» The Fathers of the Venture Capital Industry
09/02/10 22:06 from VentureBlog
What we think of as Venture Capital today is a pretty young profession. \"Modern\" VC firms first came into existence in the 1960s, started by the likes of Bill Draper, Pitch Johnson and Reid Dennis. These visionaries shaped the technology i..
» Twilio
09/02/10 16:45 from Union Square Ventures
Twilio provides a web-service API for businesses to build scalable, reliable communication apps.
» My 10th TED Conference
09/02/10 08:27 from VentureBlog
I\'ve just arrived in Long Beach for the annual TED conference . When I first started going to TED, it was a relatively small, relatively unknown gathering in Monterey, California. But don\'t confuse relatively small and relatively unknown f..
» Denmark Leads the Household Leverage Sweepstakes
09/02/10 08:26 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
Who let four northern European countries sneak past the U.S. in the household leverage sweepstakes? Source: Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption , By Reuven Glick, and Kevin J. Lansing
» Hugh Hendry, Marc Faber, and Nassim Taleb Go to Russia
09/02/10 06:27 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
An alternately sober-minded and gibbering mad – but never boring and mostly riveting -- hour-long what-would-you-invest-in panel with Nassim Taleb, Marc Faber, Hugh Hendry and others from the just-completed Russia 2010 conference:
» Example of Rally Software Building A Great Company
09/02/10 04:58 from Feld Thoughts
Lots of little things go into building a great company over the long term. Rally Software is one that I’m proud to have been involved in from the beginning. I remember when Ryan Martens, the founder, would sit for entire days i..
» Open Angel Forum Is Off To A Great Start
08/02/10 05:18 from Feld Thoughts
When I wrote my post titled An Angel Investor Group Move That Makes Me Vomit I expected to write my little rant and be done with it. A month or so later Jason Calacanis picked up the mantle and started a Jihad against the idea of ang..
» More Reading: Niall Ferguson, Euro Depression, Nevada, etc.
07/02/10 21:10 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
A few more things I just had to share: Deliriously bizarre, gossipy, etc. piece about econohistorian Niall Fergson, from footballers to fatwas ( Daily Mail ) Europe risks another global depression ( Simon Johnson ) Nevada budget crisis..
» Economists, Crises, and Cartoons
07/02/10 19:40 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
Apparently I\'m not the only one to notice the rise of economists in cartoons during financial crises. As a related aside, this paper has some fabulous old crisis cartoons. Economists, Crises and Cartoons David M. Levy Center for Study of P..
» Weekend Reading: Greenspan, EM Bonds, Cash-in Refis, China, etc.
07/02/10 19:31 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
From my weekly Weekend Reading column, a few articles and papers worth reading: Alan Greenspan fights back against critics ( Source ) Emerging-Market Bond Sales Stall as BES Scraps Issue ( Source ) Recovery teeters as debt threat spreads (..
» Flash, HTML5, and Mobile Apps
07/02/10 14:12 from A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
About a year ago, I wrote a post about Apple\'s \"blind spot\" for Flash . I took more heat for that post than anything else I\'ve written here other than political posts. It opened my eyes to the fact that Flash vs HTML5 is one of the most po..
» TheFunded.com Discussion: Is It a Good Idea to Involve a Sales Person at a Very Early Stage of Startup?
07/02/10 05:04 from TheFunded.com
» In a board room, somewhere in Silicon Valley…
06/02/10 20:20 from Venture Hacks
… a founder, a VC, and his Associate negotiate a down round. Very NSFW. Video: Old Face Andre talks economics with Omar Another business lesson from The Wire — about intellectual property: “It ain\'t about right, it\'s about money.R..
» Mauldin: A Bubble in Search of a Pin
06/02/10 19:56 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
John Mauldin’s latest : Should Greenspan and Bernanke have seen the bubble in housing and other assets and acted, or should we accept their defense that you can\'t know whether there is a bubble until after the fact? We will look at research..
» My seemingly ’suite’ deal that turned sour. . .
