Updated
Bill Burnham, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who had been trying to raise a VC fund called Celsius over the past year, has parted ways with at least three other partners.
Private Equity Week has the story, which suggests Burnham wanted to stay in the valley, while the others wanted to focus mainly on China.
But we’re wondering if there is another reason here. We’ve been discussing how VCs have a tough time blogging specifics, because their trade depends on a trust network, and that means not dishing up details on your deals, or gossip about others in the industry.
And all this time, Burnham has been blogging, and we heard he pissed off the folks over at Kleiner Perkins when he initially got some things wrong on a post about how much Kleiner’s John Doerr made from his investment in Google. We could be totally off-base here; there may be no connection at all between Burnham’s blogging and his break at Cesius. And Burnhams’ blogging has been helpful. He made the correction to the Doerr stuff, apologized, and we were all better off for the info that he provided. We’re just wondering whether he was better off.
Now Burnham, even if he is joking in this latest post, is saying blogging “is a complete waste time.”
UPDATE: Bill responds below with comment, and it is important enough to lift it up here to main post:
Come on Matt, are you suggesting that I left Celsius because of blogging? That’s just crazy talk. I am a co-founder. I left because it was the right thing to do given the new focus. If you had e-mailed me about this you would have found out that I remain an active advisor to the fund and on great terms with everyone there.
As John Doerr told me “just pick up the phone and call me” before you write about someone if you’re not sure or if you have a question. I should have extended him that courtesy then and you should have done the same to me before writing something so completely off base.
Point taken.
5 Comments
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Terry Plotkins said:
Burnham could have probably gotten more traffic by blogging about Doerr’s role in “Sex and the Single Zillionaire” (fellow Tom Perkin’s book) — e.g. how about a tryst in KP’s cathedral like conference room leading the partners to decide that there must be a huge demand out there for a certain drug…
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Bill Burnham said:
Come on Matt, are you suggesting that I left Celsius because of blogging? That’s just crazy talk. I am a co-founder. I left because it was the right thing to do given the new focus. If you had e-mailed me about this you would have found out that I remain an active advisor to the fund and on great terms with everyone there.
As John Doerr told me “just pick up the phone and call me” before you write about someone if you’re not sure or if you have a question. I should have extended him that courtesy then and you should have done the same to me before writing something so completely off base.
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Peter Rip said:
I don’t know Bill personally but his comments were obviously tongue-in-cheek. The whole post is a parody. He’s saying you don’t get rich on blog ads.
I don’t think this out-of-context quote is a fair way to re-open other questions you may have about what Bill is doing. It would be like using an error in Silicon Beat to suggest this is why KRI is for sale.
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Matt Marshall said:
Ok, my bad. I updated this morning with Bill’s comments. And I’ve since picked up some good intelligence on the Celsius from some outside sources, and Bill & I have scheduled to talk a bit tommorrow — so might post a bit more tomorrow…
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kirsten said:
Please - Burnham will be back. Last year I said nearly the same thing on the front page of the Chicago Tribune Business Section and on ABC News. Nobody listened to me. And now - thanks to unexpected personal inspiration noted on re:invention’s Jan 1 blog entry - we’re back to blogging.
http://reinventioninc.blogspot.com
Blogging doesn’t need to be lucrative or competitive, it can be cooperative. Daily traffic, ad sales, and inbound links should not be your only measurements of success. I’ve met some damn fine people blogging (some dinkheads too, but ain’t that part of the drill).
p.s. good to meet you virtually Matt. i feel i already know you.
kindly,
kirsten osolind
ceo and when warranted, *bitch*
re:invention, inc.
http://www.reinventioninc.com
“marketing for women-led businesses.”
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