Steve Jurvetson on focusing on cleantech during the economic storm
Steve Jurvetson, a managing director at Silicon Valley stalwart venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, talks so fast I always have to use a digital recorder to capture his rapid-fire thoughts. Jurvetson is an investor who ventures deep into the technology of his subjects. He was passionate about investing in nanotechnology a few years ago and has since poured his energy into cleantech. He has had some big hits with investments in Hotmail, Interwoven, Kana,… Continue Reading
DFJ’s Steve Jurveston on a clean tech business plan competition and playing god
Updated
The California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) stands out as one of the biggest business plan competitions around. Each year, researchers from some of the most prestigious labs in the country meet with entrepreneurs who can dream up ways to turn their work into gold. Out of 45-50 finalists in the CCTO start-up boot camp, five winners receive cash and professional services totaling around $100,000 each, but each finalist comes out with a fully fleshed out… Continue Reading
Top 10 tech trends: Smart phones, alternative energies, Boomer technologies
Where is technology headed?
The Churchill Club of Silicon Valley just wrapped up one of its most anticipated events: the Annual Top Ten Tech Trends Debate. Five well-known and opinionated venture capitalists weighed in on what trends will take flight and what trends will fizzle out in the months ahead.
(The VCs are pictured, from left to right: Steve Jurvetson, Vinod Khosla, Josh Kopelman, Roger McNamee, Joe Schoendorf.)
The audience of around 300 people was asked whether it… Continue Reading
Roundup: Bombs, don’t do Delaware, MySQL IPO & more
The latest Silicon Valley round-up:
Correlation between bomb building and entrepreneurship? — Former PayPal chief executive Peter Thiel reportedly says four of six founders of the online payment service built bombs while in high school. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson designs rockets.
MyYearbook.com, a social networking site for teens, raises $4.1M – The site looks like a Facebook knock-off. It raised the first round of finance from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) and First Round Capital. The… Continue Reading
Boxbe raises $1.5M to let spammers reach you via email
Boxbe, the San Francisco company that wants you to accept marketing pitches through an email account, has raised $1.5 million in venture capital.
We wrote about this company last month, and said it sounds pretty useless.
Basically, you create an-email account at Boxbe, provide some basic information about yourself, and then you set a price marketers have to pay to contact you. The marketers earn the right, thereby, to have their email get to your other, regular… Continue Reading