Articles about Investors in Startups as of September 8, 2009

Great post by Mark Suster on when, if and how startup founders should be allowed to take money off the table before their starup has reached a real exit. Mark’s basic thesis is that it is sometimes a great idea for startup founders to sell some of their equity to their investors. He discusses his own experiences and suggests how he would have managed his own companies differently and/or not sold them when he did. His post is well reasoned and is worth reading.

meaviso News, Video & Blogs Antitrust Lawyer Slams Google Book Pact 08/Septiembre/2009 Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer Gary Reback made his case against the Google Books settlement Tuesday, arguing that the settlement is illegal but could be remedied if the Justice Department insists that Google license the books it scanned to competit …

Ariadne Capital has launched the Ariadne Capital Entrepeneurs (ACE) Fund, a new vehicle aimed at investing in technology start-ups (Techcrunch Europe post ) DuMont Venture and seed investor Tiburon Partners have led an undisclosed seven figure funding round for online video technology company stream5 , alongside KfW and business angel Klaus Wecken ( Press release ) IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft invested in Affinitas, operator of the online dating portal edarling , in a second closing

September 8, 2009, 10:55 am African Entrepreneurs By Dwyer Gunn Question Box operators Lydia and Phiona. The problems facing developing countries, in Africa and elsewhere, are overwhelming in their magnitude and complexity. From HIV/AIDS to widespread corruption and poverty, obstacles to economic development are occupying some of the world’s brightest minds. The three individuals profiled below are tackling Africa’s most trenchant problems in vastly different ways but with a common goal: to create a new development paradigm for the continent.

I’ve had 2 calls in the last week from businesses looking to build their own Social Network and over the past several months, similar inquiries. When I ask them if they have about $40 Million to invest in getting it going I either get dead silence or a nervous chuckle. My advice is “forget it and invest elsewhere.” The space is well established now. The leaders are Facebook and NetLog followed by MySpace and MyYearbook among others. Perception-wise Facebook is leading internationally.

The President addressed the investors in his government spending programs today.

Techcrunch przygotowa? list? TOP Blogerów zwi?zanych z VC, lista u?o?ona jest wed?ug ilo?ci subskrybentów Google Reader. Podgl?danie tych blogerów mo?na dowiedzie? si? co s?ycha? w zagranicznych VC, co pisz? ludzie na co dzie? zwi?zani z inwestycjami w e-biznes itp. Polecam przejrze? poni?sze blogi – dla ka?dego interesuj?cego si? inwestycjami i bran?? “internetow?” na pewno znajdzie si? kilka ciekawych pozycji.

Foursquare has raised its first venture capital investment, and it couldn’t have been easy: There are persistent rumors the social networking company stole its code from Google. Plus, it wanted to invest the money in a domain name. Ooof. Dot-com address acquisition is a dubious vestige of the first internet boom, when branding reigned supreme over profits and functionality, before entrepreneurs realized people would just look for them on Google.

The massive economic downturn has made raising venture capital really hard for many businessmen, especially small- to medium-scale entrepreneurs. If this is your first time putting up a business, the challenges can seem especially daunting. The biggest question is often “Where do I get the capital to start up?”

Getting a job in venture capital is extremely hard.  There are a lot of really smart, well qualified, eager people who want to work in VC, and very few jobs.  And it’s likely to only get harder as the industry contracts . If you look at the backgrounds of partners in VC firms, they generally either came in as a partner after being a successful entrepreneur or worked their way up in VC.  There are books written on how to become a successful entrepreneur, so here I’ll just focus on the other common path – career VCs.

Having the idea of putting up your own business and finally ending the fact of having to deal with a grumpy boss is easy, but having to face the question on how to raise the capital for your business is another story. Be it any new business or expanding an already existing business, raising a capital can definitely scare a neophyte capitalist. How to raise capital is a dreadful question to answer when we are not prepared to answer it. It will make the task less stressful when it is clear to you on what business you want to get into.

ADOTAS —  Ex-Googlers, AOL, Sapient and Exact Target had some news recently. Days after announcing that he was resigning as the head of Google’s Chinese operations, Kai-Fu Lee said he had raised $115 million to create a company that would finance high-tech start-ups in China. (Deal Book) AOL has appointed former Yahoo Inc executive Brad Garlinghouse as president of its Web and mobile communications group.

