A VC

The Public DashboardI really like how Tumblr publishes some key stats publicly every month in their own stylized dashboard. I also like the way they foreshadow upcoming product features: As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Related...
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:13 am

AccountingI'm making up the curriculum for MBA Mondays on the fly. The end game is to lay out how to look a businesses, value it, and invest in it. We started with the time value of money and interest rates,...
» 8 Mar 2010, 3:39 am

Candid CameraA couple weeks ago I went down to Miami for Future of Web Apps (FOWA). It was a great event and I highly recommend it to web developers and entrepreneurs. I did a keynote talk and the next day I...
» 7 Mar 2010, 3:51 am

Monopolies, Retransmission Fees, and Screwing CustomersThere's been a battle going on between the "broadcast" TV networks and the cable networks over something called "retransmission fees." Cable networks have traditionally paid for "cable network programming" but not "over the air programming." But that is changing and...
» 6 Mar 2010, 7:18 am

InSITE TalkInSITE is a group of business and law school students from Columbia and NYU who provide free consulting services to startup companies. I'm a big fan of InSITE for a bunch of reasons but particularly because it is one of...
» 5 Mar 2010, 2:50 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

Demo

DEMO Spring 2010: Spotlight on MobileLeading up to DEMO Spring 2010, March 21-23 at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert, we’ll rollout more information about the key themes and panelists featured in each of  the 7 DEMO Tech Segments - Cloud, Social and Media, Health and Life Science; Clean and Sustaining Tech, Enterprise, Mobile and Consumer. DEMO Spring 2010 Spotlight on Mobile. Read more
» 2 Mar 2010, 3:52 pm

DEMO: See the big trends (and speakers Dharmaraj, Fenton, Wong and Chien)We’re shaking things up a bit at the upcoming DEMO conference in Palm Springs, Calif., on March 22-23. The consumer Internet remains exciting, but we’re seeing more action around the edges of the Internet going forward. Read more
» 2 Mar 2010, 3:49 pm

DEMO Spring 2010 Tech Segment: Spotlight on CloudLeading up to DEMO Spring 2010, March 21-23 at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert, we’ll rollout more information about the key themes and panelists featured in each of  the 7 DEMO Tech Segments - Cloud, Social and Media, Health and Life Science; Clean and Sustaining Tech, Enterprise, Mobile and Read more
» 25 Feb 2010, 9:20 am

Register by 3/1 to become a DEMO VIPDEMO VIP Registration remains open throughout the year... but the comp hotel offer benefit goes away on March 1. Register to become a DEMO VIP and attend both DEMO Spring and DEMO Fall. Read more
» 23 Feb 2010, 12:25 pm

DEMO Spring Preferred Registration deadline extended to 2/12Attend 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
» 2 Feb 2010, 2:27 pm

DEMO Spring 2010.. 7 key tech verticals to take center stageThe 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
» 25 Jan 2010, 1:44 pm

DEMOfall 09 demonstrator Micello's products now availableThe 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
» 25 Jan 2010, 1:38 pm

DEMO Conference, in 20th year, Gets Straight A’s from Participating Technology Start-UpsIn 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
» 13 Jan 2010, 7:13 pm

Want to launch at DEMO? Join us at an open house at Kleiner PerkinsIf 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
» 11 Jan 2010, 10:27 am

DEMO, the event for launching tech products, moves to Bay Area (reminder: Jan. 18 deadline)I’m delighted to announce that DEMO, the conference where key technology companies from Netscape to Salesforce.com have launched their products over the past two decades, is moving to the San Francisco Bay Area for its fall event. Read more
» 5 Jan 2010, 10:18 am

Email helper Liaise (DEMOfall 09) now open for public useLiaise, a startup that shared the top prize at DEMOfall 09 (the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat), is opening to the public today after a period of private beta testing. Liaise’s plugin for Microsoft Outlook makes email more useful by extracting action items, and the Sunnyvale, Calif company is unveiling some new features today. Liaise sounds useful to me because my email inbox is really the center of my work, but it can often feel like important.. http://demo.venturebeat.com/
» 16 Dec 2009, 1:46 pm

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

Platform shifts Mainframe to Mini to PC to Mobile. Why leaders fail to make the shiftPlatform shifts happen every decade or so in computing. The leaders of the previous generation are rarely successful in dominating the next generation platform. IBM dominated the mainframe business. They didn’t lose their dominance because another company built a better mainframe. They lost it because the market shifted to a...
» 4 Mar 2010, 7:50 am

From MSFT evangelist to Mac enthusiast - the other side of the roadFor 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...
» 2 Feb 2010, 7:50 am

Google Apps announces de-support of IE6Internet 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...
» 1 Feb 2010, 5:30 pm

How Google sets goals and measures successGoogle 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...
» 28 Jan 2010, 7:05 am

SeedCamp European startups visit NYC and Silicon ValleySeedCamp 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...
» 21 Jan 2010, 3:55 pm

What do Mark Cuban, Dan Farber, Steve Ballmer, and Mary Jo Foley have in common?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,...
» 21 Jan 2010, 7:00 am

Predictions for 2010 and the new decadeNew Years Day is a time for thinking ahead to a new year and decade. But first, a look back. For me, the Internet started in 1994 with Netscape. I started working with AltaVista in 1996, and with Napster in 1999. My first modern and affordable cell phone was the...
» 4 Jan 2010, 10:33 am

Google vs Microsoft on the browser, cloud, and mobile platformsGoogle is an amazing company, even more so from the inside. To the outside world Google is just search. But Google has made three big bets on the future of computing; Chrome (browser), Google Apps (cloud), and Android (mobile) that will change everything. VentureBeat interviewed me yesterday about my first...
» 18 Dec 2009, 8:06 am

Gmail offline access fully supported, and more cool stuff from Gmail LabsGmail is my new email client after 5 years on Microsoft Outlook. One of the knocks against Gmail was that you couldn’t use it offline. Not anymore. Offline Gmail has been available via Gmail Labs for over a year, and now is a fully supported feature of Gmail. File attachments...
» 15 Dec 2009, 10:11 am

