and important for anyone that wants to get into the venture capital business. If you want to be a top tier venture investor, you must be recognized as one of the experts in the field you invest in. When I was at Euclid, I used to watch in admiration as guys like Bill Kaiser w
» 30 May 2008, 9:38 am

Should You Expense or Capitalize Your Engineering Costs?Q: At RealNetworks we always expensed (vs. capitalized) engineering expenses (as does MSFT).  What is your philosophy on this engineering accounting practice. A: (Brad) Subject to approval by the auditors, I always encourage companies I invest in to expense their engineering costs.  Regardless of the accounting treatment, I think it's a bullshit practice to capitalize engineering expenses.  In an early stage company, this simply serves to obfuscate the reality of the P&L by transferring real expenses to an asset on the balance sheet which is subsequently depreciated over a multi-year period of time.  The result - investors and managers have to work harder to understand the P&L and the real economic dynamics of the business.  It gets
» 28 May 2008, 9:24 am

Should I Be A Shareholder Representative?Note:  This was actually a question that I received from a colleague via email, but thought I'd post it here given the content.  Q:  My company is close to signing a contract to sell the business.  Although I’m prepared to do the role, one of the board members has suggested that we consider using a third party shareholder representation firm instead.  Jason – I see that you’re involved with Shareholder Representative Services, the firm my board member suggested.  I’m pretty committed to my company so what are the advantages and disadvantages of going with a third party rather than just doing it myself? BTW, I’m currently the CFO and plan on staying on for at least a while post closing. A:  (Jason)  My short answ
» 27 May 2008, 5:33 pm

Term Sheet GlossaryGigaom's FoundRead has today's great post up titled F|R Crib Sheet: The Term Sheet Glossary guest written by Jay Parkhill.  While you can always entertain yourself for hours with the Term Sheet Series that Jason and I wrote several years ago, sometimes a crib sheet will suffice.
» 25 May 2008, 5:45 am

Demo

Stay Connected to DEMO Companies, Community and EventsIf the success of our recent Alumni Party Tour is any indication, the DEMO community has never been stronger.  To help you keep track of it all, we’ve built a number of great tools to keep you up to date on the people, product, companies and events surrounding DEMO throughout the year.  Read more
» 2 Jul 2008, 4:28 pm

Skyfire hires Rowehl to take mobile phone browser commercialRead moreSkyfire Labs, makers of the Skyfire (DEMO 08) Web browser for Windows-based smart telephones, today hired mobile software programmer and blogger Michael Rowehl as its scalability architect or as his new business card states "deliverator" to take the product from private beta to commercial use later this year.
» 1 Jul 2008, 5:00 am

Ribbit integrates voice into SaaSRibbit Corp., (DEMO 08) the self-described first telephone company of Silicon Valley, is offering free, unlimited 30-day trials of its first enterprise application built on salesforce.com, which links mobile voice communications with software as a service (SaaS) business workflows. Read more
» 1 Jul 2008, 4:15 am

salesforce.com pushes Google Apps to enterprisesAs part of its continuing alliance with Google, salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) (DEMO 2000) has released a developer toolkit to make Google App services, which competes against Microsoft Office, easier and faster to integrate into enterprise applications built on salesforce.com. The Force.com Toolkit for Google Data APIs is the highlight of the company's ongoing international tour, which hits Tokyo Thursday and hopscotches to other major cities later this month. Read more
» 1 Jul 2008, 4:00 am

Career agent NotchUp opens to all companies, updates from FacebookRead more
» 30 Jun 2008, 5:45 am

Apture offers Web publishers better contextual pop-upsRead more
» 30 Jun 2008, 5:30 am

Swatchbox - Innovator to WatchRead moreAfter a near-10-year history building and licensing virtual design applications for home remodeling companies, Swatchbox Technologies of Westborough, MA has created its own interior design site, DesignMyRoom.com. To use, simply select a blank room you want to decorate and start dragging and dropping elements such as paint, lamps, couches, flooring, rugs, and counter tops to create the look of your room.
» 30 Jun 2008, 5:05 am

Aternity introduces "pre-packaged" IT monitoring applications and partner programRead more
» 30 Jun 2008, 4:30 am

iotum launches audio conferencing betaWith businesses using Facebook to attract customers, iotum™ of Ottawa, Canada (DEMO 06) has launched an open beta of its audio conference calling service, Calliflower, which offers a visual dashboard that lets people chat with voice and text - all based on its experience building the first conference calling application for the popular social networking site. Read more
» 27 Jun 2008, 7:00 am

Eyealike seeks online dating and social net partnersOut to attract online dating and social networking Web sites as customers, Eyealike (DEMO 08), a visual search platform, has introduced Eyealike Faces, which looks for similarities in face geometry, skin color, and hair. Eyealike is negotiating with one of the top 10 online dating Web service based outside the U.S., but declined to disclosure its name. Read more
» 26 Jun 2008, 10:00 am

Zoho adds 11 languages and more features to presentation appOnline productivity software company Zoho (DEMO 07) today updated its presentation application Zoho Show with 11 new languages, four new export formats, and new mailing functions. The update follows on the heels of recent updates to Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet. Read more
» 26 Jun 2008, 6:30 am

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

Why Powerset is important and differentMicrosoft announced yesterday the acquisition of Powerset, a natural language search engine. Techmeme has lots of stories about the acquisition. Today the stories are all a bout Microsoft/Yahoo potential deals. But lets take a step back and look at how Powerset works and why it is an important development in...
» 2 Jul 2008, 7:31 am

Microsoft acquires PowersetMicrosoft has agreed to acquire Powerset, a Natural Language search engine, founded by Barney Pell. Satya Nadella, Senior Vice President, Search, Portal, and Advertising said on his blog; Powerset will join our core Search Relevance team, remaining intact in San Francisco. Powerset brings with it natural language technology that nicely...
» 1 Jul 2008, 12:54 pm

Information security weakest link? Stolen laptops and cell phonesOver 600,000 laptops are reported lost or stolen every year at US airports according to a ComputerWorld story. The story, based on a survey by the Ponemon Institute says that 65% of them are never recovered. Laptops are most often lost at security checkpoints. Hotels and taxi cabs are also...
» 1 Jul 2008, 8:52 am

Microsoft innovation in Boston/CambridgeMicrosoft is making a big investment in innovation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has a front page story about Microsoft's new Concept Development Center led by Reed Sturtevant. Reed was recruited by Ray Ozzie and his brother Jack to build the new lab. The Boston Globe story says; Boston...
» 30 Jun 2008, 11:20 am

IPO market ups and downs - Q2 worst in 30 yearsNot one single VC backed company went public in the 2nd quarter of 2008 according to the New York Times. The last time that happened was 30 years ago. However, 2007 was one of the best years for IPOs since the dot com bubble of 1999. Such are the cycles...
» 28 Jun 2008, 11:15 am

Dan'l Lewin in San Francisco ChronicleDan'l Lewin is Microsoft's Corporate VP for Strategic and Emerging Business, based in Silicon Valley. I work in Dan'l's organization so it was a treat to read a story in the Chronicle about Dan'l's work with VCs and startups around the world. Dan'l is a legend in Silicon Valley where...
» 27 Jun 2008, 10:23 am

TechCrunch 50 Conference panel of expertsMike Arrington and Jason Calacanis asked me again this year to participate on the TechCrunch 50 panel of experts. TechCrunch announced yesterday that Mark Cuban, Marc Benioff, and I will be on the panel. I am humbled…and honored to be mentioned with those guys. The complete list of “experts” is...
» 27 Jun 2008, 6:57 am

First Mover vs Fast Follower - Who wins?Innovation drives our industry, attracts the best talent, attracts VC money, and wins fame for its leaders. Innovation leaders burst onto the scene, win early market leadership, but sometimes can't sustain the pace. Why do "fast followers" often jump in later and make fortunes? Is management responsible for the success...
» 25 Jun 2008, 4:37 pm

11 Billion videos served - Profits ???Comscore says Americans watched 11 Billion videos in April. Nearly 75% of Americans with Internet access watched at least one video. The "average" user watched 82 videos. Average length was 3 minutes. Hmm...I guess I am way below average. John Paczkowski at AllThingsD says most of those 11 billion videos...
» 17 Jun 2008, 6:02 pm