Sometimes, going it alone in a job search may not be your best option. Many people find greater success in dealing with a staffing agency or executive search firm. There are agencies that cater to the needs of all types of job searchers. Profession-specific agencies: Certain agencies focus all or most of their efforts on specific professions. For example, there are agencies that place only home health care workers, and others that work exclusively with the legal or banking professions.

Sometimes, going it alone in a job search may not be your best option. Many people find greater success in dealing with a staffing agency or executive search firm. There are agencies that cater to the needs of all types of job searchers. Profession-specific agencies: Certain agencies focus all or most of their efforts on specific professions. For example, there are agencies that place only home health care workers, and others that work exclusively with the legal or banking professions.

Megan Erickson of cnn money published an excellent piece about the plight and turn around of small businesses with outside backing.  In the piece Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Obsidian Launch explained how his $250,000 sba backed loan caused the near collapse of his first business because the financial cushion caused the organization to circumvent best practices.

From Claire Cain Miller at Bits:There are not many young faces in Silicon Valley’s venture capital firms. That worries some people, who say that young entrepreneurs need young investors who are up-to-date on new technologies.Mayfield Fund, a venture firm founded in 1969, is taking that notion to heart. It has hired a new, 32-year-old investing partner, Emily Melton, from rival firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Ms. Melton will invest in consumer Internet companies, which will receive about one-third of the $400 million fund that Mayfield closed a year ago.

David has 12 years of diverse management experience in strategy, corporate finance, venture capital, branding and marketing. David has worked with leading organizations such as ESPN, NBC, Comcast, Lifetime, USAA, and Habitat for Humanity, as well as many entrepreneurs. Prior to founding Sparxoo, David was a senior strategist at Interbrand, the world’s largest branding agency. Previously, David was Senior Director of Marketing for ESPN.com. He also served as senior strategist and “acting CFO” for ESPN’s Publishing and New Media business units.

Here’s something that doesn’t happen often in the VC industry: they hire new,fresh talent. Good for Mayfield Fund. Link:  Mayfield Fund Hires a Young V.C. for Her Fresh Eye

There are not many young faces in Silicon Valley’s venture capital firms. That worries some people, who say that young entrepreneurs need young investors who are up-to-date on new technologies. Mayfield Fund, a venture firm founded in 1969, is taking that notion to heart. It has hired a new, 32-year-old investing partner, Emily Melton, from rival firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Ms. Melton will invest in consumer Internet companies, which will receive about one-third of the $400 million fund that Mayfield closed a year ago.

The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) and NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) published the report “From funding gaps to thin markets”, which examines the effectiveness of UK government-backed venture capital schemes. The report finds that these government-backed VC schemes have had a positive effect on company performance and job creation, but this effect has been small, and significantly less than expected.

Few of the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) of the RE-Search program are looking for people to team up with. Profiles of EIRs 1.        Jaswant Bangaru   Jaswant is working in the area of Biomass based energy generation. His company AltEnerGen (AEG) is a rapidly growing renewable energy company headquartered at Bangalore, India. Founder’s background:   Jaswant holds Bachelor’s in Engineering (Electrical) from Andhra University, India and MBA in Finance from Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto.

Entrepreneurs might have a great idea but can’t always get it in front of the right people with the right money. On the other side of the equation, angel investors like you long to hear good pitches of great ideas that fit within your narrow scope or specialty. PerfectBusiness.com (which bills itself as “the path to entrepreneurship”) is holding its “Perfect Pitch” contest to help get the right business ideas in front of the right investors. Contest entries are business pitches that include a written description, pictures, and video.

The World Innovation Summit offers a look into the future into advanced technology topics, presented by senior C-Level executives of multinationals Chairman and CEOs of emerging companies and many tens of selected promising start-ups’ CEOand moderated by leading venture capital firms and goverement investors. The Summit acts as an effective and efficient meeting platform, where breakthrough technologies  are introduced and discussed by top experts, CEOs showcase their company innovation, and venture capitalists and corporate investors from around the world interact, exchange views, and evaluate investment opportunities.

Politicians often find scapegoats for America’s economic woes. It is rare – if ever – that they point the finger at themselves. Yet, the basic cause of the current severe economic problem lies in the machinations of government. It is clear to even a casual observer that Congress has abused its power to tax and spend. It has taxed success to subsidize failure. It has purchased votes by enacting an unending stream of entitlement programs, financed by taxation, foreign debt and a progressive degradation of the U.S.