06/02/10 16:37 from Texas Startup Blog: Web 2.0 and Social Media
Over the years I have tried to share my experiences as an entrepreneur in this blog - some experiences that make me seem smarter than I actually am and others that make me seem downright stupid. Unfortunately this week I find myself in the..
» siminoff:We sponsored a give away of a unlocked Nexus One at...
06/02/10 15:00 from The Gong Show
siminoff : We sponsored a give away of a unlocked Nexus One at ITexpo. I am trying to use Google check out and for the life of me I can not get passed their stupid “are you human” thing. Is it just me or is this impossible to discern? An..
» Austin Ventures: A Pitch Too Far
06/02/10 14:11 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by WyattEarp | Fund Rated 2.4 Was introduced by a \"player\" with some heavy influence in Texas.... Had a meeting with John Thornton scheduled; then re-scheduled; then re-scheduled again; then they said they would get back to me whe..
» TheFunded.com Discussion: CEO Mbos and Compensation
06/02/10 13:49 from TheFunded.com
» Lightweight Advocacy
06/02/10 12:15 from A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
I was at a board meeting of a non profit this week and the talk turned to \"advocacy\" and whether or not the non profit should be doing any of that. I had to ask what the definition of advocacy was just to be clear what we were talking abou..
» TheFunded.com Discussion: How L Ps in Venture Have Been Fooled, Many Times Over
06/02/10 11:11 from TheFunded.com
» Steamboat Ventures: Lack of Attention, Total Lack of Communication
06/02/10 05:39 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by philippeb | Fund Rated 2.6 We pitched Steamboat and it is the first time that someone actually almost nodded off during my presentation. I am a fairly animated and by all accounts a good presenter so I could only deduce that th..
» GRP Partners: Attentive for VC\'s, Fast Response
06/02/10 05:24 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by philippeb | Fund Rated 3.5 I was approached by Dave Lin who has a fair amount of experience in media and technology although the company\'s typical focus has been retail. I sent my exec summary and we scheduled a meeting which Y..
» What it takes to make the Web more personal
06/02/10 02:26 from HighContrast
Tom Pinckney has written a great post on GigaOm about the new kinds of processing companies have to do to create a highly personalized experience for users. My comment is still in moderation, so in the spirit of the real-time Web, here it ..
» Random Fiscal Factoid: Alt Universe U.S.?
06/02/10 01:01 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
Out of curiosity, what do you think the U.S. deficit would look like today if annual federal fiscal expenditures had grown at 4% since 2000, rather than at almost 8% compounded? Answer follows: In short, if U.S. expenditures had grown at th..
» Readings: Dollar, Britain, Lotteries, Bailouts, etc.
05/02/10 20:10 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
Britain\'s “broken society”: Through a glass darkly ( Source ) Is the International Role of the Dollar Changing? ( Source ) Spatial Competition and Cross-border Shopping: Evidence from State Lotteries ( Source ) Vote for Ignoble/Dynamite Ec..
» Four Square Fatigue and the Evolution of Privacy
05/02/10 17:59 from VentureBlog
Over the last few weeks I\'ve started to suffer from Four Square fatigue. After all, Four Square is a lot of work. To get the benefits of Four Square, you need to proactively check in wherever you go. And, while each checkin requires a rela..
» SnapCamp in Boulder – All for Good and Lots of Fun
05/02/10 17:00 from Feld Thoughts
I think Boulder is one of the absolute best places to start a tech company . The depth of talent and overall strength of our tech community here is superb. It turns out that makes it a great place to start a community-based tech nonprofit ..
» 406 Ventures: Great Experience with L. Donohue and the Folks at 406
05/02/10 16:16 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by Hale-Bopp | Fund Rated 3.8 I have been working for a number of years with Liam Donohue at 406 (and his predecessor fund) through 2 rounds of funding, and can say first hand that he and his partners are sophisticated, pragmatic ..
» StartupList: Day 1 — Thank You
05/02/10 16:07 from Venture Hacks
We\'re blown away by the support for StartupList and AngelList . Thank you to TechCrunch , Business Insider , and ReadWriteWeb for describing these lists better than we could. Thank you to the well-known investors, successful entrepreneurs,..