Amazon, Twitter, Disqus down. Do you really want your data in the cloud?I woke up this morning and checked TechMeme to see what was happening in the tech world. Three stories jumped out at me. Amazon was down due to a Denial of Service attack. Twitter has been down many times over the past few weeks. Dave Winer says he needs a...
» 7 Jun 2008, 12:49 pm

Feld Thoughts

Early Computer Animated MoviesI'm knee deep in reading The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, listening to Pink Floyd, and enjoying a perfect Homer, Alaska evening with Amy.  I was an undergraduate at MIT during the Lucasfilm days of what became Pixar and vaguely remember early Media Lab / Project Athena animation stuff and watching super cool computer graphics wizardry post-SIGGRAPHs at the Computer Museum in Boston.  Fortunately, YouTube has all the old classic computer animations online, including The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. Awesome! (the animations and the book).  While sneak peaks of this one and other old Pixar shorts are available on the Pixar website, due to the magic of the Internet they are all available on YouTube.
» 3 Jul 2008, 10:24 pm

ColoradoBiz TechStars Video Interview #1Part one of a video interview with Mike Cote of ColoradoBiz talking about TechStars.  Get answers to the following questions in under four minutes. 1. What's the elevator pitch of TechStars (payback for David since he makes all the TechStars teams give their elevator pitches over and over.) 2. What's the latest crop look like? 3. Are there any women in TechStars? 4. How many applicants did you have this year? 5. What criteria did you use to select them (see me make a nerdy Dungeons and Dragons reference.) 6. Is it the idea you get excited about? Observe also that I have a much larger proboscis than David.
» 2 Jul 2008, 11:07 pm

I've Been GnippedEarlier this year we made a seed investment in a new company called Gnip.  Yesterday, Gnip launched their first service - a free centralized callback server that notifies data consumers (such as Plaxo) in real-time when there is new data about their users on various data producing sites (such as Flickr and Digg).  I've written my version of the overview on the Foundry Group blog in my post titled Gnip is Ping Spelled Backwards, there are a couple of posts up already on the Gnip blog, and a number of people have already written about Gnip including TechCrunch, TechCrunchIT, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, Dave Winer, and Joe Smarr (Plaxo's Chief Platform Architect).  Rather than repeat what Gnip is here, I'm going to tell you how this investme
» 2 Jul 2008, 10:54 pm

Can You Patent The Idea of Recommending Contacts in a Social Network?Microsoft is trying to.  It's up on PeerToPatent and you can comment on this patent application (and the USPTO will presumably listen to you) if you'd like to help keep the world free of really silly software patents.  Following is the abstract. "A method and system for recommending potential contacts to a target user is provided. A recommendation system identifies users who are related to the target user through no more than a maximum degree of separation. The recommendation system identifies the users by starting with the contacts of the target user and identifying users who are contacts of the target user's contacts, contacts of those contacts, and so on. The recommendation system then ranks the identified users, who are potential
» 1 Jul 2008, 1:06 pm

TSA Starts Designing LuggageAs I was contemplating how to optimally pack my liquids and gels into a single quart sized ziplock bag I came across an article in the NY Times titled Bag Helps Laptop Pass Air Security.  Apparently, the TSA has been testing new luggage as a result of an RPF they sent out recently.  They won't certify these bags - rather they'll encourage manufacturers to adopt a universal logo akin to "this bag is checkpoint friendly." So here's what's going to happen.  50+ luggage / backpack / briefcases are going to appear on the market that say "this bag is checkpoint friendly" on them.  They'll work for a little while.  Then 200+ knockoffs will come on the market at 50% lower price points.  All of them will say "this bag is checkpoint friendly."
» 1 Jul 2008, 4:38 am

Do Or Do Not. There Is No Try.Thanks to my buddy Alex Iskold at Adaptive Blue for my new t-shirt. $DO || ! $DO ; try try: command not found That describes my marathon and life philosophy perfectly.
» 30 Jun 2008, 11:09 am

The Latest Pile of BooksIt's summer time and I've once again been powering through a bunch of books.  Amy and I are heading to our place in Homer, Alaska tomorrow where I'll likely continue my pace of at least a book a day.  Look for regularly updates and quick reviews here.  In the meantime, here's the latest set from the last week. The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America's Most Troubled Companies: This is the autobiography of Steve Miller, a well known turnaround executive.  He started his career at GM and progressed to be part of Lee Iacocca's turnaround team at Chrysler (he was the CFO).  After Chrysler, he has been involved in a number of turnarounds including Federal-Mogul, Morrisson-Knudson, Bethlehem Steel, Waste Management, and Delphi. 
» 30 Jun 2008, 10:00 am

The Emergence of Defensive Patent CommonsToday's Wall Street Journal has an article titled Tech Giants Join Together To Head Off Patent Suits.  It describes the efforts of a new organization named Allied Security Trust who's goal is to "buy up key intellectual property before it falls into the hands of parties that could use it against them."  The named companies that have joined Allied Security Trust are Verizon, Google, Cisco, Telefon, Ericsson, and HP. Allied Security Trust appears to be an example of the emerging construct of a "patent commons".  There are already a number of existing patent commons such as the Patent Commons Project aimed at protecting open source software. There are two types of patent commons - offensive and defensive.  So far the folks that have been
» 30 Jun 2008, 5:56 am

Month 1 of TechStars and Other Fun ThingsMonth 1 of this year's TechStars program is over.  Andrew Hyde captures the sights and the people of TechStars in a fun three minute video. While you are at it, if you were a Lego fanatic take a ride down Lego Memory Lane. Finally, in the continued emergence of the Kindle as a serious thing, Princeton University is now publishing Kindle textbooks.  No more giant backpacks full of books and lecture notes.
» 28 Jun 2008, 4:27 pm

FAS 157 - Another Annoying Accounting ProvisionI feel like bitching about FAS 157 today.  I was at the annual meeting for one of our LPs yesterday and there was a long discussion about the impact of FAS 157 on both the buyout and the venture capital business.  Once again everyone was in violent agreement that this was yet another accounting rule - promulgated by the accounting industry - to generate more fees for the accounting industry while burdening companies, especially entrepreneurial ones, with additional regulations that have no real impact on reality. If you aren't familiar with FAS 157, it's officially known as the "fair value measurement" rule and unofficially known by some as the "mark to market" provision.  Before you ask, "wait - isn't mark to market the thing that got
» 27 Jun 2008, 9:54 am

Unintended Consequences of Hybrid VehiclesI heard a "superb" cynical statement today.  I have no idea if it is factually correct, have no data (empirical or anecdotal) to support it, but it is such a great potential example of unintended consequences that I thought it was worth putting out there. The statement was "While hybrid vehicles make us feel better, they actually do more harm than good because they result in more driving."  The follow up thought is that for hybrid cars to really work (at today's efficiency levels), people still need to modify their behavior and drive less (e.g. relying on public transportation or carpooling.)  However, once you've bought a hybrid, you suddenly feel like you are doing your part and subsequently drive more!  This additional driving add
» 26 Jun 2008, 10:27 am

Florida Venture Capital

WSJ/HBR: A Manufactured Long Tail Debate?A friend of mine forwarded Lee Gomes's WSJ article questioning Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory, referencing a recent Harvard Business Review article by Anita Elberse.Setting aside Lee's original Long Tail skepticism, possibly because it suggested the blogosphere presented an opportunity to impact journalists at the head (e.g. WSJ columnists?); I emailed the following thoughts to my friend. This feels like an attempt by Anita to manufacture some Long Tail controversy to benefit her research/writing, much of her observations actually match what Chris suggested in The Long Tail.Did I miss something? Any thoughts? From: Dan Rua [mailto:dan@inflexionvc.com]Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:19 AMSubject: RE: Long Tail questioned Great arti
» 2 Jul 2008, 7:29 am

WANTED: New Kind of CMS and New Kind of Start PageI'm looking for a couple things that I'm surprised I cannot find, yet:1) New kind of CMS, turning your site/blog into your single profile/lifestream/social graph instead of maintaining those concepts across Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed or elsewhere. There are some lifestream plugins for Wordpress and some one-off integrated design efforts, but this feels like something worthy of a new CMS from the ground up -- the mix of profile and social graph requires rethinking refresh cycles, data location/sharing, and existing blog/page design concepts. Now that APIs are proliferating at a rapid rate, it's possible to create the truly distributed social network -- where we own/control the end-nodes. Any ideas who is closest to this?2) New kind of
» 30 Jun 2008, 11:29 am