Investor Board members add value to startups at 5 key pointsBoard of Directors can add great value if they focus on the right things. I have served on over a dozen BOD’s over the years and have found 5 key inflection points that matter in the evolution of a startup; 1)raising money, 2)hiring top talent, 3)getting initial customers, 4)doing strategic...
» 11 Dec 2009, 6:37 am

Florida Venture Capital

Help HaitiLike 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. Click here to get more information via Wyclef's foundation page.- Text HAITI. For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to
» 14 Jan 2010, 8:31 am

How to Approach VCsI 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 line? This is especially true for shark fishing. Well, given how the popular media likes to equate VCs and sharks (think SharkTank), follow that sa
» 10 Dec 2009, 11:10 am

IZEAFest at SeaWorld RecapAfter 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 Flickr (remember: these are attendee-generated pics from the conference and after-hours networking...view at your own brain-melting risk) If you remember no
» 9 Oct 2009, 8:16 am

Florida Growth FundEarlier 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 was very well attended. Both Greg and David are drinking from a firehose at the moment, Florida is a big, diverse geography for venture capital. T
» 2 Oct 2009, 10:24 am

Venture Capital SyndicatesI'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 strength/weakness of the syndicate that forms around that lead. As an investor that typically leads deals, Inflexion spends considerable time and diligence archi
» 15 Jul 2009, 11:17 am

Dystonia Cure Within Reach for Tyler's HopeI've blogged here before about Tyler's Hope and wanted to share a big day for Tyler and his family. This morning CNN.com posted the video below and TylersHope.org is getting bombarded with people wanting to help find a Dystonia cure. How can you help?1) Watch this video;2) Learn more at TylersHope.org;3) Join the Tyler's Hope Facebook Cause; and4) Help Tyler find a cure by giving and inviting friends to help!Tyler Staab is a classmate of my daughter's and I'd personally appreciate anything you can do to help...Embedded video from CNN Video Let's get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!
» 11 Jun 2009, 11:35 am

When Marketers Collude, Bloggers LoseAs an active investor in social media, I've followed the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) since it's founding by a handful of marketers back in 2004. The growth of marketers in the organization is a testament to the power unlocked by consumer generated content. The core of that power rests with the content creators such as bloggers, podcasters, vloggers and even to the granularity of social network participants. I think WOMMA understands that, but I fear they've been led astray by a minority of marketers who want to dictate payment terms when engaging bloggers. Sure, they want the exposure bloggers can deliver, but they only want to pay bloggers in free markers, coffee mugs, products, trips and passes.Normally the market woul
» 3 Jun 2009, 12:39 pm

Spymaster Game on TwitterAn area I've been digging into lately, Twitter Games, got a boost today with the launch of http://PlaySpymaster.com -- created as a "side project" by the iList team. First impressions are good, quality implementation, but I wonder how the tweet noise will impact users as more games hit the stream. Luckily SpyMaster is early so game-fatique hasn't set in...yet.Strength in the game comes from the size of your "spy ring" so if you'd like to join the fun comment here or follow/@ me on twitter. Let's get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!
» 29 May 2009, 10:44 am

Top Tech Trends 2009 and BeyondRafe's coverage of the Churchill Club Top Tech Trends is worth sharing. Jurvetson's observations about distributed search are very similar to some I've been investigating. For every explicit action people take on the web (e.g. creating a link that GOOG indexes), there are 10X+ implicit actions (e.g. browsing, scrolling, video abandons) that are not being indexed for intelligence today. There are distinct efforts happening within content indexing, social feeds and webmaster analytics (largely implicit action data) that, when combined, will deliver maximum search intelligence. Much of the "Real-time web" excitement around Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and others still focuses on explicit actions (e.g. status updates), but the best value will
» 21 May 2009, 2:19 pm

NVCA Four Pillar Plan to Restore IPO MarketThe National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) annual meeting kicks off today with a great mix of sessions and speakers. At a policy level, NVCA Chairman Dixon Doll is also announcing a four pillar plan to help increase liquidity via IPOs.Pillar I - Ecosystem Partners: consolidation and attrition has limited the number of mid-tier accounting/legal/i-banking firms who can help smaller companies reach the public markets -- at least at a manageable cost. The NVCA is encouraging a new set of ecosystem participants and partnering with the largest players in the industry to do the job better.Pillar II - Enhanced Liquidity Paths: The NVCA is endorsing alternative distribution between buyers and sellers that grows buyers and their commitment to h
» 29 Apr 2009, 7:13 am

Investor Pitch: Excite, Engage & Exit with the AskI've recently been coaching some entrepreneurs presenting at upcoming investor conferences. It's something I've done for years and still enjoy. I remember the first investor pitches I gave and the first I heard, and can appreciate how "blind" many entrepreneurs are flying when doing their first investor presentation.Although my advice is always tailored to the entrepreneur and company at hand, there is one nugget I try to share with all. Remember the goal of your presentation and don't wander too far from it. In most situations, the goal is to Excite, Engage & Exit with the Ask.Excite: Focus on what is most exciting about you and your business. Don't get bogged down in re-hashing your business plan. If your technology is truly disrupt
» 27 Mar 2009, 11:32 am

