TheFunded delivers subpoenaed documents

August 25, 2008 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

TheFunded, the VC-review site that was recently subponaed by EDF Ventures, says it has handed over the requested documents — and, amusingly, site owner Adeo Ressi decided to videotape himself as he delivered the documents to the Oakland offices of EDF’s attorneys.

During the video, Ressi repeats his claim that the documents don’t reveal anything about the anonymous commenter whom EDF has filed suit against; the firm alleges that the commenter misrepresented him- or herself in negative comments about EDF. (TheFunded, by the way, has a business relationship with VentureBeat.) Ressi previously released a statement saying the site doesn’t store records about the identity of commenters.

Despite being relatively short on content, the video is hilarious, particularly the expression Ressi makes towards the end.


EDF Ventures vs John Doe from Adeo Ressi on Vimeo.

Next Story: Developer Analytics: Facebook game Mob Wars making $22,000 a day
Previous Story: FriendFeed beta rolls out to test noise filtering tools, redesign

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , ,

Photo of Anthony Ha

About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • Ruby
    Clearly this was a one take video. Love the car horn amid a key statement...
  • VentureBeat is certainly giving Adeo full coverage. Even if he prevails, I don't think either side comes out a winner in this. EDF looks bad for going after entrepreneurs and TF continues to solidify its image as a place for vindictive rants against VCs.
  • Well, I think the past posts were relatively substantive, but I'm not gonna lie -- if I hadn't found the video pretty entertaining, I would've stuck this news in the daily roundup.
  • I agree - entertaining video/ PR provided by Adeo combined with a slow news period.
  • Don, the reality is that every comment on TheFunded.com needs to be taken in context of (1) other available written materials and (2) the numerical component ratings and average. There are 8,500+ CEO Members of TheFunded.com. Most every CEO written about on VentureBeat or TechCrunch is a Member, yet the majority of Membership applications are turned down.

    Every post, including the post in question about EDF Ventures, is discussed and debated in secret by the Members, exposing both positive and negative opinions that are not available for the public to see. Over 60% of the comments viewable by the public are positive.

    It is probably a good thing that investors have wide array of poorly informed misconceptions about what is actually happening on the site. To judge TheFunded.com by the 30% of content available as a preview for non-Members is truly judging a book by its cover. For example, one of the pieces of Feedback to the "Avoid" post on EDF Ventures is:

    "This is one of the few VC who actually said outloud "you may not need VC funding, it may be wrong for your company" They also stated clearly how much the VC want when they invest and fund your company. This was clear and honest. They have been around with a good reputaion and I would take them very seriously."

    The fact that most people have no idea what is being discussed makes the data in aggregate more accurate. Nobody needs to prove anything, and nobody cares to grind an ax. They just express their opinion.
  • John Doe
    Well Done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    shame shame shame EDF .....
  • Philippe Cases
    The comment from the Funded is exactly where the problem is: the Funded leverages brand name of Venture Firms by exposing their names and the names of their General Partners to search engines and sites like Venturebeat. Yet, as the Funded notes, VCs have no idea what is being discussed as they are only able to see 30% of the content available.

    Either this site is by invitation only and doesn't advertise broadly and their approach is fine as they can do whatever they want with their data or it uses the sensational effect of the comments to attract people and they have to give some level of control or elementary right of responses to the people who are being chastised publicly.
  • Phillippe, funds have the ability to respond on the site, and many do. In addition, Members make a conscious choice to make comments either Public or Private. TheFunded provides technology and a forum. How Members and funds choose to use this forum is up to them.