Israel, Feldman, Winer, Calacanis, Arrington: Take it to the Fight ClubThe never ending drama around puppets is just amplifying what I always suspected about the social media elites. No wonder Ted Murphy scared them so much, he took much worse and handled it much better. Those guys need to take it to a ring...(via @roder)Related posts: Mathew Ingram (great recap), Shel Israel, Loren Feldman, BlogHerald, ProfyRelated images: loren feldman, shel israel, shel "puppet" israel, dave winer, michael arrington, jason calacanis, puppets Let's get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!
» 27 Jun 2008, 2:27 pm

TinySong: Simple, Functional, and Social MusicI love when a product does what it's supposed to, elegantly, and with little additional, complicating function. That is an attribute of many successful products including the original Google search box and Twitter.I ran across another example recently: tinysong.comTinySong was created by the music-heads over at GrooveShark, a further extension from their GrooveShark P2P community, to their GSlite player, and now to full-on music sharing across the broader social graph.Just as TinyURL allows you to shorten long URLs for sharing in Twitter and elsewhere, TinySong does the same for sharing songs for immediate streaming. Although you could argue that TinySong is just a subset of TinyURL (e.g. you could use TinyURL to do the same thing), I see
» 27 Jun 2008, 7:34 am

The Many Models of MusicWired is one of those rare magazines I usually read cover to cover during the month it arrives. Every now and then I get a nice surprise when I find an old article I somehow missed. Today is one of those days.David Byrne wrote a brief, yet informative, article about the evolution of music distribution on page 125 of the January 2008 issue. It's a topic I've thought about since the Napster days and I hadn't seen someone map the landscape of artist options as succinctly as David has. He also did a better job than most at describing the music experience our genetics long for, not just a CD or recorded song.David describes music as:"Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context....Music was an exp
» 23 Jun 2008, 8:01 am

I'm Back on the Grid!!For those of you wondering why it's been awhile since my last post, blame Alaska. In honor of my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary, our extended family met in Seattle for a group Alaska cruise. Our time there was amazing, relaxing, and very "off the grid".I'm now digging out of email, voicemails, twitter, friendfeed, facebook etc. backlog. Anyone who left me a message, but doesn't hear back by Monday, please give me another ping. With over 1500 emails waiting, it may take awhile...after clearing that backlog, I hope to share some photos from the trip! Let's get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!
» 19 Jun 2008, 10:08 am

Amazon, Twitter and Operant ConditioningTwitter/FriendFeed updates announced Amazon.com was down for at least an hour this morning. It has since come up and down a few times. CNet, Mashable, TechCrunch and, thus TechMeme, eventually realized it too. It's up for me now.I have no idea what happened, but I know Amazon gets a surge of buzz/traffic when it returns. I've seen Twitter leverage this strategy masterfully, reaping the rewards of variable scheduling to maximize conditioned behavior.Wikipedia's description of operant conditioning has this to say about fixed and variable scheduling of stimulus:"According to the laws of operant conditioning, any behavior that is consistently rewarded, every single time, will extinguish at a faster rate while intermittently reinforcing beha
» 6 Jun 2008, 11:43 am

HP's Ultimate Filmmaker Kit & 3Minutes2Launch ContestMy daughter's kicking off a webshow, one nephew is a director and another is a parkour nut with his own blog/videos. I guess that explains why the HP Channelbee.com contest caught my eye over at SocialSpark. One lucky entrant of 3Minutes2Launch who creates a 3 minute video, enters it in the contest and beats out the competition, will win an internship with ChannelBee and produce a documentary of their experience. The next couple videos provide a bit more detail:I took a look at some of the entries and I have to say this isn't your typical mentos & coke mouth explosion phone-cam contest. This is a chance for someone passionate about directing to show their stuff in 3 minutes, 2 launch a film/TV career. Although I know "real" directors
» 3 Jun 2008, 9:52 am

Tropic Thunder "Viral" VideoI haven't laughed this hard in a long time, especially when the hammer comes out. Enjoy![It looks like MTV is forcing viewers to MTV.com -- I'll embed for now, in hopes they eventually ditch the shackles. Go watch it anyway!] Related images: ben stiller, jack black, robert downey jr, tropic thunder, kung fu panda, ironman, mtv movie awards Let's get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!
» 2 Jun 2008, 12:24 pm

Orlando Makes FastCompany Global DozenOn a tip from Greg via Doterati, I just checked out FastCompany's list of the dozen best cities on the planet for innovation. Only 3 of the cities were in the US, and kudos to Orlando for being one of the few. The full list, in no particular order, included:BeijingHyderabadMexico CityKigaliSeattleOrlandoCalgaryMoscowBarcelonaKansas CityDoharAbu DhabiThey had this to say about Orlando:"There's more to Orlando than Mickey. It's now a hub for two burgeoning industries: interactive games -- a lively scene has sprouted around the Electronic Arts studio behind Madden NFL -- and biotech. A new medical complex in the Lake Nona area will house a University of Central Florida med school and a branch of the famed Burnham Institute for Medical Resear
» 30 May 2008, 9:58 am

Revision3, MediaDefender and the Building Robot WarsOver the last couple years I've diligenced a few network security products that are the internet equivalent of automated unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). They offer the ability to scan the [network] horizon for enemy behavior and take aggressive, automated offensive/defensive action.The magnitude of such automated action usually intrigued me and troubled me at the same time. Today's detailed claim by Revision3 of a MediaDefender denial of service attack on its BitTorrent port reminded me of the robot wars that are coming in air (via UAVs) and in the "cloud" (via MediaDefender and others).Revision3's post sure sounded like they are setting up to sue MediaDefender (or at least scare up some kind of settlement). Given the business losses, R3's
» 29 May 2008, 11:00 am

Funding Post

Investor Profile: Monumental Venture PartnersRoland Oliver, President & Chairman, Monumental Venture Partners In early 1999, Mr. Oliver launched and organized Monumental Venture Partners, LLC, the general partner to MVP America, LP. Mr. Oliver successfully recruited the founders including MCI's New Ventures team, raised capital for the general partnership from selected investors, and formed the MVP America, LP Advisory Board. Mr. Oliver has extensive experience fund raising, joint ventures, technology transfer, acquisitions, investment assessments, and international expansion in the wireless telecommunications and information technology industries. From 1993 through 1998, Mr. Oliver was the Group Vice President of Corporate and Business Development for Grayson and Comsearch Wireless,
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Investor Profile: WI Harper GroupPeter Liu, Chairman, WI Harper Group With over 20 years of experience in venture capital, Mr. Peter Liu is widely regarded as a pioneer of venture capitalists in Asia. Born in Beijing and raised in Taipei, Peter was educated at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to founding WI Harper Group, Peter was a general partner of Walden International Asia where he established joint venture partnerships with several Asian governments and leading enterprises and helped raise US$400 million, including its China Walden Fund. He has rich experience in investing in and advising high-tech companies throughout the United States and Asia, and has a track record of securing significant capital appreciation for investors. In 1985, Peter co-founded
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Investor Profile: SJF VenturesDavid Kirkpatrick, Managing Director and co-founder, SJF Ventures David Kirkpatrick is Managing Director and co-founder of SJF Ventures, a venture capital fund with $45 million under management and offices in Durham, NC and New York. SJF focuses on rapidly expanding cleantech, tech-enhanced services and premium consumer products firms, has 20 portfolio companies, and is investing from its second fund. SJF assists and invests in enterprises with innovations that have a positive impact in the world and create strong competitive advantages in large markets. David was named the national 2005 CDVC Practitioner of the Year by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance. Previous to SJF, he founded and managed two other successful en
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Investor Profile: Arris VenturesMike Stowell, Partner, Arris Ventures Mr. Stowell brings 14 years of consulting, entrepreneurial, and technology experience to Arris Ventures. As a senior manager with Accenture, he assisted clients in a variety of areas including business process design and business strategies for marketing, eCommerce, and the launching of new businesses. As program manager of Accenture's eProcess initiative, Mr. Stowell developed and globally deployed eCommerce knowledge capital to over 30,000 of Accenture's professionals, as well as its clients. Prior to his work at Accenture, he served as a regional sales manager and technical consultant for Arizona-based, start-up software company, Sequentia. Mr. Stowell's early career included several engineering pos
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Investor Profile: Canaan PartnersDaniel Ciporin, Venture Partner, Canaan Partners Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan's Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers. Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company's IPO in October 2004 and later acquisiti
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Investor Profile: KBL Healthcare Acquisition Corp. IIIMarlene Krauss, M.D., Managing Director, KBL Healthcare Acquisition Corp. III Dr. Marlene Krauss has been our chief executive officer, secretary and a member of our board of directors since our inception. Since November 1998, Dr. Krauss has been a managing member and president of KBL Healthcare Management. During this time, Dr. Krauss co-founded or has served on the board of directors of several of KBL Healthcare Management's portfolio companies. Dr. Krauss has also been the chairperson of the board of KBL II since March 2007 and served as its chief executive officer and secretary from its inception in December 2004 until March 2007. From April 1993 to August 1994, Dr. Krauss served as chairperson and chief executive officer of KBL I. In
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Guy Kawasaki