Funding Post

Investor Profile: Masthead Venture PartnersDaniel Flatley, General Partner, Masthead Venture Partners Daniel K. Flatley has over 23 years of experience investing in early-stage information technology, media and telecommunications companies. Prior to joining Masthead, Mr. Flatley was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette where he was global head of a group investing in and financing satellite and telecommunications companies. Previously, he was a principal in a mid-market buyout and M&A advisory firm. He also practiced corporate/securities law, and clerked with a federal trial court judge. Mr. Flatley's corporate board and advisor service has included Masthead portfolio companies Netilla Networks (merged with AEP Networks), Newsgator an
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Investor Profile: Honda Strategic VenturingPaul Cummings, Principal, Honda Strategic Venturing Paul Cummings is a Principal with Honda Strategic Venturing (HSV), the corporate venture capital arm of Honda Motor Corporation based in Mountain View, California. HSV seeks investment opportunities in technology venture companies to establish the strategic foundation for collaborative partnership both to excel Honda's innovative R&D and to help technology venture companies succeed in Honda's product markets. Prior to joining Honda, Paul held various management positions with an automotive tier 1 supplier; including, positions in mergers and acquisitions, business development and operations for a Japanese partnered joint venture. Paul also worked for Accenture in the Sydney, Australia off
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Investor Profile: Altos VenturesHo Nam, General Partner & Co-founder, Altos Ventures Ho Nam is a General Partner and co-founder of Altos Ventures, focusing on investments in the areas of networking, storage and semiconductors. He currently serves as a director of Billeo, Vapro, WhiteHat Security, and Yosemite Technologies and works closely with CrownPeak, Enwisen, and Xignite. Ho led the firm's prior investments in Axis Systems (acquired by Verisity), Evolve Software (EVLV, acquired by Primavera Systems), Inzap, Listen.com (acquired by Real Networks), Nishan Systems (acquired by McDATA), Pixo (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Provato (acquired by I-Many) and Soundpipe (acquired by Comdial). All were deals in which Altos was the lead investor in the seed or first institutio
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Investor Profile: Horizon VenturesJohn Hall, Managing Director, Horizon Ventures John Hall has more than 16 years of experience in the venture capital industry . He was a General Partner of Newtek Ventures from 1989 until 1999, when he co-founded Horizon Ventures where he also is a General Partner. Prior to his venture capital career, John had broad experience in senior financial and general management roles over a 20-year period in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor and software industries and was a co-founder of 3 successful software companies. As a venture capitalist, John has been a member of 14 board of directors of both private and public companies and currently serves on the boards of four private companies. He holds a B.S. degree in Accounting and Finance and a
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Investor Profile: Sutter Hill VenturesAndy Sheenhan, Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures Andy Sheehan focuses his investments on internet software, services and digital media companies. Andy currently is a director of Buzz Media, Inc., Grain Communications Group, Inc., and Yext, Inc. His prior directorships have included, @Road (acquired by Trimble), AllBusiness.com, BakBone Software, Datran Media, Intermix Media and Myspace (acquired by News Corp.) and ReachLocal. Andy joined the firm in 2007 from VantagePoint Venture Partners, where he was a managing director. Previously, he worked at Alex. Brown & Sons and ABS Capital Partners. Andy received his BA from Dartmouth College with a degree in English. He earned his MBA in 1985 from the Wharton School. *Come meet wi
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Investor Profile: Altos VenturesBrendon Kim, General Partner and Co-founder, Altos Ventures Brendon Kim is a General Partner and co-founder of Altos Ventures, focusing on investments in the areas of wireless communications and enterprise software. He currently serves as a director of Branders, New Vine Logistics, and Vapro. Brendon has also served as a director of Bluedot Software (acquired by Ambassadors International), Egreetings (EGRT, acquired by American Greetings) and Enwisen. Before joining Altos Ventures in 1996, Brendon was a management consultant at CSC Index. He led executive teams in strategy development, marketing, and re-engineering projects that resulted in dramatic revenue and productivity improvements. His clients included Fortune 500 companies in the t
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Congrats to Siqi and Alex and the Serious Business teamAs announced earlier today, Zynga is acquiring Serious Business. It is a good outcome for everybody. Congrats to Siqi, Alex and the rest of the Serious Business team!
» 11 Feb 2010, 5:02 pm

Interview with Chairman of CrowdstarLast 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 [...]
» 1 Feb 2010, 3:38 pm

Entertainment commerceI’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 [...]
» 12 Jan 2010, 6:47 pm

Interview with CEO of Serious BusinessIn 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 [...]
» 6 Jan 2010, 4:54 am

Top 5 trends for enterprise cloud computing in 2010by 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 [...]
» 5 Jan 2010, 4:25 pm

2010 Cleantech PredictionsLightspeed 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. [...]
» 18 Dec 2009, 5:00 am

Interview with CEO of PlaydomAtul Bagga, Gaming analyst with ThinkEquity, has published some great research on the social gaming space. He recently published an interview with the CEO of Playdom, John Pleasants. Playdom is a Lightspeed portfolio company and I’ve known John since we worked together at CitySearch in the mid-late 90s. The report requires an account with the [...]
» 16 Dec 2009, 9:31 am

2010 Mobile PredictionsWe continue to be excited about the mobile sector and the opportunities for entrepreneurs to build large companies. The industry has seen the smartphone universe expand dramatically and now no smartphone is complete without an app store. New business models like mobile advertising, which were touted in 2005 and 2006 but failed to live up [...]
» 14 Dec 2009, 2:09 pm

2010 Consumer Internet PredictionsOnce again, Lightspeed is going to go on record and make some predictions for 2010, in the areas of Consumer Internet, Mobile, Cleantech and Enterprise. I am leading off with our 2010 Consumer Internet Predictions, with my partners posting the other predictions coming over the course of the next week or so at the Lightspeed [...]
» 11 Dec 2009, 5:00 am

Test your design intuitionI’m an advocate of A:B testing of all elements of design and copy. However, that doesn’t mean that good design intuition can’t help advance the baseline from which you start your testing. Which Test Won? has a list of real world A:B tests run on different homepages, lead gen pages, search landing pages etc, all with [...]
» 10 Dec 2009, 2:28 pm

LinkedIn VC & PE Q&A

I'm creating something that currently does not exists on Internet and could potentially change a lot of things» 9 Mar 2010, 11:52 am

Closed Question: Non-Profit Challenges in purchasing computer related servicesI have a non-profit acquaintance that receives funding for specific capital expenses from philanthropists. They receive funding for operational expenses mostly from private donations. With much of the industry moving to software as a service, and network maintenance being an operational expense, what is the best method for a non-profit to move capital funding to operational funding?<br>Clarification added March 9, 2010 9:40 AM: Thanks Jayne, your response really helped. I will work with t ...
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:22 am

what about deduction of transport allowance from income of Financial year 2010-11.Last year(2009-10) it was Rswhat about deduction of transport allowance from income of Financial year 2010-11.Last year(2009-10) it was Rs800/- per month/Rs 9600/-per annum.. Please clarifi
» 7 Mar 2010, 10:06 am