» Google SocialCircle
05/02/10 13:30 from The Gong Show
It appears as though Google SocialCircle was first announced in late October , but I’m just using it now for the first time. This page (if you’re logged into Google) should contain your entire social graph along with all the services tha..
» NYC BigApps Winners Announced
05/02/10 11:38 from A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
I\'ve posted about the NYC BigApps contest a few times here . And you all helped me with my chore of judging all 85 apps. Thank you for that. Last night I walked up The Highline to IAC Headquarters to attend an event where the winners were ..
» Immigrant Startup Founders – Tell Us Your Story
05/02/10 05:55 from Feld Thoughts
As the Startup Visa initiative continues to pick up momentum, we are now collecting stories from immigrants who have either started or tried to start their company in the US. We are interested in any aspect of your story and – while ..
» The Road to Recovery?
05/02/10 03:03 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
Doug Short has redone his graph of various economic downturns to match up the current market recovery against recoveries from other major market declines.
» Ken, I Thought You Said We Were Buying a Laundromat
05/02/10 01:41 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
An eye-opening excerpt from Andrew Cuomo\'s lawsuit against BofA for its Merrill Lynch acquisition: ...when BoA’s directors met Sunday, September 15 [2008] to approve the [Merrill] transaction, they thought they were going to buy a complete..
» Consumers Continue to Choose Credit Cards Over Mortgages
05/02/10 01:30 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
A new TransUnion study shows that the usual payment hierarchy of mortgages over other debts, like credit cards, remains reversed, with consumers paying down cards before worrying about mortgages. It augurs many more housing defaults ahead...
» London Real Estate Back to Defying Gravity
05/02/10 00:49 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
From a Brett Arends piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal: London real estate has actually bounced off the bottom in the last nine months. Prices are now down a mere 9% or so from their 2007 peaks, according to data tracked by mortgage gia..
» U.S. Corners Global Centenarian Market
04/02/10 18:50 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
I found these three Worldmapper chloropleths striking. Remember, in this sort of map country sizes change depending on the relevant measured variable – in this case, population. First, the world’s population by country in 2002: Next, the w..
» Learn How Filtrbox Got A Yellow TechStars Shirt
04/02/10 18:44 from Feld Thoughts
Whenever a TechStars company is acquired, they get a yellow shirt with their number on the back. Last month Fitrbox, a TechStars Boulder 2007 company, was acquired by Jive Software . The yellow shirt presentation is in the shor..
» Peak Oil Supply vs Peak Oil Demand: 2020 vs 2010
04/02/10 18:30 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
We have two instructively conflicting views out today on peak oil supply vs peak oil demand. The estimable folks at TOD peg 2010 as peak supply, with perhaps 89mbpd; while BP’s Tony Hayward gave an interview to BBC Radio 4 today suggesting..
» The Gartner Magic Quadrant - a necessary evil in IT
04/02/10 18:11 from BeyondVC
Lately, I feel as if I have been spending an inordinate amount of time with my companies talking about marketing. Related to this, one of my portfolio companies recently received a number of nice emails from the board related to its new p..
» Readings: Taleb, Treasuries, Moody’s, Quakes, etc.
04/02/10 17:47 from Paul Kedrosky\'s Infectious Greed
Sovereign debt fears rattle investors ( Source ) US 30-year bond up a point in flight to quality ( Source ) Taleb Says ‘Every Human’ Should Short U.S. Treasuries ( Source ) Moody\'s warns on costs; forecast disappoints ( Source ) Summary of..
» TheFunded.com Term Sheet: US West Software/B2B First Round Terms
04/02/10 15:55 from TheFunded.com
» Sequoia Capital Israel: A Rare and Good Exmaple for VC Integrity
04/02/10 15:13 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by Alon | Fund Rated 3.1 Just heard the guys have advised Visual Tao entrepreneurs to go for a quick
» We Need More Female IT Leaders
04/02/10 14:11 from Feld Thoughts
Vivek Wadhwa has a strong article in BusinessWeek today titled Addressing the Dearth of Female Entrepreneurs . He makes the argument that “ There are too few women running high-tech companies; that\'s too bad, considering evidence sho..