Cool Stuff MondayA buddy of mine found three cool inventions to share with readers of my blog. These inventions can change the world and illustrate how much can be done with innovative thinking. Pot-in-pot. This is the invention of Mohammed Bah Abba...
» 29 Jun 2008, 10:54 pm

Slideshare Announces "World's Best Presentation Contest"| View | Upload your own Slideshare is running the "World's Best Presentation Contest" again. Entries are due by July 31st. I'm a judge again this year along with Bert Decker, Nancy Duarte, and Garr Reynolds. The prizes include a...
» 25 Jun 2008, 6:31 pm

The Art of ChangeOver at the Sun Microsystems blog I published an interview about the art of change. It features Ariane de Bonvoisin, the founder and CEO of The First Thirty Days, Inc. She recently published a book called The First 30 Days:...
» 24 Jun 2008, 4:44 pm

The Inside Word on Word-of-Mouth MarketingIn this interview Dave Balter explains word-of-mouth marketing. Balter founded BzzAgent in 2002. His company has provided word-of-mouth media services for dozens of Fortune 500 companies and has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Wall Street...
» 15 Jun 2008, 9:21 pm

One Perfect Day with IGTStoryline: Gaming company sends corporate plane to bring nerd to Vegas to speak to casino execs. Don't get the impression that this is my usual lifestyle--I'm only blogging about this day because this never happens to me. The first stop:...
» 12 Jun 2008, 12:17 am

Alltop Badge ContestI am in pursuit of the world's greatest sidebar badges for Alltop, so we're sponsoring a contest here. The top five entries will get a iPod Touch. Legal residents of the U.S. only (it's a long story having to do...
» 10 Jun 2008, 11:15 pm

Brand PersonalityAre you interested in the role of personality in a company's marketing? I recently interviewed Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy PR about this subject. You can read the interview here at Sun Microsystem's small business blog. He covers topics such as...
» 10 Jun 2008, 12:11 pm

How to Escape Corporate AmericaPamela Skillings is the founder of Skillful Communications, a career and communications consulting firm in New York. Previously, Pamela spent more than twelve years as a marketing executive for companies including MasterCard International, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. She recently published...
» 9 Jun 2008, 11:16 am

Father's Day Gift Suggestion: Clear CardIf you're searching for a Father's Day gift that a traveling dad (or mom) will truly appreciate the whole year, consider a Clear card. This is the card that involves pre-screening of your background so that you can get through...
» 8 Jun 2008, 9:03 pm

A Blooming Great IdeaThis is a cool idea. I would buy one in a second. No picture. You have to trust me and click here. More cool gadget here too.
» 5 Jun 2008, 11:07 pm

Lightspeed Venture Partners

29 business models for gamesAt the Social Gaming Summit recently, on the panel about Monetization and Business Models, David Perry mentioned that there were 29 business models for games that he was familiar with. I asked him to do a guest post listing them all and he agreed. David Perry is a 27 year industry veteran whose games have sold [...]
» 2 Jul 2008, 8:06 am

Top Friends still missing after 5 days; marks change in Facebook’s approach to app developersInside Facebook has an interesting post about Facebook’s evolving approach to platform management. Justin notes that Slide’s Top Friends app has now been suspended for the platform for 5 days, the most serious punishment for any app so far. He notes that while initially Facebook tried to control app developer behavior with rules, it is [...]
» 1 Jul 2008, 3:10 pm

How to design a reputation system for your social media site or social gameBokardo has an interesting interview with Bryce Glass of Yahoo, about Yahoo’s social design pattern for reputation. Building reputation systems can really help drive high quality engagement on a social media site, but is also fraught with danger and unintended consequences if not done thoughtfully: What are the biggest hurdles in designing for reputation? I think it’s [...]
» 29 Jun 2008, 8:19 pm

Who is Fake Jeremy Liew?I got an email today from Kyle Brady titled “Response to Your Response on My Blog” which puzzled me as I hadn’t come across his blog before. I clicked through to his post; he had been called by a recruiter about a job at my portfolio company Rockyou, turned it down and explained, in some [...]
» 26 Jun 2008, 9:34 pm

IMVU selling over $1m/mth in virtual goodsGigaOm says that IMVU is generating over $1m/mth in revenue: Flying under the proverbial radar for the last four years, the web-based virtual world chatroom IMVU has released new jaw-breaking data: Since April 2004, it has amassed 20 million registered accounts, with 600,000 of those active monthly users. By comparison, Second Life took five years to [...]
» 24 Jun 2008, 10:04 pm

Acclaim to make $30m in revenue from free to play games this yearHoward Marks spoke at Paris GDC today, and Worlds in Motion has a writeup, including quotes from Marks about key stats for Acclaim’s free to play games: For example, profitability is often measured through average revenue per user (ARPU). “Most of the time ARPU is $30-$40 a month,” said Marks. “A month! Not just one time.” “The [...]
» 23 Jun 2008, 8:45 pm

The elements of Crafting as a game mechanicPsycochild posted on crafting from a game designers point of view last week. He notes: Crafting is typically broken down into the following steps: 1. Learn a recipe. 2. Collect resources. 3. Create the item. 4. Sell (or use) the item. 5. Longer term: Advance your skill He [...]
» 23 Jun 2008, 8:24 am

Going viral without going downThis guest post was written by Saran Chari, CTO and co-founder of Flixster. Flixster is a Lightspeed portfolio company. _________________________________________________ As the social web evolves and platforms like Facebook and MySpace open up to applications, many companies and developers are rushing to get distribution to their millions of users by “going viral”. For the successful applications, [...]
» 20 Jun 2008, 5:52 am

How casual MMOs benefit from hardcore playersOne of the take aways of the social gaming summit last week was that even casual MMOGs need to focus on their hardcore players as that is their source of paying players. David Perry of Acclaim noted in one panel that the players of Dance Online monetize far better than the players of “traditional” MMOGs [...]
» 17 Jun 2008, 9:46 pm

Hints, tips and cheats to better dataminingAs web based product development and game development both become more iterative, better datamining and analysis becomes more and more important. But the data generated by users behavior can be almost overwhelming. How should a startup think about getting the most insight and value from their data? Anand Rajaraman is a co-founder of Kosmix, a Lightspeed [...]
» 16 Jun 2008, 9:55 pm

LinkedIn VC & PE Q&A

Investment Proposition in ChinaI am currently assisting a Hong Kong based AMC, with more than USD 2.5 billion in assets under management, to raise funds for a mixed use real estate development project in the city of Chengdu in the Chinese province of Qingyang, which is one of the fastest growing commercial provinces in China. Please Advice
» 4 Jul 2008, 4:31 am

Investment Proposition in ChinaI am currently assisting a Hong Kong based AMC, with more than USD 2.5 billion in assets under management, to raise funds for a mixed use real estate development project in the city of Chengdu in the Chinese province of Qingyang, which is one of the fastest growing commercial provinces in China. Please Advice
» 4 Jul 2008, 4:30 am