How do you calculate a NPV using a discount rate?What is the formula used for given information like cash flow & disc. rate already given and you need the NPV?
» 7 Mar 2010, 8:43 am

Closed Question: What are the biggest problems companies face when factoring their receivables?I'm considering adding factoring to our suite of services in Canada and would be interested in learning what not to do.
» 6 Mar 2010, 7:50 pm

Sale of Interest in Individual's Lifetime EarningsAs can be read about at the below link, some "entrepreneurs" are seeking to broker sales of an individual's lifetime earnings (or to sell a stake in their own). http://deals.venturebeat.com/2010/03/03/life-investment/ This is different from Bowie Bonds and the like, where interests in intellectual property are being sold. All sorts of legal red flags went up in my mind when I read about this (particularly, thoughts of illegality and unenforceability). I am interested to hear what you ...
» 5 Mar 2010, 9:51 am

I'm looking for info on compensation for non-executive directors (i.e., Non-Exec Chairman, Non-Exec Director) » 5 Mar 2010, 6:58 am

Are there firms in the Seattle area that provide part time or full time CFO functions for start-ups?Are these firms networked with Seattle area venture capital groups?
» 5 Mar 2010, 6:51 am

Looking for investors in India who are looking to fund Green Buildings in Bangalore to the tune of INR 400 to » 5 Mar 2010, 5:19 am

Does anybody know any cases where gain on early redemption of debt eases reported loss?» 5 Mar 2010, 12:34 am

Business Idea - Detecting Gender and Age of a web surfer via surfing patterns.We have recently started working on a system, which will allow detecting Age and Sex of a web surfer by analyzing their surfing patterns. Recently we came across a patent from Xerox that deals with a similar idea. They have a different approach though. Question. Is it worth pursuing development if someone else already patented this idea? thank you Victor Polyushko, President / Owner 5 Pixels Studio - Reno Web Design Website: http://www.5pixels.com Blog: http://www.5pixels.com/blog< ...
» 3 Mar 2010, 4:08 pm

Private Equity Hub

peHUB Second Opinion 3.9I'm back from endless jury duty. Tell me what I missed. Zombies: WSJ weighs in on the VC Shakeout. (WSJ) There's also this piece in which the Journal's venture data arm sizes up "promising young companies," which seems redundant because, isn't that the whole point of a venture firm? I dunno. (WSJ) Second Suit: Goldman Sachs Group was sued by a large union pension fund that accused the Wall Street investment bank of overpaying its executives. It's the second pension fund to do so. (Reuters) Speaking of Lawsuits: Lindsay Lohan is ridiculously suing E-Trade for an ad which refers to a baby named Lindsay as a "milkaholic." She's seeking $100 million, claiming she, like Madonna, Cher, and Beyonce, has "first name recognition." (NY Post) Bloc
» 9 Mar 2010, 5:47 pm

Sesame Street Jumps Into Social Networking; Fans NoticeElmo, the world’s most beloved red monster, joined Facebook earlier today, posting one “fan photo” and one 10-second video. Within hours, more than a quarter of a million people had joined his fan page, 500 “liked” his short video greeting and more than 100 Facebook users -- from Brisbane, Australia to Pesaro, Italy -- expressed their love for the scratchy voiced Aquarius. The move owes to the recent appointment of Dan Lewis, appointed earlier this year as the director of new media communications at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational group behind the 40-year-old show “Sesame Street.” Lewis is a Tufts alum who cofounded the online sports community ArmChairGM.com, then sold it to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales for
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:34 pm

Chris Dixon on Arugula-Eating Liberals, the Downside of Destination Sites and the Future of HunchYesterday, I wrote up part of my recent interview with Chris Dixon, an active seed-stage investor and the CEO of Hunch, a year-old consumer Web application company that Dixon formed with Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake. Hunch is a giant recommendation engine that aims to help users make up their minds, be it about a camera or what favors to serve at a Palm Springs party. Right now, a registered user base of roughly 200,000 people contribute most of the questions; they also populate the answers, a la Wikipedia. (In fact, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales joined Hunch’s board of directors in December.) Hunch also relies heavily on proprietary algorithms that gets smarter over time, so that ideally, when someone arrives at Hunch with a questio
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:47 pm

Laundry Room Chronicles: Placement Agents &amp; FINRAMy weekly video segment with Reuters Insider was about the SEC's proposed rule that would ban private equity placement agents from pitching their clients to public pension funds. The most recent development was a letter from the SEC to FINRA, suggesting a third path whereby FINRA-registered broker-dealers would be allowed to work with public pensions, so long as FINRA set new regulations to discourage pay-to-play activities. Per usual, we filmed from a tiny room just a stone's throw from the home office...
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:19 pm

Time To Put The Carried Interest Debate To BedCarried interest taxation is back on the blogs this week, thanks largely to a piece by The New Yorker's James Surowiecki. It also doesn't hurt that Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI) -- author of a 2007 bill that proposed changing the treatment of carried interest from capital gains to ordinary income -- was named acting head of the House Ways & Means Committee, in the aftermath of l'affaire Rangel. But, just between us, I'm absolutely sick of discussing carried interest (let alone writing about it). That Levin legislation was submitted nearly three years ago, and the issue has been used as political brickbat ever since. The original impediment was a threatened presidential veto, plus some poison pill dispensing by Chuck Shumer. Then came a new sheri
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:39 am