» Andrew’s $0.02: I love seeing people’s creative...
04/02/10 14:00 from The Gong Show
Andrew’s $0.02: I love seeing people’s creative usage of SSID’s in dense urban areas. There must be a blog out there dedicated to just SSIDs… if it doesn’t exist yet, it will soon. clivethompson : “We can hear you having sex.” A nifty, pa..
» Greycroft: Need Advise: to Pitch or Not to Pitch if There is a Competing Portfolio Company
04/02/10 13:50 from TheFunded.com
| Fund Rated 1.7 | 481 Chars in Private Please read private post
» Insight Venture Partners: Great to Work With
04/02/10 06:39 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by Nick1 | Fund Rated 3.3 | 91 Chars in Private I found Insight great to work with - they have an excellent knowledge of the software business and can help bring your company to the next level. Most importantly i found that Insigh..
» OpenView Venture Partners: Nice Story, Entreprenurial Smart Team
04/02/10 05:02 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by mcob337 | Fund Rated 3.8 We got the standard email and had a 15 minute call. Kept in touch with them as our business expanded, mainly a phone call every quarter or so. We happened to be in Boston and they invited us to visit. W..
» TheFunded.com Discussion: How to Protect Ip in Preliminary Discussions with Angels?
04/02/10 00:27 from TheFunded.com
» TheFunded.com Discussion: Founder/CEO Compenstation Strategies
04/02/10 00:17 from TheFunded.com
» Paying to Pitch (revisited again)
03/02/10 22:57 from Texas Startup Blog: Web 2.0 and Social Media
Two years ago I asked, “ Should Startups Pay to Pitch ” and last year after reading a post from Jason Calacanis titled, “ Why startups shouldn\'t have to pay to pitch… “ I revisited the issue . Earlier this w..
» Launch: StartupList — a new way to reach angels
03/02/10 18:27 from Venture Hacks
Yesterday, we launched AngelList , a curated list of angel investors, representing $80M going into early-stage startups this year . Today , we\'re launching a cool new way to get intros to these angels: StartupList . It\'s a weekly email we ..
» Channels for Business Content on SlideShare
03/02/10 15:37 from Ross Mayfield's Weblog
As an advisor to SlideShare , I\'ve been proud to watch it grow into the world\'s largest professional sharing community. Traffic grew 400% last year to 25 million unique monthly visitors, the majority of which are business decision makers. ..
» TheFunded.com Discussion: Proposed Deal Terms for Seed Partnering
03/02/10 15:20 from TheFunded.com
» TheFunded.com Discussion: How Many is Too Many in a VC Pitch?
03/02/10 14:59 from TheFunded.com
» TheFunded.com Discussion: International Opportunities for Funding
03/02/10 14:29 from TheFunded.com
» 406 Ventures: Exceptional Understanding of an Indepth Plan Graham Dwells in to It.
03/02/10 14:16 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by Patel, Faruk A | Fund Rated 3.7 Over the past month or so I have been pitching greenyogi.com to Investors (over dozen of them) on the east coast. Because of the complexity of our strategy, our approach is a bit unconventional a..
» Andrew’s $0.02: If you’ve tried to leave a voicemail...
03/02/10 13:00 from The Gong Show
Andrew’s $0.02: If you’ve tried to leave a voicemail for me in the past, you’ve probably come to learn that I never check them. All voicemail is unusable to the point of being broken, and until it’s fixed, I don’t expect anyone to use it,..
» Triangle Venture Capital Group: Always a Good Partner
03/02/10 12:23 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by tmaier | Fund Rated 3.9 We have been working with Triangle for a while now, and are finalizing a second funding round at the moment. The people of Triangle have always been a pleasure to partner with, honest, down-to-earth, str..