Outlook for M & A in UKLast night I met a corporate financier specialising in SME business disposals - who said that he was concerned about taking disposal mandates as he didn't think the banks would put up the money. Personally I think this is overly pessimistic not least because there are trade players and other forms of financing. I would be interested in the views of others on the outlook (say over the next 6 months or so) for M&A activity for UK SME's and mid market companies . Also which sectors do you thin ...
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:55 am

What do you think about the idea of using solar carports for powering electric vehicles for free (or paid) stuThe nature of this question is to spur innovation. Solar-electric people moving systems might work, or perhaps light 4-person vehicles might an efficient solution for some universities. Any venture capital interest?
» 3 Jul 2008, 6:39 pm

Are there any Real Players out there in RE Funding?Me and a friend are looking for someone to fund an Acquisition and Development deal.We are buying the land right and have assets of close to 30 Million.We keep running into tre kickers who say they can fund us.take our money and run!Are there any real players that can at least say they are real and fund our deal.We will pay WHATEVER reasonable amount at the close of the deal.We just don't wanna pay anymore upfront fees and get burned yet again.Who is out there?
» 3 Jul 2008, 3:35 pm

What types of opportunities in VC are there for someone with an IT background and an MBA in Sustainable ManageI have 11 years of experience as an IT consultant, and am in my 3rd semester at the Presidio School of Management, getting my MBA in Sustainable Management. I am considering the field of venture capital, ideally funding cleantech or other sustainable businesses. I feel that I would be able to put my tech background, research and writing skills and my intuition to good use. I also have an aptitude for finance and economics. Does this sound like a good fit? If so, what types of careers in VC ...
» 3 Jul 2008, 1:39 pm

How do you find an Angel?It's easy to contact and get in touch with VCs. Thanks in many ways to Orricks, I have been fortunate to get in touch with some of the brightest minds in VC community, in last couple of months and always came out with a polished idea. BUT, looks like VCs are typically ready to jump in at a lower risk stage where they see that 1. Key core team is in place 2. IP issues have been resolved. Patent filed 3. Constant development with a strong plan in place 4. Most important: Company is making mone ...
» 3 Jul 2008, 1:22 pm

seeking to raise $10-15 million for cash flow syndication investments in Alberta and other marketsI am seeking to raise $10-15m to acquire cash-flow based properties in the commercial and industrial sectors as well as development project in Belize. Would appreciate appropriate feedback.
» 3 Jul 2008, 7:56 am

Interested in networking with VC and PE in Turkey?You can join a new LinkedIn group open to all who are active participants or interested in Venture Capital and Private Equity in Turkey. http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/135040/718FDB11B916
» 3 Jul 2008, 6:21 am

My UK based company that operates internationally, is seeking immediate equity investment. Can I be advised as» 3 Jul 2008, 4:31 am

Is anyone interested in helping me to get my biotech company moving forward and make themselves a lot of moneyI need people with credentials in the biotech industry to help me establish proof of concept for my technology and to also help build my company in general. Please refer to http://www.bcbiogenics.com/temp/concise-overview.htm for more details on the technology in question.
» 3 Jul 2008, 12:57 am

Mercury Venture Capital Survery

VCs see 'crisis' in lagging IPOsFirst, the stream of Wall Street debuts slowed to a trickle, and then it ran dry. And now the drought in capital markets has reached a "crisis," a leading venture capital industry group said Monday.
» 2 Jul 2008, 9:16 am

Risky Business: Venture capital crisis, or baloney?First came the happy news from LinkedIn, the strictly business (not social) networking Web site. Last month the Mountain View company announced a $53 million infusion led by Bain Capital that placed a $1 billion valuation on the expanding company. More venture capital news
» 2 Jul 2008, 4:43 am

Investors going 'green' on global scaleUNITED NATIONS (AP) - Global investors plowed $148 billion into new wind, solar and other alternative energy assets last year, in what the United Nations describes as a "green energy gold rush.
» 2 Jul 2008, 1:35 am

VentureBeat: Alvine 1st-round funding reaches $26MAlvine Pharmaceuticals: The San Carlos company recently added $5 million to its first venture round, bringing total funding to $26 million, according to VentureWire.
» 25 Jun 2008, 1:36 am

Service plays matchmaker for VCs, start-upsSilicon Valley's business culture is so hectic that "elevator pitch" competitions are staged as a form of speed dating for entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists they want to woo.
» 23 Jun 2008, 3:16 am

Facebook loses a top exec to venture capital firmMatt Cohler, a pivotal player in Facebook's rapid growth, is departing the popular online hangout to find other promising Internet start-ups for a prominent venture capital firm.
» 19 Jun 2008, 12:03 am

VentureBeat: ShotSpotter raises $7.5 million in 4th roundShotSpotter: The Santa Clara start-up, which can help police and other security forces detect and triangulate gunshots in real time, has raised $7.
» 18 Jun 2008, 1:42 am

PlantSense gets $3.5 million in fundingImagine having a horticultural expert at your elbow as you tour your garden - advising you about the ideal specimens to plant, and where, and helping you figure out why sickly plants look doomed.
» 16 Jun 2008, 4:45 am

Celtics investors from Silicon Valley crave NBA titleWhen it comes to chanting "Beat L.A.!," Bay Area sports fans rank with the lustiest. And some Silicon Valley business honchos have extra reason to root against the Los Angeles Lakers - they're owners of the Boston Celtics, bidding for their first championship since the 1980s.
» 12 Jun 2008, 7:33 am

VentureBeat: T-Mobile fund invests in S.J. firm's platformDeCarta: Location-based technology is an increasingly important feature for mobile applications, and the market continues to heat up - with the iPhone's just-announced GPS technology, we're already seeing the beginning of the new wave of location-based applications.
» 11 Jun 2008, 1:36 am

Chief researcher for Sun Microsystems jumps to VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & ByersVeteran scientist John Gage, a longtime staffer and chief researcher at Sun Microsystems, has left the Silicon Valley computer maker to become a partner at one of the valley's biggest venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
» 10 Jun 2008, 6:43 am

Private Equity Hub

Time To RestGreetings for the last time in a long time, as I’m heading off for a two-week vacation. “Heading” might actually be a bit of a stretch, since my primary plan is to become better acquainted with my couch. It should be glorious. peHUB will continue to be updated in my absence, with Erin Griffith and Connie [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 11:59 am

Fundraising Tips from People Way Smarter Than MeThis is the second in a series examining obstacles and pitfalls of raising a private equity fund. Please email me suggestions for future posts. Remember that famous line from Wall Street, right before Bud Fox first meets Gordon Gekko?: “Life comes down to a few big moments, and this is one of them?” So far this [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 10:20 am

peHUB Second Opinion* Looking for detailed info on the Clear Channel debt? FT-owned news service Debtwire has some detailed info on lead arranger Citigroup’s pricing. * Anyone know what ever came of this case? It’s the 57-page collusion lawsuit against about 15 of the biggest LBO shops from February. You may remember, it even had [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 10:03 am

Penn National’s Next MoveSome were surprised, but the deal that wouldn’t die has finally left the building. But look at Penn National Gaming’s stock. A failed merger usually doesn’t garner a leap in share price to the tune of 10% plus. (Though considering the spread on this one, maybe.) But a fat $225 million breakup fee, plus Centerbridge and Fortress’s [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 9:52 am

Busch Entertainment Could Sell, But Who’s Buying?Finally, my take on the one thing bloggers, finance reporters, Missouri politicians and beer drinkers can’t get enough of this summer—Anheuser Busch. God knows there’s been plenty of speculation. But hear me out. I want to talk about the theme parks. Even before InBev entered the picture, there’s been rumors about the potential sale of Anheuser Busch’s [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 8:34 am

Penn Gaming Deal DiesCasino operator Penn Gaming announced this morning that it has terminated its proposed $6.1 billion buyout with Fortress Investments and Centerbridge Partners. We’ll have much more on this as the day progresses, but a couple quick reactions: 1. This is very surprising. Penn Gaming and its suitors have gone through regulatory hell to get this thing [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 8:16 am

Talking with Tom HicksI spent some time on the phone yesterday with Tom Hicks, who burst back onto the buyout scene this week by agreeing to take Graham Packaging public via his SPAC. The deal is valued at $3.2 billion, with Graham owner Blackstone Group agreeing to remain the company’s largest single shareholder for at least two years. [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 7:43 am

peHUB First Read* Krispy Kreme got an unsolicited take-private offer earlier this week, but the bidder seems to be a serial scammer. My tipoff was when I saw the bidder’s website, which brags that it is a “very sophisticated organization.” * Another view of SOX: It’s delicious, and (mostly) good for you. * Peter Lattman writes about the recent [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 4:41 am

