Facebook and the big IPO letdown
Facebook’s IPO has raised hopes in Silicon Valley that the tech industry’s days of wine and roses will soon be back with hundreds of startups going public. Even President Obama seems excited. He recently proposed an “IPO on-ramp” to help young, smaller companies go public.
Sadly, everyone is going to be disappointed.
We are not going to see the flood of IPOs that happened during the late 90s. The rules of the game have changed. … Continue Reading
How to be a better venture capitalist: Run a startup
Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This story originally appeared on his blog.
Venture capitalists who are serious about turning their firms into more than one-fund wonders may want to have their associates actually start and run a company for a year.
Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience, such as working in business development, sales or marketing. None of … Continue Reading
Cloud technologies are a huge, untapped market, says Trinity Ventures’ Dan Scholnick (video)
Dan Scholnick is a general partner at Trinity Ventures. In this conversation with VentureBeat editor-in-chief and founder Matt Marshall, he discusses the future and potential of cloud technologies.
Scholnick will also be speaking at CloudBeat 2011, VentureBeat’s upcoming enterprise cloud conference, so you can catch him there for more perspective. He’ll be moderating a case study session with Thomas Kelly, Enterprise Architect for Cloud Services at Best Buy.
For Scholnick, “cloud” is a vague term, … Continue Reading
Four takeaways for startups from this week’s Adobe-Auditude acquisition
Adobe acquired Auditude, a platform for monetizing premium video content, on Tuesday.
Not many startups get to such a positive outcome, even after years of work. So how do you successfully navigate scaling up a company and interacting with potential acquirers?
The two of us were investors in Auditude, and we sat on its board for the past several years. We’re excited about this outcome, which reflects the hard work of the entire team at … Continue Reading
Betaworks co-founder Andy Weissman jumps ship to Union Square Ventures
In a shakeup for New York’s startup scene, Andy Weissman, co-founder of the NYC startup incubator Betaworks, is leaving to join VC firm Union Square Ventures.
Weissman’s move, first reported by Betabeat, is yet another interesting development for Union Square, which we learned yesterday was raising a fourth investment fund worth between $150 million and $200 million.
Weissman was previously in charge of Betaworks’ investment portfolio. Now the company plans to shift its focus, as … Continue Reading
Google Ventures’ Bill Maris talks teams, pitches and business plans (video)
Bill Maris, managing partner at Google Ventures, sat down with VentureBeat yesterday to discuss what Google looks for in investment opportunities.
Google Ventures is the search giant’s venture capital arm, investing in technology companies such as HomeAway, EchoEcho, RelayRides, HubSpot, and WhaleShark Media.
According to Maris, who the founders are is more important than the business plan or the product. Google Ventures is drawn toward engineer types, people who are “earnest in their presentation and … Continue Reading
Vinod Khosla thrashes deal-focused venture capitalists
“I don’t like being one of the venture capitalists … everything is a deal to them.”
That’s what storied investor Vinod Khosla said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 on Tuesday. He is considered a venture capitalist by most as he has invested in companies like GroupMe and Jawbone, but he’ll deny that any day of the week, he said.
“I am a venture assistant. I want to help out entrepreneurs with what they actually … Continue Reading
Vinod Khosla joins Square's board of directors
Mobile payments startup Square on Tuesday said it had added well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla to its board of directors.
Khosla runs Khosla Ventures, which invested in Square in the past and recently sought to raise an additional $1 billion in funding.
Square is headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and now has a reported valuation of $1 billion. Khosla will add his fundraising and business experience to Square’s already buzzing service.
“Square is thrilled … Continue Reading
The credit crunch could help venture capitalists
Mobile payments startup Square on Tuesday said it had added well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla to its board of directors.
Khosla runs Khosla Ventures, which invested in Square in the past and recently sought to raise an additional $1 billion in funding.
Square is headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and now has a reported valuation of $1 billion. Khosla will add his fundraising and business experience to Square’s already buzzing service.
“Square is thrilled … Continue Reading