PwC: Expect A “Robust” IPO Market in 2010PricewaterhouseCoopers today published a 28-page report that looks back at the past year's IPO market, and suggests that the second half's momentum will be built upon in 2010. Here's the key graphs, in regard to U.S. offerings: While January and February are often quiet, we expect substantial IPO activity prior to the dog days of summer and robust deal flow throughout the atumn. We foresee a continuing contribution of deals from financial sponsors as private equity firms look to harvest investments made during the "heyday" of leveraged M&A activity that preceded the credit crisis. We expect IPOs from the technology sectors, including biotech, as well as financial services, healthcare and retail and consumer deals. Green energy/technology d
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:48 am

peHUB First Read* Can California declare bankruptcy? * Business schools revamp their applications * Bijan Salehizadeh: Friendly advice for first-time CEOs * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slip, the Nikkei loses 0.1% and Hong Kong shares gain. * The end of WiMAX? Cisco is the latest to bail * Liz Gannes: When it comes to social sharing, don't forget about email * Tickets are now on sale for the next peHUB Shindig. Takes place March 31 in Boston (details about a San Francisco event will come next week). * John Carney changes his mind on carried interest taxation, moving from the light back into the darkness. His basic argument is an old PE standby: LPs deserve all of the profit, and also the right to (pree
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:30 am

Chris Dixon: The Ultimate Founder’s FounderChris Dixon, 38, may be the ultimate founder’s founder. He’s running his second startup, Hunch, after selling his first company, SiteAdvisor, for $74 million dollars four years ago. He’s an active angel investor in nascent startups and co-founded the $40 million seed-stage fund, Founder Collective, last year. He’s a champion of the early-stage scene in New York, where he lives and works. And Dixon, who’s as connected as they come on both coasts, is a prolific blogger who writes in plain English about the challenges of entrepreneurship, technology and venture capital. I talked with Dixon this afternoon about how he juggles his life as an investor with that of running a company that aims to be as big as Google and Amazon some day
» 8 Mar 2010, 3:37 pm

Canada Posed To Scrap Impediment to U.S. InvestmentOn the week that peHUB launched in November 2007, venture capitalist Charley Lax wrote the following: Meaningless paperwork is destroying Canada’s venture capital industry, and if our northern neighbor ever wants significant US venture capital to flow north, they’ll listen when I tell them to eliminate Section 116 certificates immediately. Well, nothing happened "immediately," but Canada last week signaled that Section 116 is headed to the scrapheap. What follows is are some questions about Section 116 for Stephen Hurwitz, an attorney who focuses on cross-border transactions between the U.S. and Canada:
» 8 Mar 2010, 1:11 pm

The New Dork: An Entrepreneur State of Mind"Social networks what dreams are made of..."
» 8 Mar 2010, 12:29 pm

TechCrunch

The Yahoo Cycling Team Is Going To Love This New Google Maps FeatureYahoo is backing a cycling team. I don't know why — but they're doing it. And today their passion got a little boost: from Google. Google is announcing tomorrow at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC that Google Maps will now include biking directions in the U.S. Apparently, this was the most-requested feature for the service, as some 57 million Americans ride bikes.
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:44 am

Quote Of The Day: MySpace Co-President? “Hell, Yeah”Jon [Miller] came to us and said, `Would you like to be co-presidents?' We said, `Hell yeah.' We didn't have to move our desks," -- Former MySpace Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn's reaction to the abrupt firing of his boss and his promotion to co-president of MySpace.
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:18 am

More Talent Walks Out The Door At MySpace: Three Key Employees Go To GravityMore bad news for an already bullet-riddled MySpace: three key employees have left the company to join Gravity, a cross-town startup founded by former MySpace COO Amit Kapur, SVP Steve Pearman and SVP Jim Benedetto. We covered Gravity's launch in December 2009. The three MySpacer's are Chief Software Architect Chris Bissell (we previously reported Bissell's resignation), Chief Systems Architect Dan Farino and Development Manager Robbie Coleman.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:11 pm

Comscore Study: Social Gamers Want Marketing Offers For CurrencyA new study by Comscore will be released on Wednesday that may give hope to social gaming startups trying to monetize users. 35% of the survey respondents said that they engage in "marketing actions" to earn virtual currency (such as watching a video, filling out a survey, etc.), and 53% said they be willing to consider marketing action for currency if given the choice. The study was conducted by Comscore, sponsored by Offerpal, and included responses from 799 Comscore panelists who play games on social networks at least once per month. 54% of panelists play games at least daily. This is good news for game developers who've had their monetization choices somewhat fenced in over the last few months. Gamers 25-34 are the most likely to ear
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:44 pm

In The SXSW Location War, Loopt Hopes The Correct Weapon Is EventsWith SXSW starting Friday in Austin, Texas, every location-based service out there is right now finalizing updates that they hope will be the one that gets them used more than all the others. Loopt, is betting on events integration. The latest version of the app, due to hit the App Store tomorrow will feature a new Pulse tab. Here you'll find events populated from a ton of sources including the live music tracker SonicLiving (SXSW is first and foremost a music event, after all) and most notably, Facebook. This pre-population is important, because it means the events will already be in the system so users won't have to do anything other than share it with friends, or check-in if they're going. The feature also uses you current location to s
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:11 pm

Google Apps Marketplace: Instantly Connect Your App To 25 Million Users, Profit.Business to business software can be a tough sell. Online B2B can be even a harder sell. While there is certainly money to be made, unless you're one of the big players, the likelihood you're going to succeed is pretty small. Starting today, Google is taking their roll as one of the big players and extending a platform to boost some smaller players. Tonight, Google has unveiled their Google Apps Marketplace. This is an app store for enterprise apps in the cloud. Using a set of APIs, these third-party apps can deeply integrate their products within Google Apps, which already some 25 million people are using. And that also includes over 2 million businesses ranging from startups, to small businesses, to Fortune 500 companies. For customers,
» 9 Mar 2010, 7:00 pm

Web-Based Productivity Suite Zoho Finds A Place In The Google Apps MarketplaceZoho, a web-based productivity suite that was called a "fake Office" by a Microsoft VP, is announcing a significant partnership with Google today. The startup will be a launch partner for Google's recently launched Google Apps Marketplace, which allows vendors to sell applications that compliment Google Apps. Here are our notes from the announcement. Zoho will be integrating two of its over 20 business applications - Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects with Google Apps. So starting today, Google Apps users will be able to add on-demand CRM app Zoho CRM and project management software Zoho Projects into Google Apps. While Zoho has previously rolled out the ability log-in to its applications via your Google Apps IDs, the two applications have been s
» 9 Mar 2010, 6:59 pm