Hello, General Atlantic. You Look Really Nice Today.General Atlantic, the global, growth-stage private equity firm, has been getting a lot of attention lately — not from entrepreneurs looking for funding, but from VCs looking for funding. “I wouldn’t even say the calls have been coming over the last six months, but the last three months,” says Marc McMorris, a managing partner in General [...]
» 2 Jul 2008, 7:55 pm

IBM-PSI Deal Bolsters BlueprintIn a week of otherwise somber news for the venture industry, Blueprint Ventures is thrilled to report today that portfolio company Platform Solutions Inc. (PSI) was bought by IBM. It’s great news on multiple fronts, not the least of which is that it puts an end to litigation between Big Blue and PSI, a maker of [...]
» 2 Jul 2008, 5:24 pm

TechCrunch

Independence DayTomorrow we celebrate July 4th, and a week later our long National Nightmare is over. On the 11th we deposit our 2G iPhones in the FriendFeed donation bins and officially hook ourselves up to the Enterprise iPhone. The ePhone will change how we work and play, and in the process free us from the tyranny [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 9:44 pm

Regator Wants To Be A Blog Reader For The MassesRegator, a new blog aggregator that hopes to reduce the blogosphere down to consumable chunks for the average user, has launched today in private beta. The site acts like a combination between Digg and a standard RSS reader, allowing users to vote on the most popular stories drawn from 3,000 blogs that have been [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 8:40 pm

Google, You Can Eat My Cookies AnytimeGoogle has just released a lengthy blog post to announce that it has finally put its privacy policy on its homepage. The search giant has been repeatedly questioned over the last few months over its lack of a readily available privacy policy, which until now has been buried in the “About Google” section of [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 4:45 pm

This Week on CrunchBoardHere are some of the jobs listed on CrunchBoard over the last week: Fulltime Senior AJAX/PHP Web DeveloperDriverSide - San Francisco, CA QA EngineerGx5 - Anywhere Software Support SpecialistK&L Wine Merchants - Redwood City, CA GoodBarry .NET Web Development NinjaGoodBarry - San Francisco, CA Head of Web Design & Front-End DevelopmentGlobal Campus - London, UK Quality Assurance CowboyJanus Health - San [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 4:44 pm

Department of Civil Disobedience: Google Should Deliver Its YouTube Data to Viacom in Paper FormThe recent court order directing Google to hand over data to Viacom about every YouTube video ever watched strikes many people as an absurd overreach of the law into the privacy of anyone who has ever used YouTube (i.e., almost everyone on the Internet). Google should definitely keep fighting the ruling if it can. [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 3:12 pm

Streamzy: A Fresh Face For Seeqpod’s Streaming MusicWe’ve seen a number of music sites like Seeqpod and Grooveshark that leverage user-uploaded music scattered across the web to offer free, on-demand jukeboxes. These services manage to skirt legal repercussions by only serving content that is hosted on other sites, which makes them harder to sue (though some have tried). Streamzy, a [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 1:31 pm

James Dyson Tells Us What He Thinks About The iPhoneWhile at Dyson HQ, I had the pleasure, once again, of interviewing the man himself. I had to ask what his thoughts were on the iPhone, and James’ answers were both entertaining and interesting. I have an iPhone and a BlackBerry. And I have to confess that I use the BlackBerry more. But I really wanted [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 1:09 pm

Did the “Enron of Norway” Pull a Fast One On Microsoft? More Details About the Mess at Fast Search & Even back in January when Microsoft agreed to pay $1.2 billion for enterprise search company Fast Search & Transfer, it was mired in an accounting scandal and trading in its stock had been suspended. Its aggressive accounting for phantom deals that never materialized earned it the moniker the “Enron of Norway.” But more [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 12:37 pm

How To Build A Web App in Four Days For $10,000 (Say Hello To Matt)In this post, guest author Ryan Carson goes through some of the lessons learned from building a Web app in four days. Carson is the co-founder of Carsonified, a web shop in Bath, UK. They’ve built four web apps, created ThinkVitamin.com and run events like Future of Web Apps. If you’re bored you can [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 10:10 am

Google Talk For the iPhone: Not What You ThinkGoogle has announced an iPhone version of Google Talk which is simply an iPhone-ized browser-formatted version of the Google’s text chat application. This means you can’t talk over the Interwebs but you can tap out halting messages to your friends on the iPhone’s screen and, thanks to Safari’s tendency to clear pages randomly, you probably [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 6:53 am

Normal-sized business cards at last from MooJust as The Governator tries to pursue green policies, like keeping Tesla’s electric production car local, you’ll now also be able to hand out full-sized “green” business cards with Flickr images, courtesy of the same guys who brought us those cool little mini-cards, Moo.com. They are launching full-sized business cards with a new partner, LinkedIn, [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 5:35 am

The Funded

TheFunded.com Discussion: What should founder's salary be?Our team has built a b2c product that has gained some traction and recognition since its launch earlier this year. We are going out to talk to VCs now and have put together our financial plan. Some folks are suggesting to throw out the founders' salaries to minimize the cost for the first year. But we've already worked on this for a year without pay... What do others think of this suggestion?
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:37 am

TheFunded Discussion Topic: New Feature: Certified Funded?» 3 Jul 2008, 6:45 pm

TheFunded Discussion Topic: Return on investment (ROI)» 3 Jul 2008, 4:17 pm

TheFunded Discussion Topic: Stock Purchase Agreements» 3 Jul 2008, 4:22 pm

TheFunded Discussion Topic: Typical burn range for 3-person startup in Silicon Valley? $70K /month?» 3 Jul 2008, 1:12 pm

TheFunded.com Term Sheet: US West Communications/Networking First Round Terms» 3 Jul 2008, 10:47 am

Clearstone Venture Partners: Good feedback| Posted by JamesMc | Fund Rated 3.6 | 128 Chars in PrivateTheir associate Steven called me out of the blue and wanted me to go through our pitch (we're in online content). It wasn't the ideal situation to be pitching: over the phone, no notice, but I went with it. Steven seemed to have a good idea of the space and asked some good questions and gave some good feedback.
» 3 Jul 2008, 8:59 am

TheFunded.com Discussion: Looking for a VC that understands entertainment.| Posted by palmatLooking for a VC that invests in entertainment companies. I am launching a new live action show that is the blending of Cirque du Soleil and Disney. I have funded half to the $5 million needed to launch business, looking for the last half .
» 2 Jul 2008, 3:38 pm

TheFunded.com Discussion: Prototyping?I'm currently creating a prototype that will run on specialized hardware, but I am unsure of the lengths required for a prototype. What's more important: the software or the hardware and the software? I plan on pitching angel investors in the Valley and I was curious if you guys had any advice on what they'd prefer to see? I can have the hardware built but I realized that it would cost much less if we used a generic computer for now, so I was curious about the advantages of using the specific hardware for the prototype.
» 2 Jul 2008, 4:56 am

TheFunded.com Term Sheet: US West Internet/B2C First Round Terms» 1 Jul 2008, 5:34 pm

New Vantage Group: Not professional| Fund Rated 1.8Pitched them, got a lot of buy signs and then nothing.They missed followup phone meetings on multiple occasions. A real lack of professionlism from this firm. It seems as though they have the keys to the angel kingdom in the DC area, even NYA told us to go through them. It is very frustrating to not get any feedback. They have a new person who is taking over Sam's position hope the situation changes.
» 1 Jul 2008, 8:09 am

Topix VC News

MD. BUSINESS: Investors begin applying for biotech creditThe Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development says investors began applying Tuesday for $6 million in biotechnology tax credits.
» 4 Jul 2008, 2:02 am

Worst IPO Market on Record?When M. Benjamin Howe headed up technology investment banking for Montgomery Securities in the mid-1990s, the market for initial public offerings was a fountain of profit.
» 3 Jul 2008, 9:38 pm

It's not raining cash, but is there really a venture capital crisis?First came the happy news from LinkedIn , the strictly business networking Web site.
» 3 Jul 2008, 5:21 pm

