Articles about Investors in Startups as of August 26, 2009

BDO Seidman – Accountants & Consultants Website: http://www.bdo.com/ Location: U.S. Phone: Regulations: Other: Description From Website: At BDO Seidman, our financial services clients chose us for a client service philosophy focused on personalized service, attention from senior professionals and tailored service approach. The BDO Seidman Financial Services practice is dedicated to understanding client operations and business goals, listening to concerns, and keeping clients apprised of industry issues and potential accounting implications.

RSM McGladrey, Inc. Website: http://www.rsmmcgladrey.com/ Location: U.S. Phone: +1 800.274.3978 Regulations: Other: Description From Website: Hedge Funds/Alternative Investments With experience handling more than 1,500 investment funds (including hedge funds, fund of funds, commodity pools, and private equity funds), we specialize in addressing the complex operational, financial reporting and compliance issues facing the industry.

Giving truly great presentations requires skill, work, and practice. Giving catastrophic presentations is far easier. So if you want to take the easy way out and look like a rank amateur, here are 15 surefire tips to guarantee that you leave a really, really bad impression.1. Misspell words. Failing to check the spelling on your slides shows a complete lack of care. If you don’t care enough to proof your presentation, your audience will care less about you and your message.

Back in July, we hosted a customer development workshop for some Polaris portfolio companies and Dog Patch Labs denizens, lead by Eric Ries and Sean Ellis. Eric took content from his Lean Startup approach , and Sean from his 12in6 consulting practice , and they created a bangup workshop. We asked participants to share feedback, and I thought I would share some of what we heard.  The group greatly valued the concreteness of the discussion, and the favorite takeaway was “the iteration loop to

Wireless sensing and communications developer CardioMEMS just announced that it had completed a $22.1 million round of financing. The company said that the additional funds will bankroll its heart failure clinical trial, which was initiated in September of 2007 and is currently taking place in more than 65 heart centers across the U.S. CardioMEMS first announced its heart failure pressure management system in 2006: The system includes a wireless sensor that is implanted into the patient’s pulmonary artery.

Life as a small, private company offering online word processors, spreadsheets and e-mail — just like the mighty Google — would seem perilous indeed. And now Microsoft plans to jump into this market too. Nodding to the Web, the company said last month that it would offer basic online Office programs, free and supported by ads, along with the next version of its productivity suite, Office 2010. But Zoho, a company based in Pleasanton, Calif.

I recently read “ A Farm on Every Floor ,” an opinion piece in the NY Times by Dickson Despommier. In the letter, the author attempts to make the case for what he calls urban “vertical farms.” The idea is that we’re running out of farmable land, farmer-applied chemicals are rendering our soil unusable, and the world population is booming so we need a new, soil-less way to farm. In particular, he suggests we can build these vertical farms in buildings in the middle of large cities.

Bill Gurley posted a really nice summary of one of the main problems with the venture capital industry, and Fred Wilson responded here.   I totally agree with their analysis, but would add one more major problem with the venture industry to the list.   The fact that most VCs get rich via “management fees” just by showing up every day. For those who don’t know, most VC’s get paid by so-called 2 and 20.  The 2 refers to the 2% of the fund they use to cover operating expenses and pay their salaries.

There doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by without someone lamenting the sorry state of the venture capital market or our favorite exit ramp: the IPO market. Granted, the overall number of offerings in the past 7 to 8 years has been paltry. Notable individual exceptions are Google (2004), SynchronOSS Technologies (2006) and, [...] Related posts: StumbleUpon, A Case Study In The Efficient Allocation Of Resources So StumbleUpon, a social bookmarking site that lets users…

There doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by without someone lamenting the sorry state of the venture capital market or our favorite exit ramp: the IPO market. Granted, the overall number of offerings in the past 7 to 8 years has been paltry. Notable individual exceptions are Google (2004), SynchronOSS Technologies (2006) and, more recently, Open Table and SolarWinds (both 2009). But let’s face it: if yours is a venture-backed company, you have had higher odds of being struck by lightening than going public in this first decade of the 21st century.

A Case for IPO OptimismThere doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by without someone lamenting the sorry state of the venture capital market or our favorite exit ramp: the IPO market. Granted, the overall number of offerings in the past 7 to 8 years has been paltry. Notable individual exceptions are Google (2004), SynchronOSS Technologies (2006) and, more recently, Open Table and SolarWinds (both 2009).

The criteria used by angel investors to evaluate and select investments are usually a mystery.  The folks at Venture360 have recently taken a stab at demystifying this process.  A recently completed analysis of angel deals closed in the first half of 2009 showed some surprising results – the quality of a venture’s management team was four times more influential in funding decisions than more traditional factors like the venture’s economic model, deal structure, and projected revenue growth.  The

Venture capital is the fuel, and often the igniting spark, of many young ventures. Unfortunately, new entrepreneurs find it difficult to connect to venture capital firms and many firms never see bright opportunities that flame out before attracting funding. Effective copywriting can be the key to solving these missed opportunities. Target Venture Capital Finely written Web copy and experienced keyword research famously attracts search engines, motivates customers, and compels action.