Socialwok Takes A Stroll In The Google Apps MarketplaceTonight, Google launched its Google Apps Marketplace, an online storefront for Apps products and services. Here are our notes from the announcement. And of course, the marketplace is launching with a number of pilot partners (50 to be exact). One of those partners happens to be recently launched Socialwok, a product that ads a social layer to Gmail and other Google products. At last year's TechCrunch50 conference, Socialwok made a big splash, winning the award for best demopit startup and launching its enterprise-friendly, FriendFeed-like layer for Google Apps. The web-based application was praised for launching a social network that wrapped around the very unsocial Google Apps. And the startup just launched a gadget to allow users access a
» 9 Mar 2010, 6:59 pm

MetaLab Accuses Mozilla Of Plagiarizing Its Design (Updated)Andrew Wilkinson of MetaLab has just written a blog post accusing Mozilla of plagiarizing the design of its FlightDeck editor. To make matters worse, Wilkinson says that MetaLab actually bid on creating the design for FlightDeck months ago, but was turned down by Mozilla. While Wilkinson is understandably upset, at this point,it looks like the plagiarized image is just a mockup on the Mozilla wiki — not the actual product (though it's obviously still in bad taste). We've reached out to Mozilla for a comment. You can see a screenshot comparison from Wilkinson's blog post below. Update: Here's a comment from Mozilla, stating that the copy-and-paste design was a proof of concept:
» 9 Mar 2010, 6:39 pm

Live: Google Apps Marketplace Launches At Google Campfire OneTonight, Google is hosting one of their Campfire One events at their headquarters in Mountain View, CA. They're using the event to launch their new Google Apps Marketplace. This is the app store that business applications can use to reach the more than 25 million people and 2 million business that use Google Apps for their domains. Here are the links to our extended coverage on the Google Apps Marketplace: Google Apps Marketplace: Instantly Connect Your App To 25 Million Users, Profit. Socialwok Takes A Stroll In The Google Apps Marketplace Web-Based Productivity Suite Zoho Finds A Place In The Google Apps Marketplace Below, find our live notes from the event.
» 9 Mar 2010, 6:04 pm

Amazon Wields $25 Gift Certificates To Pacify Frustrated Comic Book FansOver the last few days, a strange situation has been brewing between Amazon and a sizable number of comic book fans. On March 7, Bleeding Cool broke the news of an apparent Amazon sale featuring high quality hardcover Marvel graphic novels at bargain-basement prices of $14.99, when their retail prices were more along the lines of $125. Alas, it turned out to be a pricing error. Amazon could have simply canceled the orders (which is common practice for online retailers), but instead, it tried to do right by its users and said it would honor some of the orders. Except it didn't actually have enough books in stock to do what it promised, leading to another wave of frustration from the comics fans. Now Amazon is looking to smooth things ov
» 9 Mar 2010, 5:36 pm

Topix VC News

O'Brien: How dot-com start-ups have changed 10 years laterRon Conway, center, and Bob Bozeman, right, meet with Gordon Rubenstein of Rolling Thunder Network at a 2001 event that Angel organized in Palo Alto to introduce entrepreneurs to possible investors.
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:18 pm

SiBeam obtains new fundingSiBeam Inc. has announced the closing of $36.5 million in Series D funding led by Foundation Capital.
» 9 Mar 2010, 3:43 pm

GMAC finance chief leaving for private equity jobAutomotive finance company GMAC Financial Services will lose its chief financial officer to a private equity firm by the end of March, the company said Tuesday.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:42 am

Scale Computing lands $9M in venture fundsScale Computing -- an Indianapolis startup attracting national buzz for its data-storage devices -- announced Monday it has received $9 million of venture funding.
» 9 Mar 2010, 7:40 am

Multicore chip maker Tilera raises $25MChip maker Tilera , whose multicore products have as many as 100 computing "brains" on one chip, today announced it's closed a $25 million third round of financing.
» 8 Mar 2010, 11:38 pm

How Pandora Slipped Past the JunkyardTim Westergren recently sat in a Las Vegas penthouse suite, a glass of red wine in one hand and a truffle-infused Kobe beef burger in the other, courtesy of the investment bankers who were throwing a party to court him.
» 8 Mar 2010, 7:20 pm

DataXu lands $11M round of venture moneyDataXu Inc. , a developer of online advertising-analytics software, has raised $11 million in venture capital.
» 8 Mar 2010, 12:37 pm

Survey Says: VCs Banking On Energy Efficiency, StorageClose March 4, 2010, 1:39 PM ET By Venture Capital Dispatch Three-quarters of the venture capital community believe venture investment in clean technology will increase in 2010 compared with last year, according to a survey conducted by KPMG LLP.
» 8 Mar 2010, 3:48 am

'It's a myth that start-ups need venture capital''We did a few things right from the very beginning' 'It is always better to grow slow but to grow right' 'Don't get lured by the hundred-fold opportunities that tempt you to digress from your chosen path' Prasanna D Zore N andita Lakshmanan , the feisty founder and CEO of public relations company, The PRactice, should know why it is a myth.
» 7 Mar 2010, 7:05 pm

Audience Closes $15 Million In Series E FundingAudience, Inc. announced today that is has closed a new round of financing with $15 million in Series E funding from existing investors New Enterprise Associates , Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance.
» 7 Mar 2010, 10:34 am

New document service aims to lower startup costsRaising money shouldn't cost startups so much money. At least that's the theory underlying the latest idea backed by former entrepreneurs-turned-venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
» 7 Mar 2010, 1:36 am