Reports: IPO 2Q drought pressures venture capital firmsVenture capital firms felt the credit pinch in the second quarter of 2008 with public offerings drying up and the fewest number of companies seeking liquidity in a decade.
» 3 Jul 2008, 1:14 pm

The 'Crisis' in Venture CapitalThere were no venture-backed IPOs in the second quarter, and M&A deals are down.
» 3 Jul 2008, 8:53 am

TynTec Ltd Receives Investment from HarbourVest PartnersJune 26, 2008 - ' Isle of Man/London, UK, Munich, Germany: Mobile messaging operator TynTec today accepted a significant minority investment from HarbourVest Partners, LLC, a global private equity investment ...
» 3 Jul 2008, 4:39 am

Weather Channel sale could come within two daysThe Weather Channel's sale to a group made up of NBC Universal, Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital could be announced within two days, sources told the online Reuters news service.
» 3 Jul 2008, 12:28 am

Agiliance Secures $10 Million in Series B FundingAgiliance, the leading provider of IT governance, risk, and compliance solutions, today announced it has closed a $10M Series B round of funding led by Castile Ventures.
» 2 Jul 2008, 7:59 pm

Getty Images Sale CompleteThe world's largest photo agency announced Wednesday that it has completed its deal to go private and will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the day.
» 2 Jul 2008, 3:44 pm

Cisco invests in Russia VC fundBERLIN &#151 Cisco Systems will take stakes in Russian startups through a $60M investment in the Almaz Capital Russia Fund I, managed by Moscow-based Almaz Capital Partners.
» 2 Jul 2008, 11:24 am

NVCA Q2 IPO ResultsFrom the NVCA press release: New York, New York, July 1, 2008 For the first time since 1978, there were no venture-backed Initial Public Offerings in the second quarter of 2008 according to the Exit Poll report ...
» 2 Jul 2008, 7:21 am

VC Circle

ChrysCapital Picks Up 7% In Amtek Auto From Secondary MarketAfter a long spell of inaction, the $2.25-billion private equity fund ChrysCapital seems to be back on track with a PIPE deal. The Delhi-based private equity fund has acquired a 7 per cent stake in a city based auto component manufacturer Amtek Auto for Rs 229 crore from foreign portfolio investors in the company such [...]
» 4 Jul 2008, 1:31 am

Cafe Coffee Day Holdings To Get $50M From JPMorgan: ReportCafe Coffee Day Holdings Ltd, the newly formed holding company that owns the eponymous coffee retail chain and other group businesses, is turning out out be a cash guzzler. The company is close to getting at least $50 million in private equity investment from the private equity arm of JPMorgan, The Economic Times has reported. According [...]
» 4 Jul 2008, 12:53 am

Bennet, Coleman’s 2% Stake Buy In SMC Group Values The Broker At $875 MillionThe private equity division of the media group Bennett, Coleman & Company has picked up 2.098 per cent stake in the leading Delhi-based stock broking firm SMC Group at an enterprise value of $875 million (Rs 3,500 crore). Even though BCCL usually trades in advertising space in return for equity, SMC has got a huge [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 10:52 pm

IFC To Invest Rs 64 Crore In Pharma Contract Manufacturer HikalInternational Finance Corporation (IFC), the private equity arm of the World Bank, has agreed to invest Rs 64.46 crore in contract pharmaceutical manufacturing company Hikal Ltd. The company’s board has approved issuing 1.36 million shares to the World Bank arm on a preferential basis. This translates into an 8.2 per cent stake in the company. “The [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 7:39 pm

Online Tax Filer Taxshax Gets BCCL SupportBennett Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL), better known as the Times of India Group, has picked up a stake in First Altus Resources and Networks Private Ltd, the owners of Taxshax.com, an online income tax return filing company. As usual, they pick up stakes in exchange for ad and branding support in the paper. This [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 7:02 pm

“Entrepreneurs Are The Freedom Fighters Of Tomorrow”TVS Capital has announced a freshly minted Rs 500 crore growth capital fund targeted at mid cap businesses. Named TVS Shriram Growth Fund, the initiative is a partnership between the TVS family and the Shrirams of the Shriram Transport Finance group. The funds have been completely raised from domestic investors which include institutions and individuals, [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 5:15 pm

Guest Column: Can RIL Enforce First Right Of Refusal On RCOM-MTN Deal?(Editor’s note: Shantanu Surpure, Managing Attorney at Sand Hill Counsel, a Mumbai and Silicon Valley-based law firm, writes on the RCOM-RIL-MTN right of first refusal (ROFR) dispute and its legal implications. Since the 45-day exclusive talks betwen RCOM and MTNL are scheduled to end on July 9, the question is whether Mukesh Ambani’s ROFR can [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 6:59 am

There Could Be Some Truth In Bharti-Zain Story: ExpertsEven as it backed out of the proposed deal with MTN (which is now being pursued by Reliance Communications), Bharti Airtel could have initiated negotiations with $5.9 billion Kuwaiti telecom major Zain for a possible deal. While the company has denied that it was in talks for any acquisition or merger with Zain, indusry sources [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 2:37 am

RCOM-MTN Moving Ahead To A New Holding StructureThe MTN-Reliance Communication (RCOM) deal structure, which has seen a number of permutations and combinations, now seems to be taking a new shape. Under the new (probable) structure, RCOM along with some Middle East private equity and sovereign wealth funds, are planning to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which will have a majority stake [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 2:29 am

IDFC Plans Holding Co; To Raise Upto $750M; Increase ESOPSInfrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) is planning to set up an intermediate holding company for of its four subsidiaries – IDFC-SSKI Securities, IDFC Private Equity, IDFC Project Equity and IDFC Capital Singapore, Business Standrad has reported. The company will seek shareholder approval for this in its annual general meeting (AGM) to be held on July [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 12:11 am

Bumi Geo Engineering Raises $9.4 Million From Dubai’s AlcazarBumi Geo Engineering Pvt. Ltd, a Delhi-based engineering company, has raised private equity investment of Rs 40 crore ($9.4 million) from Alcazar Capital Holdings Ltd, a $400 million private equity fund regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Bumi is a specialist geo engineering company serving the infrastructure sector. Bumi currently operates in India, Singapore, Dubai [...]
» 3 Jul 2008, 12:10 am

Venture Blog

Know Your CompetitionI was recently being pitched by a smart team of guys who are building an interesting business in the digital music space. The team has great domain expertise and plenty of credibility as entrepreneurs who have built a number of related businesses in the past. They were doing a nice job of selling the opportunity . . . until they got to the competition slide. I have noticed that often times when I am pitched on a business, the competition slide is treated as, at best, a necessary evil. It's in there because it is "supposed" to be, but not much more. Sure, I've seen some really creative ways entrepreneurs have found to place themselves alone in the upper right corner of a 4X4 matrix. And I've heard -- perhaps more often than is merited
» 19 Jun 2008, 8:06 am

MicroHoo: The Social Network That Could Have BeenOver the course of the many weeks of on-again, off-again MicroHoo madness, I did a fair bit of pontificating and speculating of my own about the would-be deal. After all, it was THE Bay Area topic of conversation (for one brief moment we all put our Facebook speculation on hold -- I am so pleased that we can get back to speculating about Facebook now and, better yet, speculating about MicroBook, or is it FaceSoft?). Many of the MicroHoo conversations I had centered around the combined assets of Microsoft and Yahoo. What could the two companies, in combination, bring to bear upon the Internet landscape? And while the press largely liked to discuss the impact a Microsoft/Yahoo merger would have on the search market, to my mind that was no
» 12 May 2008, 12:19 am

Welcoming Howard Hartenbaum to August CapitalWhen I first started talking to my now-partners about joining August Capital, I was stunned at the slow pace of the conversation. I couldn't imagine how it could take months to make a decision about whether or not to invite me to join the partnership. Admittedly, I wasn't coming from the most conventional background to enter the venture industry. But over the course of months, the August partners had more than enough time to talk with pretty much everyone I'd ever met in my professional life (plus a few choice grade school teachers while they were at it). In the end, after four months of grilling, I was invited to join August Capital. At the time, I remember thinking to myself "how could it possibly take four months to decide?" It see
» 14 Apr 2008, 1:37 am

