How should startups pay their attorney?

Startups are often cash-strapped in their early days, but it’s usually during those times that they most desperately need legal counsel. So what’s the best way to compensate those professionals for their time?

Despite some perceptions, the industry norm is for attorneys to not take equity or a board seat as a form of compensation from startups, says attorney Martin Nichols in this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture at Stanford University. In Silicon Valley, fee deferrals … Continue Reading

USA Network scores with gamification on Psych TV show

Gamification — using game-like features in non-game applications — is paying off for brands.

NBC Universal’s USA Network found that it could double the engagement on its Psych TV show web site with a game-like competition. Jesse Redniss, vice president for digital at USA Network, said in a talk at the Gamification Summit today that game-like reward programs generated a 130 percent increase in page views for the network’s Psych show and a 40 percent … Continue Reading

VCs roared back in 2010, investing the most money since 2007

Venture capitalists invested the most money last year since 2007, pumping $21.8 billion into 3,277 deals in 2010, according to a MoneyTree Report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

Using data from Thomson Reuters, the study showed a spike of 19 percent in dollars and a 12 percent rise in deals over the prior year, with almost all sectors showing double-digit gains.

Investments in the fourth quarter of 2010 alone totaled … Continue Reading

Will Google’s Groupon clone swap out algorithms for good writing?

Updated with confirmation

It looks like Google is preparing to launch its own version of popular deal service Groupon. Mashable just published a copy of what looks like a leaked fact sheet for the service, called Google Offers.

Google famously tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion, but the search giant was eventually rebuffed, and Groupon instead raised $950 million in funding and is reportedly preparing for a $15 billion public offering. Google, meanwhile, still … Continue Reading

Verizon's first iPhone ad plays up suspense factor (video)

Verizon’s first iPhone commercial surprisingly doesn’t feature an iPhone at all. Instead, it’s all build up — and after years of waiting for the iPhone to leave the shackles of AT&T’s network, it’s deserved.

“To our millions of customers, who never stopped believing this day would come…” the ad’s voice over says over the increasing drone of ticking clocks. “Thank you.”

The ad is certainly the first of many that we’ll see from Verizon — … Continue Reading

Yahoo snaps up Aussie group-buying site Spreets for $40M

Yahoo7, the Australian subsidiary of search giant Yahoo, has jumped into the group-buying fray and snapped up Aussie deal site Spreets for $40 million, the companies said today.

Spreets is just one of dozens of Australian group-buying companies, which usually feature a deal of the day for members who are offered deals and vouchers at local merchants at discounted prices.

Yahoo7, which is a partnership between Yahoo and Australia’s Channel 7, had clearly been keeping … Continue Reading

HP shuffles board, gives seats to Meg Whitman and Patricia Russo

Hewlett-Packard is remaking its board of directors today. It seems to happen as regularly as forest fires that clear out the underbrush and let it all grow back. The company named five new directors and is losing four who were known to be supportive of former chief executive Mark Hurd, who was ousted in August.

Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman is joining the HP board, as is former Alcatel-Lucent chief Patricia Russo.

The move … Continue Reading

Amid mobile boom, Toronto and its environs glitter (DEMO meetup photos)

There’s a lot of buzz about the innovation renaissance in New York. But the action in Toronto, just 340 miles to the north — and I do mean north — often goes unnoticed.

A week ago, on the tail of a snowstorm, VentureBeat landed in Toronto and held our first-ever meetup there — part of our prowl for the best companies in the world. Here’s how these events work: We partner with savvy investors to … Continue Reading

Eric Schmidt on Google CEO swap: No big changes

The big news in Google’s quarterly earnings call this afternoon was the shift at the top of the company, with Eric Schmidt stepping down from his role as chief executive while continuing on at Google as executive chairman and co-founder Larry Page taking his place.

Schmidt, Page, and co-founder Sergey Brin answered a few questions about the change, which is scheduled to take effect April 4. The big emphasis was on continuity. Until now, Schmidt … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: DOE awards $967M loan guarantee for solar, Tesla to unveil Model X this year

Here’s the latest action we’re following today on the GreenBeat:

Tesla will unveil Model X electric SUV this year — Elon Musk laid out the company’s electric car lineup plans and said Tesla would develop a “mainstream” car costing $30,000 in four years, Earth2Tech reports. The company currently makes the all-electric sports car Roadster (pictured), and is working on the Model S sedan for release in 2012.