» Monster Venture Partners: Simply Stay Away
03/02/10 02:51 from TheFunded.com
| Fund Rated 2.4 | 459 Chars in Private
» The best vesting schedule
03/02/10 02:28 from HighContrast
There is no such thing as the best or optimal vesting schedule in a startup. That doesn\'t mean current vesting schedules are really good but it does mean that many of the so-called best alternatives are not much better. No such thing as be..
» TheFunded.com Discussion: Board Member and Advisor Stock Option for a Start Up
03/02/10 02:11 from TheFunded.com
» TheFunded.com News: The Future of Funding Nears
02/02/10 22:25 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by The Founding Member Join us for the Future of Funding in San Mateo on February 18th, 2010. Meet some of the top rated venture capitalists of 2009, and learn about critical changes in the funding ecosystem that affect your start..
» TheFunded.com News: Members Select Top 84 VCs of 2009
02/02/10 22:08 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by The Founding Member The 13,400 CEO Members of TheFunded have rated in the highest possible rank 84 top venture capitalists for 2009 from 17,834 investment professionals listed in the directory. To make the list, a venture capit..
» VC Open Letters: TheFunded Founder Institue
02/02/10 21:40 from TheFunded.com
| Posted by experiencedentrepreneur Hi, I\'m interested in setting up the funded institute in Vancouver, BC. Who should I talk to?
» TheFunded.com Discussion: Funding Post
02/02/10 20:25 from TheFunded.com
» GREAT New Blog – IP Law for Startups
02/02/10 20:11 from Ask The VC
Today, I learned that former classmate of mine at the University of Michigan has started a blog for startups dealing with intellectual property issues . Jill Bowman is a great person and her blog is not only informative, but is also writte..
» Launch: AngelList, a curated list of angel investors
02/02/10 16:05 from Venture Hacks
I\'m psyched to announce AngelList , a curated list of super high-quality angel investors. And how to reach them. Investors like Jeff Clavier , Dave McClure , Rob Hayes , Aaron Patzer , Brad Feld , and 50 other investors have already joined..
» Quirky and The Cone Of Silence
02/02/10 16:04 from A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
My family is tired of hearing me talk about \"The Cone Of Silence\". This is an electronics product I\'d love to have. I am not sure if it can be built with the current state of noise canceling technology, but here is how it would work. The C..
» Be the CEO of Your Job
02/02/10 13:27 from Feld Thoughts
Sometimes a person says one sentence that just sticks with you and is so perfect that it defines a whole category of behavior. Mark Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, riffed on the phrase “be the CEO of your job” in a board meeting a year or ..
» Google Ramping Up M&A
02/02/10 13:00 from The Gong Show
Alley Insider reports that Google’s dialing up their M&A activity again. There are plenty of startups that have failed to find a sustainable business model over the past couple years of recession, and for their sake, I’m glad to hear that ..
» When you’re raising money, the competition isn’t the competition
02/02/10 09:23 from Venture Hacks
Simeon Simeonov : “You have to understand that you are not competing with an abstract notion of what a good investment is. You are competing with the other teams that saw the investor that week.” This is why investors often don..
» Interview with Chairman of Crowdstar
01/02/10 23:38 from Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog
Last Friday Lazard analyst Colin Sebastian hosted a conference call where he interviewed Peter Relan, Chairman of Crowdstar , one of the newer entrants to the top tier of social games publishers. Here are the Lazard notes from the call, re..
» Wale - Chillin Ft. Lady GagaThis is my guilty pleasure tunes....
01/02/10 13:00 from The Gong Show
Wale - Chillin Ft. Lady Gaga This is my guilty pleasure tunes. I’ve been playing Wale’s album, Attention Deficit , far too much. It’s like eating Pringles, there’s not much to chew on, but I keep coming back for more and is ultimately sa..
» Empowering Your Team
31/01/10 15:51 from A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
Mark Pincus , founder/CEO of our portfolio company Zynga , is interviewed in today\'s NY Times on the topic of leadership. The part about empowering and scaling the team is really great. You can manage 50 people through the strength ..