No Adjectives Please!I was having breakfast this morning with Salil Deshpande from Bay Partners. Salil and I were talking about assessing company progress and how best to measure that progress. Salil invests in super early-stage deals and has his companies report to him on their progress on a frequent basis. He said that he had one CEO who would report on his progress in such florid language that eventually Salil had to forbid his use of adjectives in his progress reports. Salil said that he didn't want to hear that things were going great. He wanted to hear precisely how things were going. I nearly jumped out of my seat. Salil had articulated one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to company pitches (and board meetings for that matter). I hate adj
» 5 Mar 2008, 1:04 am

Five Years of VentureBlogA little over five years ago, Andrew Anker and I started chatting about blogging. There was plenty of blogging going on already for sure. But no one in the Sand Hill crowd was thinking about it. At the time there was still a prevailing sense that venture investing was a black box and any view into the box was a bad idea. Andrew and I talked about the fact that we didn't buy that. We thought there were all sorts of things VCs could talk about that would be interesting and valuable to entrepreneurs. Andrew proposed we start VentureBlog and came up with the tagline "A Random Walk Down Sand Hill Road" -- we laughed and VentureBlog was born. Five years ago (technically, five years ago tomorrow), Andrew posted our "Hello, World." Andrew w
» 22 Feb 2008, 10:34 am

Obsession is the Fuel of Silicon ValleyAn interesting debate has broken out between Glenn Kelman and Mike Arrington. Glenn is the CEO of Redfin, a Seattle-based startup that is trying to modernize the process of buying and selling homes. Glenn's a smart guy and a great entrepreneur. And he has always struck me as quite thoughtful. Which is why I was surprised to read his recent blog post entitled, "How Green Was My Valley." In that post, Glenn extolls the virtues of Seattle, while attacking Silicon Valley: "the Valley's monomania is really just a kind of pubescence. What else could account for the Valley's self-righteousness, its congregations of frustrated dudes, its all-nighters, idealism, delusions of grandeur, mood-swings, longings, dramas, hero-worship and pranks? Any
» 16 Feb 2008, 12:00 am

Startups Have Bigger Things to Worry About Than MicroHoo!I am definitely late to the party in praising Marc Andreessen's incredibly great Blog. That said, my failure to extoll the virtues of Marc and his dead-on insights is not the result of me personally arriving late at the lovefest. I have been thrilled to read Marc's uniformly interesting and well-reasoned insights since blog post #1. I just haven't had the right opportunity to suck up to Marc and tell him how much I care. Thankfully, that moment has come! If you are as big a Techmeme addict as am I, you have probably noticed this little discussion going on in the blog world about the would-be Microsoft/Yahoo merger. I have never seen a single issue take over Techmeme so completely. And the discussion about MicroHoo! or YahooSoft! has
» 7 Feb 2008, 9:59 am

Entrepreneurial Success According to Paul Graham and Madeline AlbrightDriving home from the city yesterday I was listening to a very interesting interview of Madeline Albright on NPR. Albright made a range of insightful observations about diplomacy, world affairs and the Presidency. During the course of the interview, one statement in particular jumped out at me. Albright said that she would rather have a President who was confident than a President who was certain. She noted that a confident President could take principled positions and stand for things that mattered, but would still have the good sense to listen to those around him and take counsel from a range of brilliant advisors. In contrast, a certain President would have no need for advisors because the appropriate course would be "clear" to him.
» 30 Jan 2008, 12:57 am

Pitching a VC -- The Basics RevisitedWhen I first started writing VentureBlog, I used to talk a lot about entrepreneurship. At the time, not a lot had been written about pitching VCs or the Venture Capital process, so there was lots of virgin territory. Since that time, dozens of VCs have started blogging and much has been said about what it takes to get a VC down the isle. Bits and pieces here and there -- a good Google archeologist can pull it all together. But having spent the week pontificating about PowerPoint and the likes, I've decided to take one more swing through the basics of pitching a VC. As I thought about the process of pitching a business, it struck me that no matter what the stage, the information was essentially the same. A good elevator pitch contain
» 21 Jan 2008, 10:43 am

Entrepreneurship for LawyersI was recently reading some old posts on Venture Blog and couldn't believe how short they were. One might call them pithy. Or one might also call them lazy. Either way, they were short. I should really try that again. I have been teaching a class at Harvard Law School this winter semester called Venture Capital and the Technology Start-up with John Palfrey, the Executive Director of the Berkman Center. It is really fun to be back at the law school and working with John. I have been blown away by the energy that the law students are bringing to the topic of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital. Sadly, I never had a VC or Entrepreneurship class in law school. Lets see, I had torts, contracts, criminal law, federal courts, administrat
» 11 Jan 2008, 8:31 pm

Venture Capital in ChinaFor the last several years there has been a lot of talk on Sand Hill Road about investing in China. To a certain degree there has been a lot of talk about all the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China. But the most excitement is clearly around China. (Interestingly, while India is a relatively close second, I have yet to hear of a single Bay Area VC exploring investment in either Brazil or Russia). Drawn by huge markets and a rapidly expanding economy, American VC's are heading to China to stake their claims. Go East young VC's. Go East. Venture Capital investment in China has not, however, been a headlong dive. Bay Area VC's seem to be sending over exploratory parties. By way of example, David Chao from Doll Capital
» 5 Jan 2008, 1:17 am

Venture Capital Update

Nimbuzz Received $15 Million for Mobile VoIP and IMNimbuzz raised $15 Million in Series B funding from Naspers/MIH and Mangrove Capital Partners. Series A funding was $10 Million Nimbuzz is a free mobile application for VoIP and IM bridging social networks and the mobile phone. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital nimbuzzread more
» 2 Jul 2008, 1:39 pm

TopTenReviews Received $6 Million for their Review SiteTopTenReviews raised $6 Million in Series A funding from Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures. TopTenReviews provides reviews on everything from electronics to movies. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital toptenreviewsread more
» 2 Jul 2008, 11:38 am

mFoundry Raised Undisclosed Amount for Mobile Financial ServicesmFoundry received undisclosed amount from Banc of America Strategic Investments. mFoundry provides mobile banking and payment products. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital Banc of America Strategic Investmentsread more
» 1 Jul 2008, 4:01 pm

"Im In Like With You" Raised $1.5 Million for Gaming SiteImInLikeWithYou raised $1.5 Million in funding from Spark Capital. ImInLikeWithYou is a site for gamers. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital spark capitalread more
» 1 Jul 2008, 1:33 pm

Venture Capital Update : Week of June 23rd to June 30th 2008Click here to listen to the Venture Capital Podcast Kaltura Received Undisclosed Amount for Open Source Video Platform Miyowa Received $8 Million for their Mobile Messaging SodaHead Received $8.4 Million for their Opinion Community Moxsie Received $1 Million for a Fashion Social Network Blog Talk Radio Received $4.6 Million for their Social Radio Network Yoono Received $4 Million for their Social Networking Plugin Jaxtr Received $10 Million for their Free Calls and Private Numbers Jitterbug Received $38 Million for Cell Phones & Service Technorati Tags: VC News VC Shows venture capital podcastread more
» 30 Jun 2008, 1:52 am

Kaltura Received Undisclosed Amount for Open Source Video PlatformKaltura raised an undisclosed amount from .406 Ventures. Kaltura has an open-source video platform. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital kalturaread more
» 28 Jun 2008, 3:09 pm

Miyowa Received $8 Million for their Mobile MessagingMiyowa raised $8 Million in Series B funding from Techfund and Credit Agricole Private Equity. Total funding is now at $12.7 Million. Miyowa provides universal, handset-independent, standard-compliant Mobile Instant Messaging technology. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital miyowaread more
» 28 Jun 2008, 8:44 am

SodaHead Received $8.4 Million for their Opinion CommunitySodaHead raised $8.4 Million in Series B funding from Mission Ventures and Mohr Davidow Ventures. SodaHead is an opinion community focused on discussing recent hot topics. Technorati Tags: VC News venture capital sodaheadread more
» 28 Jun 2008, 8:41 am

Moxsie Received $1 Million for a Fashion Social NetworkMoxsie raised $1 Million in Series A funding from Alloy Ventures. Moxsie is a social network focused on fashion. Technorati