VC Circle

'Easy Exits In 2-3 Years May Be A Thing Of The Past’New York-based fund of funds (FoF) Siguler Guff has invested nearly 20-30% of its $915-million BRIC fund across different private equity funds in India. Both India and China form a primary emphasis for the fund-of-funds which is currently on the fund raising mode and is reportedly targeting a final close of $1 billion. Siguler Guff, which set up its India office last year and hired Praneet Singh as its managing director, has exposure to many PE funds with a proven track record. It is, by far, one of the most active Fund-of-Funds in India. At a time when access to capital decides the future of private equity, this institutional investor (or Limited Partner) is all for Indian PE fund managers developing a distinct investing strategy and tight
» 8 Mar 2010, 7:20 pm

Siva Buys 50% Stake in Norwegian Mineral Water FirmChennai-based Siva Group is foraying into the packaged mineral water business with its latest acquisition. Siva Group has acquired a 50% stake in Norwegian glacial natural mineral water company Isklar. The deal is a 50:50 joint venture with Sabco, a premier water brand  in Middle East, and involves an outlay of $22 million. Isklar, which means ice clear in Norway, will see the diversified Siva Group enter another business segment. Isklar was launched in the UK in April 2008, where it is currently sold with retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. It is also available with large convenience chains Londis and Nisa besides forecourt chains like Esso and Total. The firm also launched in its home market Norway in February 2009 and is
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:28 am

Independent News Cuts Jagran Prakashan StakeUK-based media house Independent News & Media (INM) has struck gold in its four-year-old investment in local publishing group Jagran Prakashan. It sold 7.5% or over half of its remaining holding in the company for Rs 255 crore to a bunch of domestic and foreign funds. The move is believed to be part of a strategy to exit non-core assets in order to bring down bank debt. This is the second tranche of sale by INM, which owns loss-making Independent newspaper in the UK. It held as much as 26% before the IPO of the company in 2006. INM sold 7.3% last year which brings down its holding to around 6%. As per VCCircle calculations, the average cost of acquisition for INM works out to around Rs 24 per share in Jagran which means it is sitting on unr
» 9 Mar 2010, 1:59 am

Symphony Capital Arm Prunes Stake In Strides ArcolabSymphony Capital-owned investment entity Zenith Pharmaceuticals has started encashing its over eight-year-old investment in Bangalore-based drug-maker Strides Arcolab. Zenith, which was the single largest investor in the company all these years up to December 2009, has apparently sold shares worth Rs 72 crore ($15 million) through open market sales since January 1. Zenith held as much as 30.96% in Strides as of December 2009. It sold around 5% in mid-January for around Rs 47 crore and has sold further shares yesterday, netting around Rs 25 crore. The latest transaction has been struck at Rs 329/share against the cost of purchase of around Rs 70/share in late 2001. This means the latest transaction has generated 4.5x (or 4.5 times its invest
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:29 pm

Aditya Birla Minacs Acquires UK's Compass BPOAditya Birla Minacs, the business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd, has acquired Compass BPO Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Compass is a UK-based pure-play finance and accounting (F&A) services provider, said a company statement. This is the second acquisition of Minacs in the last one month. Earlier, in February, it acquired Radifinity, a technology solution company in Bangalore.  Compass provides business intelligence solutions for financial analysis and reporting that helps corporates in taking prompt and informed business decisions. The company has been operational for the last 10 years with a strong market presence in the F&A space.  Minacs plans to expand its operation across UK, US, Middle East and India,
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:24 pm

Tata Sons, Citi Buy Tata Motors Shares From DaimlerTata Sons, the holding entity for Tata Group firms, and Citigroup have acquired 8.65 million shares in Tata Motors from Germany's Daimler AG according to data on the Bombay Stock Exchange website. Tata Sons bought 4 million Tata Motors shares at 750 rupees each, while Citi bought 4.65 million shares at 752.41 rupees each, according to the website data. Daimler had sold about 25.6 million shares at an average of 751.67 rupees each raising 19.24 billion rupees, the stock exchange data showed. Tata Sons officials were not immediately available for comments. The rest of the shares were bought by various market investors including mutual funds and some overseas investors, a source with knowledge of the transaction said. On Monday sources told Re
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:51 pm

Spanish Owners Want Direct Stake in Pepe’s India PlaySpanish entrepreneur Carlos Ortega and private equity major Torreal, that control Pepe Jeans, will take direct control of Indian operations through a joint venture deal in which the foreign owners will keep up to 51% stake. Pepe has kicked off discussions with potential local partners, which include retailers as well as strategic players. Pepe is among the largest denim brands in India with turnover in the vicinity of $60 million, or Rs 300 crore annually. Pepe’s global revenue is expected to touch $550 million in 2010. A team from Pepe's Spanish headquarters visited the country last month and held discussions with several potential partners including reatil players such as Shopper's Stop and Landmark Group. Pepe's current local  franchi
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:31 am

News Roundup: Intelenet Acquires UK's FirstInfo For $67MIntelenet Acquires UK's FirstInfo For $67M - Blackstone controlled Intelenet Global Services has acquired the back office operations of UK transport company FirstGroup for $67 million. FirstInfo handles the ticketing and other functions of FirstGroup's UK rail operations. Blackstone owns an 80% stake in Mumbai-based Intelenet. (Financial Times) BSNL Looks To Form PE Fund - With a Rs 35,000 crore in cash reserves, state owned telco BSNL could be looking at an option to set up a private equity or venture capital fund. One of the 15 points suggested by a three-member panel headed by Sam Pitroda, the fund could invest in technology and IT-related firms, especially start-ups. The fund would require an approval from  Department of Telecom and th
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:03 pm

Emerging Markets Lead PE Investments in 2009Emerging markets are the hot spot for PE activity, it appears. Emerging markets have captured 9% of global private equity fund-raising and 26% of private equity investment in 2009, according to new research from the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA). Fund-raising continued to be challenging with a total of 196 private equity funds focused on emerging markets raising $22.6 billion in 2009, a 66% decline from the record-breaking $66.5 billion raised by 210 funds in 2008. The decline in new fund commitments was on par with an estimated 65% decrease in fund-raising in developed markets. PE investment in emerging markets totaled $22.1 billion across 674 deals, a 54% fall in value but only an 11% drop by number of transactions,
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:35 am

