Does your company really deserve VC money?
Investment firms hear from thousands of entrepreneurs every year, so making your company stand out from the crowd is crucial. Beth Seidenberg of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers lays out the five factors her firm looks at when deciding whether a start-up deserves funding in this entrepreneur thought leader lecture given at Stanford University. Key among those factors? Strong leadership.
Skills of great entrepreneurs
Being smart and working hard isn’t a guarantee of success in the entrepreneurial world. Outside influences often have a bigger say in the fate of your company than you do. But Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins, in this talk given at a Stanford entrepreneur summit in 2007, says the top tier of entrepreneurs are the ones who can recognize an opportunity and know how to take advantage of it.
TextPlus’ group texting — why isn’t it more popular?
When Gogii, a startup backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund for iPhone apps, launched its textPlus app for the iPhone in June, I was sure it was a no-brainer hit. I said so in a post. TextPlus serves as a downloadable alternative to the built-in Messages application on the iPhone, which sends and receives messages via SMS protocol.
TextPlus looks nearly identical to the Messages client, except it can handle a multi-person text message… Continue Reading
Roundup: Google sees results in Washington, sex offenders out of MySpace, Motorola’s big loss and more
Here’s the latest action:
Google is making friends in Washington — After Microsoft and AT&T’s lobbying power killed its Yahoo search deal, Google has proven to be the quick study in politics and now seems to have friends in high places…the highest places, the White House. The Wall Street Journal breaks it all down.
Sex offenders no longer welcome on MySpace — The social network banned some 90,000 of them — so they moved to Facebook? That’s what a… Continue Reading
Bill Joy’s $50 million eco-friendly yacht
Joy
Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is building a $50 million yacht — an eco-friendly 190-footer named Ethereal — to be the most efficient, eco-friendly boat afloat.
Joy, who is now a venture capitalist at Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, apparently told Fortune (flip through the glossy pages here; you’ll have to go to page 82 for the full thing) he wants it to be an ambassador for the “green tech” he… Continue Reading