VentureBeat

More GreenBeat all-star speakers: Andres Carvallo, Pamela Lesh, Benno Ritter, George Arnold, Frank Magnotti, Pilgrim Beart

We’re delighted to announce the latest speakers for our GreenBeat event on Nov. 18 and 19. The caliber of the speakers and program content is helping to make this the first, comprehensive conference on the Smart Grid.

We’re bringing in the industry heavy hitters, the most exciting start-up entrepreneurs and politicians — mixing them all together — and expecting some great insights to come out of it. It all comes at the best time possible —… Continue Reading

Droid, the phone that finally lets me cancel my iPhone — here’s why

A new phone called Droid is about to hit the market at the end of October, and it will likely have the glitz and power to bury the iPhone.

So I’m canceling my iPhone contract today. I’ll smugly wait out the rest of the month without the iPhone and rely on my second phone, the Blackberry Curve, which is a vastly inferior device to the coming Droid — but at least it can make calls more… Continue Reading

Congrats to Web After Dark winners: Khush, iSyndica, Affective Interfaces and Happier.com

Congratulations to Khush, the startup that wins a spot to attend and showcase its technology at the Web 2.0 Summit Web After Dark party in San Francisco next week.

VentureBeat teamed up with venture capital firm Canaan Partners to select most promising Web 2.0-related company nominees submitted by VB readers.

Runners up are iSyndica, Affective Interfaces and Happier.com.

As the winner, Kusch also receives a pass to the exclusive press pre-party and gets to pitch Canaan Partners in… Continue Reading

Google maps fun places with Street View “trike”

With Google Maps, you can use a feature called “Street View” to take a virtual drive across town, or pretty much anywhere there are public streets.

But until now some of the funnest places haven’t been accessible by car, and so Google’s Street View car hasn’t captured them. Now Google is blitzing through all kinds of more private, inaccessible places such as scenic running trails, private universities and zoos with a new tool: a 3-wheeled bicycle… Continue Reading

Latest GreenBeat speakers: Adrian Tuck, Andy Tang, Andy White & Allan Schurr

I’m delighted to announce the latest speakers for our fast-approaching GreenBeat conference, the seminal event for leaders in the Smart Grid industry, on Nov. 18 and 19 in San Mateo, Calif.

It comes at a perfect time: It looks increasingly like more federal legislation is going to come to a head, at the latest by next year — including measures that could force a massive transition from carbon-based energy to alternative sources. And California is leading… Continue Reading

Song recognition application, Shazam, gets boost from Kleiner Perkins

Updated

Music is a ridiculously difficult area to make money in. Everyone wants be a part of it — which means there are thousands of entrepreneurs eager to conquer the industry. There’s no rock unturned.

But Shazam looks like one of those rare music-industry breakouts. It’s an application that lets you identify a song by holding your phone up to a radio or other medium playing the song. You can then do things like purchase the song… Continue Reading

Exclusive offer: Showcase your company at Web 2.0 Summit After-Party

Want to get your startup company or idea in front of the technology and investor bigwigs attending the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco next week?

Well, we’ve got an opportunity for an early-stage startup company to do that, at the conference’s Web After Dark party on the first evening, Oct 20. The party is hosted by venture capital firm Canaan Partners. Canaan will be showcasing its hottest Web 2.0 portfolio companies in pods in a… Continue Reading

Get your (discounted) Mobile 2.0 conference tickets here

Are you an executive or developer trying to make sense of the fragmented but fast-growing mobile industry?

If so, you should seriously consider attending the Mobile 2.0 conference that kicks off tomorrow. The main theme this year is how to deliver applications and services across mobile platforms (horizontally), and not just via an application store (vertically). Too much splintering, too many app stores.

VentureBeat has forged a partnership with the conference. The winner of our MobileBeat conference… Continue Reading

Hi5 stagnates, and so it does the predictable: bets the farm on games

The social networking company hi5 used to be a big player among networks. There was a time four years ago when it was in the running for leadership position.

Since then it has lost momentum. It is stronger abroad than it is in the U.S. However, the U.S. market is important because social networks are able to get more money from traditional advertisers. In the U.S., the site has seen its traffic stagnate, according to Hitwise… Continue Reading

Glam steals Yahoo’s head of display advertising, Josh Jacobs

Glam, the fast growing content and ad network for women, has hired away Josh Jacobs, a top advertising executive from Yahoo.