News Roundup: Daimler To Sell Tata Motors StakeDaimler To Sell Tata Motors Stake - DaimlerChrysler AG is selling its 5.34% stake in Tata Motors through an open-market sale which could fetch $428 million to the German carmaker. The 2.55 crore shares are expected to offer in a price-band of Rs 737.40-761.30. Citigroup is the investment banker handling the sale. (DNA) Sequoia To Buy 9.4% in CARE - Private equity firm Sequoia Capital may pick up 9.4% stake in rating agency Credit Analysis and Research Ltd for Rs 73.5 crore. CARE is controlled by IDBI Bank, SBI and Canara Bank and presently has no foreign shareholding. IDBI bank, with more than 26% stake, is the largest shareholder in the rating firm, which was set up in 1993. (Economic Times) Investors Back Out of Duke Aviation - Duke Aviat
» 8 Mar 2010, 8:06 pm

NMDC Priced To Sell In $2.6 Bn OfferThe government is betting that a deep discount for this week's $2.6 billion share sale in NMDC, India's largest iron ore miner, revives interest in a divestment programme that has thus far generated uneven interest. The government has pencilled in revenue of $8.6 billion from sales of stakes in state companies in the recent budget for the fiscal year that starts on April 1, part of plans to offload holdings in 60 state firms in coming years to raise funds for welfare programmes and narrow a fiscal shortfall. "For any follow on offer, interest is based in relation to the market price. There is a steep discount now and the issue should get a good response from both retail and institutions," said Ambareesh Baliga, vice president at Karvy Stock
» 9 Mar 2010, 3:41 am

Venture Capital Update

True VenturesInvestor URL: www.trueventures.com True Ventures is a venture capital firm with $350 million under management, the most recent fund having closed in July, 2008. The firm is led by General Partners... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 7:26 pm

Lightspeed Venture PartnersInvestor URL: www.lightspeedvp.com ightspeed Venture Partners is a venture capital firm headquartered on prestigious Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, CA. The also have offices in Israel and China.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 7:15 pm

InterWest PartnersInvestor URL: www.interwest.com InterWest invests an average of about $7 – 15 million over the span of their involvement with each company in their portfolio. They invest in companies through... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 7:13 pm

Focus VenturesInvestor URL: www.focusventures.com Focus Ventures provides expansion stage venture capital for software, communications, and semiconductor companies. They seek companies that have completed initial... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 7:12 pm

Silver Creek VenturesInvestor URL: www.silvercreekfund.com Silver Creek’s investment strategy is to provide resources and guidance to outstanding management teams that are building market-leading companies in the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 7:11 pm

Silver Creek Venturesilver Creek’s investment strategy is to provide resources and guidance to outstanding management teams that are building market-leading companies in the information technology arena. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 7:10 pm

Mesirow FinancialMesirow Financial is a diversified financial services firm headquartered in Chicago. Founded in 1937, they are a primarily employee-owned, private company with more than 1,100 employees in offices... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 6:57 pm

Lightspeed Venture PartnersLightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm that manages over $2 billion of capital commitments. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 6:39 pm

InterWest PartnersInterWest invests an average of about $7 - 15 million over the span of their involvement with each company in their portfolio. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 6:22 pm

Pivot3Pivot3 was founded in 2003 on the idea that a revolutionary scale-out architecture would deliver large-scale, high-bandwidth storage using off-the-shelf hardware components combined with specialized... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
» 3 Mar 2010, 6:07 pm

Venture Woods

That’s when you know a startup has made it!Hilarious!
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:41 pm

Rs. 18000 crore broadband push - is this in the right direction?ToI reports a 18000 crore broadband push by government to improve broadband access to every gram panchayat. While the initiative is welcome, it raises several questions: Investing versus creating an environment to invest: Government spending at such massive scale has been shown to be inefficient over and over again. What are the incentives that the government [...]
» 5 Mar 2010, 1:45 am

IIT Kanpur Golden Jubilee Initiative: The Next50 Global Innovation ChallengeThe Next50 Global Innovation Challenge is an IIT Kanpur Golden Jubilee Alumni Initiative to identify 50 early stage innovators in Agriculture, Cleantech, Financial Inclusion, Education and Technology, who can change the way we work and live. Innovators stand to win awesome cash awards, named prizes and access an exclusive ecosystem of mentoring, business support and funding [...]
» 5 Mar 2010, 1:00 am

UnPluGGd – The Event for EntrepreneursAh well, before you ask me, why another startup event?, here is the core philosophy behind the event: Focus on Business – Over the last three years, we all have seen great products not going anywhere. Some of the companies who became the next hype, are now figuring out the survival route. Ofcourse, [...]
» 25 Feb 2010, 1:24 am

Morpheus announces dates for next batch. To invest 5 L per startupIts really good to see a bunch of active initiatives and discussions around providing support to the young entrepreneurs who are just getting started. The Morpheus (previously known as, Morpheus Venture Partners) is one such initiative. The Morpheus is a business accelerator and we work with companies at idea / early stage. Thus far in our [...]
» 23 Feb 2010, 11:59 am

DreamCatchers! Call to ActionI am very grateful to you all for the response to my previous article: Funding for Real Innovation in India ! Unavailable. Many of you wrote to me as well as extended action/offers to the DCE AUV team. What was however in my opinion the best outcome, happened right in the beginning: Bharat (Delhi/VIN Industries) [...]
» 22 Feb 2010, 9:02 pm

GrowVC - community angel investingInteresting concept here - www.growvc.com - entrepreneurs can now raise money from the community, kiva style. And they can invest their money into other startups to diversify their risk. With some strong on-ground facilitation (and an incentive model for the same) this can work… Thoughts?
» 15 Feb 2010, 3:28 am

Building the Green Entrepreneurial Ecosystem city by Indian city“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 [...]
» 3 Feb 2010, 2:12 am

IBF Media event on Cloud ComputingIBF 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 [...]
» 26 Jan 2010, 11:39 pm

Sneak Preview: Proto.in Mumbai - January 30th, IIT BombayLike 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 [...]
» 26 Jan 2010, 7:55 am