First Solar gets $967M from DOE for Arizona … Continue Reading

Google revenue climbs 26 percent

Google included a bombshell in its earnings report today (namely that co-founder Larry Page will replace current chief executive Eric Schmidt), but in addition to the big news the company also shared its earnings numbers as usual — and as usual, they exceeded analyst estimates.

The company said that during its fourth quarter of 2010, its net income increased $2.54 billion, or $7.81 per share, beating estimates of $8.06 per share and up from $1.97 … Continue Reading

Meet Google's new CEO, same as the old CEO: Larry Page

One of the longest, most successful runs as chief executive of an Internet company has come to an end: Come April 4, Eric Schmidt will step down as Google’s CEO, and cofounder Larry Page will resume the position.

Yes, resume. It’s so long ago that few remember, but Page was Google’s first CEO, and he held the job from 1998 until 2001, when Schmidt was hired. Page, his cofounder Sergey Brin, and Schmidt have long … Continue Reading

Coskata grabs biggest slice of USDA's $405M in biofuels loan guarantees

The U.S. Department of Argiculture today awarded $405 million in loan guarantees for biofuel refineries.

All three recipients, Coskata, Enerkem and Ineos Bio, make biofuels by using waste as a feedstock, which is considered an advantage in the crowded biofuels market. It’s also a sign of good news for the industry, where biofuels makers have struggled to bring technologies to commercial scale production.

The Department of Energy’s loan chief hinted to us last year that … Continue Reading

Will tweets make Techmeme even more addictive for tech news junkies?

Techmeme, the news aggregator that’s usually my first stop on the Web, just announced that it’s adding a new kind of headline to the mix — tweets posted on Twitter.

For Techmeme, the move seems like an obvious extension of the site’s existing Twitter-based news tip system. This should bring in a fresh, fast source of news. Tweets will also be incorporated in the discussion and commentary sections under each headline. And Techmeme usually tries … Continue Reading

Game guru Jane McGonigal says "gamification" should make tasks hard, not easy

Gamification, or making a non-game application more engaging by making it game-like, should not make tasks easy for the people undertaking them. It should make them harder, says Jane McGonigal, game research director of the Institute for Future and author of a new book on gamification, “Reality is Broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world”.

McGonigal says Web site owners — including those of major corporations — should make … Continue Reading

Box.net looks to keep it simple with new version of cloud storage software

Enterprise cloud storage provider Box.net is launching a new version of its software that includes a front-facing interface built from scratch and additional mobile features, the company announced today.

The new Box.net interface is a mash-up of micro-blogging activity streams like FriendFeed and online storage like Dropbox. Box users can drag and drop files from their computer directly onto the site to send files into cloud storage. There are also folders that are synched up … Continue Reading

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin invests in Qwiki

Qwiki, a startup that describes itself as delivering a new “information experience,” just announced that it has raised $8 million in its first institutional round of funding.

I wrote about Qwiki earlier this month, when the funding was revealed through a regulatory filing. At the time, the filing said the Palo Alto, Calif. startup had only raised $5 million of the round. After the article was published, co-founder and chief executive Doug Imbruce hinted that … Continue Reading

Bloom Energy "not focused" on fuel cells IPO, no plans for a mini-Bloom Box

Bloom Energy is toning down talk of its much-speculated IPO plans this year and looking to expand its reach with a new, more affordable offering that sells electricity generated from its fuel cell-packed Bloom Box, without requiring customers to pay for any of the pricey Bloom hardware.

“We’re not focused on an IPO, we’re focused on building a company that can deliver clean, reliable affordable energy, and we’re quite happy with our ability to finance … Continue Reading

Google Voice tests cellphone number porting for $20

Google is expanding its testing of a long-awaited feature for Google Voice, the ability to port your current mobile number to the service, Engadget reports.

Number porting on Google Voice has been talked about for years now, but Google tells Search Engine Land that it’s only recently gotten over some back-end technical hurdles that will make the porting process easier.

Porting your number costs $20, and it will also end your current cellular service plan … Continue Reading