The move is significant because Jacobs was Yahoo’s top executive for online display advertising. Yahoo is the biggest player in display advertising, a category that includes things like banner and other ads that populate most commercial web sites including VentureBeat. However, Yahoo has struggled lately because of its lack of focus and the emergence of… Continue Reading

Only 17 venture capital firms raise money in Q3 — fewest in 15 years

Venture capitalists are a breed in decline.

Just 17 venture capital firms raised new funds in the third quarter of 2009, the smallest number of firms in any quarter since the third quarter of 1994, according to new data released by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

While venture capital firms typically raise money every three or four years, and so a single quarter represents only a snapshot, the very small number of firms… Continue Reading

DEMO rocked! Now the party starts again

It’s been two weeks since the end of DEMO. I’m awestruck by the experience, both by all of the incredibly talented people that convened there in San Diego, and by the traction 70 entrepreneurs were able to get during those short few days.

Thank you to all of the people who came and make it such a terrific event.

I’ll talk about highlights shortly, but now it’s time to to start it all over again. We’re already… Continue Reading

Is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce corrupt? And why it matters

It’s been a remarkable few days for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 3 million-member business federation that says it spends more money on lobbying than any other organization in the U.S.

When the Chamber recently took a strong stance against federal policy and other legislative proposals that will regulate greenhouse emissions, it forced several companies to quit the Chamber in protest. These companies, including large California utility PG&E and Apple, argue the Chamber’s stance is… Continue Reading

U.S. private equity fundraising plunges 70 percent

We’ve been writing for a while about the crunch in the venture capital industry.

Well, the latest data shows that U.S. private equity firms (including venture capital firms, but also other firms that invest private money, such as buyout firms) raised only $25.2 billion in the third quarter — or 70 percent less than the same period last year.

This means much less money will flow to technology start-ups over the next few years.

Through the first nine… Continue Reading

Mark Zuckerberg: The evolution of a remarkable CEO

About six months ago, critics pummeled Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

He’d made questionable management decisions, or so it appeared from the outside. He’d fumbled the site’s redesign and botched the company’s terms of service agreement — moves that whipped up negative publicity and user backlash. Some people asked whether it was time for Zuckerberg to go.

Six months later, those critics have gone. The company is enjoying astounding momentum — blowing through user growth forecasts… Continue Reading

Benchmark hires MySQL’s Marten Mickos as Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Benchmark Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms, has hired former MySQL chief executive Marten Mickos as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

Mickos built MySQL, the popular open-source database company, into a significant international company before selling it to Sun Microsystems last year for $1 billion.

Benchmark was one of the leading investors in MySQL and netted a nice return from the sale (only $40 million was invested in MySQL beginning in 2001). So it’s no surprise that… Continue Reading

VentureBeat is looking for a Chief Technology Officer

VentureBeat continues to roll. Our next big move: We’re looking to hire a chief technology officer.

The specs are listed below. We’re looking for someone who does more than fulfill the technical requirements of this job. We’re searching for someone who can think really, really big.

That means helping VentureBeat develop the best media platform on the Web. We’ve got several projects in the works, designed to allow our high-profile readership to interact with our quality content… Continue Reading

Change the world! Launch your Smart Grid company at GreenBeat 2009

To avoid environmental catastrophe within the next century, we, as a world, desperately need to cut carbon emissions.

If you’re an entrepreneur, this is the calling of a lifetime — there’s massive economic opportunity here. That’s why VentureBeat is hosting GreenBeat 2009, the seminal conference on the emergence of a “Smart Grid” — the movement toward a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid — one that champions transparency and puts consumers back in charge of how much… Continue Reading

Latest speaker at GreenBeat 2009: Cisco’s Smart Grid guru, Laura Ipsen

I’m pleased to announce that Laura Ipsen, VP and General Manager for Cisco Systems‘ Smart Grid Business Unit, will be joining us as a speaker at GreenBeat 2009.

Over the next several days, you’ll be hearing more announcements about our exciting lineup for GreenBeat 2009, the seminal conference on technologies that are disruptive to outmoded parts of our electrical grid, and which push forward the Smart Grid.

The event will take place in the San Francisco Bay… Continue Reading

VentureBeat’s policy on embargoes: We’ll take ‘em

In the news business, there’s something called an embargo. That’s when a company, usually through a public relations person, gets an agreement from a writer not to publish a story until a certain time. The writer is then allowed access to people and information to craft the story prior to the time the embargo lifts. A writer might spend all day Monday writing a story that’s embargoed until Tuesday morning, when more people will read… Continue Reading