John Bercow hires a very expensive PR man.Commons Speaker John Bercow is hiring a City PR man as a spokesman and special adviser on a salary of up to £107,000 a year, the Daily Mail reports.Tim Hames, who is understood to have advised Bercow during his long campaign to succeed Michael Martin, has been appointed without anyone else being interviewed for the post.It is the first time a Commons Speaker has taken on a special adviser – a post paid for by central government but with the freedom to

Brad Garlinghouse, a former Yahoo executive who was credited with highlighting the deep problems at the Internet company, was named president of Internet and mobile communications at AOL, the company announced early Tuesday.In his new role, Mr. Garlinghouse will lead the effort to expand the reach of AOL’s popular e-mail and instant-messaging services. He will also head the company’s Silicon Valley operations, which AOL plans to expand, and lead the West Coast arm of AOL Ventures, a unit in charge of investing in start-ups and spinning off businesses, The New York Times’s Miguel Helft writes.Mr.

Earlier this year in midtown Manhattan, a local venture capital firm staged a daylong conference on school reform. Authors, professors, financiers, and entrepreneurs took over the French Institute’s skylighted penthouse and earnestly discussed how embracing “digital culture”—from deploying videogame-style rewards to encouraging kids to develop online reputations—could completely transform education. Outsiders were invited to participate via Twitter, and their ideas were projected on the wall.

Never before has there been a time in history, when one could travel the world for free, by using their video camera. Everything is in place – the equipment needed to produce broadcast quality videos is cheap and readily available, social networking sites like facebook and couchsurfing help develop international connections, and the internet provides a worldwide broadcast platform. Youtube really is to world’s largest television station.

Buyers of Skype on course for a legal showdown with its founders Times: The founders of Skype last night were heading for a legal battle with the new owners of the internet telephony business over the technology that powers it. A court case between eBay, the owner, and Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom — a fight that eBay admitted could shut down the service — is to be heard next June. Despite this, a private investment group agreed last week to pay $2 billion (£1.2 billion) for a majority stake in Skype.

I developed some of the themes of an earlier post here, “ The Cultural Pseudomorph and Its Decay ,” into a recent paper for Center for a Stateless Society:  “ The Decline and Fall of Sloanism .”  This article is a condensed version of some of the same ideas, along with some other recent discussions on the P2P Research list. An article by Richard Heinberg at The Oil Drum , “ Temporary Recession or the End of Growth? “,  suggests that the economic crisis is not simply a cyclical downturn, but a permanent structural change:  we’ve reached a limit to growth.

Tennessee resident K. C. “Khan” Smith owes the internet service provider EarthLink $24 million. According to the CNN, in August 2001 he was slapped with a lawsuit accusing him of violating federal and state Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes, the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984, the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and numerous other state laws. On July 19, 2002 – having failed to appear in court – the judge ruled against him. Mr.

Earlier this year in midtown Manhattan, a local venture capital firm staged a daylong conference on school reform. read more

You don’t have to head off to a fancy business school this fall to learn about business. In fact, all you really have to do is have a computer and a little free time to get a world of business education at your fingertips. Here is a collection of lectures, many from the most prestigious business schools, economists and business leaders, that can help you learn about aspects of business that you’re interested in, and perhaps some you didn’t even know existed.

The cover story of the September 7 issue of Business Week reports on the “ Radical Future of R&D “, focusing on the internationalization of research and development led by global corporations such as IBM and Hewlett Packard.  The magazine includes a story written by Adrian Slywotzky , “How Science Can Create Millions of New Jobs.” Mr.

Venture capitalists may soon be asked to go way outside their comfort zone. Endeavor , the New York-based non-profit that seeks to promote entrepreneurship in the developing world, launched the Mentor Capital Program (MCP) last week here in Montevideo, the capitol of Uruguay. The initiative, to be piloted in the Southern Cone nations of Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, seeks to better prepare innovators here to pitch venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and beyond, and to undergo the rigors of the due diligence process.

A small business has to secure capital for the daily cash flow. Venture capital and bank loans are helpful in getting the business started and help provide the initial funding. Thus a business is able to stay alive and meet its expenses.