FuelClinic ( http://www.fuelclinic.com ) is one of nine finalists chosen from a field of over 90 start-up companies participating in the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA) Congestion Challenge – a grant process being held at the venture-capital website Vencorps ( http://www.vencorps.com/join/its/ ) and sponsored by the ITSA and its partners.

Forget the fine china: A soon-to-be-married Silicon Valley couple is asking for gifts that can help get their startup off the ground.In what The San Jose Mercury News says may be the world’s first startup-wedding registry, Drue Kataoka and Svetlozar Kazanjiev have created a tongue-in-cheek list of the items that they really need as they prepare to launch their new venture, Aboomba.

By Mark Evans | Published: August 26, 2009 Last week, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone disclosed that Twitter plans to launch a “commercial layer” later this year in which it will provide premium services to companies that will include statistics and analytics.On the surface, this seems like a good idea given there’s growing demand among business for insight and information about social media activity, including Twitter. Some questions that need to be asked, however, are:1.

Email This PostHere’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.We Have A WinnerThe advertising industry may have finally found an able spokesperson in the human form of Berin Szoka, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. (The title alone is impressive!)Szoka, in an interview with BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol on MediaPost, explains his views supporting user empowerment rather than government-instituted solutions for online privacy.

Raptor Pharmaceuticals has raised $5 million via a private placement and a warrant exchange. The funds will go towards its late-stage drug product candidates and the completion of its proposed merger with TorreyPines Therapeutics, Raptor said in a statement.Via the private placement, the company raised $2.6 million, while $2.4 million was made in the warrant exchange.In July of this year, Raptor and TorreyPines entered into a definitive merger agreement.

The Journal of Private Equity gives you in-depth analysis of today’s most innovative strategies and techniques in private equity and venture capital. It shows you the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of each successful deal with detailed explanations, probing analysis, and real-life case studies—and shows you how to immediately apply them to your own deals. Readers come from venture capital firms, merchant banks, private equity funds, LBO funds, corporations, and the private investment divisions of banks.

Many are speculating that the year two thousand and nine represents a fundamental turning point for the venture capital industry. Some are arguing that  the industry is in dire straits  after years of poor performance. Others have argued that  the math simply does not work  for the industry’s current size. Another theory suggests that  permanent challenges with the IPO market call into question the fundamental economics of the VC industry . Lastly, some  credible authors have suggested  that things are so bad that a federal bailout may be in order.

Debbie Elliott (left), President and Creative Director of Talk, Inc speaks with Tim Moore President of Say It Social.com during the Social Fresh social media conference. Social Fresh social media conference Businesses need to outgrow the “gangly teenage” phase of social media and adopt best practices to get the most out of Twitter, Facebook and other tools, said national experts at the Social Fresh conference Monday in uptown Charlotte.

Hilarity : For Immediate Release U.S. Government Unveils Health Care Partnership With God Inc. WASHINGTON (Iowahawk Business PR Wire) — U.S. Government CEO Barack Obama announced today that his firm had embarked on a new joint venture with metaphysical industrial giant God, saying that ” We are God’s partners in matters of life and death .” “This partnership is a natural,” said Obama. “We both are unfathomably large, we both control people’s lives, we both work in mysterious ways, we both have a fanatical customer base.

Globalisation hits marginalised groups; helps rich, powerful:Bhaduri – New Kerala New Delhi, Aug 25 : Dr Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, says the worst victims of globalisation are marginalised people and has called for a strategy aimed at ‘reconstruction and resistance’, which entails development of 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – Boston Globe It’s hard to do wrong with hundreds of pristine European antique cars, the California coast, and swarms of rich people and wide-eyed car lovers.

To many, the lure of entrepreneurial pursuits is overwhelming. They’re driven to start stuff. And as such, they can’t help but startup everything from side projects to full-fledged companies. They’re crazy that way. But what if you’ve got a great idea and nowhere to start? What if you’re not quite sure how to dip you toe in the water? What if you’re not even sure you’d have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Well, there’s a new event—put on by the fine folks at Seattle 2.0 —this September that may be able to help you make that decision: introducing Startupday 2009 .

Vonage shares were on a blend of methamphetamine and acid today, gaining an obscene 165 percent in a single session and reminding us all of the late 1990s when this type of thing was as commonplace as active venture capitalists. But this isn’t the late 1990s, and the Vonage surge can’t last unless there are good reasons for it — and there aren’t. Vonage was forced to issue a statement tonight to shed light on the share-price madness. Not much light was shed.

India Family Offices Family Offices Gain Popularity with India’s HNIs The number of high net worth individuals (HNIs) has grown impressively leading to a similar rise in Multi-Family Offices. A family office is a unique capital source for private equity and venture capital funds so its important to track the development of this industry. India had the second-highest increase in high net worth individuals in 2006 and 2008. India now has an estimated 84,000 families with net assets of at least $1 million (roughly Rs 5 crore).