Private Equity
It may not have been the best of weekends in the Del Biaggio home. Last week, onetime Sand Hill Capital GP William "Boots" Del Biaggio pled guilty to a single count of securities fraud in a federal court in San Francisco. He's now awaiting sentencing. Earlier today--talk about bittersweet--it was announced that Silicon Valley philanthropists Bill and Helen Del Biaggio, the parents of Boots, will be honored at the upcoming Valley of Heart's Delight fundraising dinner.
1 min read · 10 February 2009
Sometimes, timing is everything. Earlier today, the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group for the communications industry, presented its Winter Small Business Symposium event at Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, Calif. You can check out my earlier post about it here. Among the event’s activities was a panel of three VCs discussing the challenges of raising capital in today tough economic climate. The TIA event also included roundtable discussions on capital raising techniques and top tech trends to watch in ’09.
2 min read · 04 February 2009
Tech companies face daunting challenges in the slumping economy from tightened credit markets. So what’s a young startup to do? How about going after some of the more than $800 billion in President Obama’s stimulus package. That is at least one option that many VCs and startup entrepreneurs are wondering about, says Ajay Chopra, general partner of Trinity Ventures. Chopra spoke this morning at TIA’s Winter Small Business Symposium held at Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, Calif. Chopra was part of a panel called “Raising Capital in Tough Economic Times for Small-Mid Size Tech Businesses.” Joining him on the panel was Eric Zimits, managing director of Granite Ventures, and Michel Wendell, general partner of Nexit Ventures. The panel was moderated by Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat. Speaking on the side of the conference, Chopra said whether startups can access the stimulus package is big question that no one has the answer to right now.
2 min read · 04 February 2009
2 min read · 04 February 2009
My theory on Super Bowl ads is not that they became the event to see in the mid-1980s when Apple launched its computer with its "1984" ad. No, the ads became the thing in the '90s when the games were lousy and we watched the Buffalo Bills lose four straight and there was nothing left to talk about at the watter cooler the next day except the ads. Last decade, we also saw the rise (then the fall) of dotcom companies, which raised huge sums of capital just to launch marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, a number of the ads were sophmoric, such as Buy.com's diddy in Super Bowl XXXIII when we saw a man sniff a dog's rear. Clearlake Capital Group threw the company a bone two years ago when it bought the company for $20 million. This was after Buy.com raised about $200 million from Mobius Venture Capital and others. To be honest, I thought the company was out of business until I Googled them this morning.
2 min read · 02 February 2009
2 min read · 28 January 2009
2 min read · 21 January 2009
Just over a month ago, VC firm @Ventures published a critical report called "What's wrong with cleantech venture capital?" It touched on a number of concerns, such as how there is a lot of late stage funds going after companies with no exit opportunities on the horizon. But, to be fair, it said that the cleantech VC model isn't broken. Indeed, the bloom hasn't fallen off the cleantech rose. Last week, the Cleantech Group reported that while the overall volume of venture deals sank last year, investments in cleantech companies totalled $8.4 billion, up nearly 40% from 2007. In Q3, VCs poured $2.6 billion into cleantech, a quarterly record. In the fourth quarter, they invested $1.7 billion into the sector. I bring all of this up because yesterday I was at the VCJ Cleantech Breakfast in Menlo Park, and saw more than 120 people in attendance, eager to hear the panelists speak.
2 min read · 14 January 2009
In a tough economy, nothing is safe from the chopping block. Not even the beloved Gary Snoman. Snoman is the digital creation of Blueprint Ventures, which for the past three years has produced humorous holiday greetings featuring the frosty character. The Snoman adventures started with him as an entrepreneur, selling snowman assembly packages to the masses. He then built off of that success and became a venture capitalist, armed with a BlackBerry and a full repertoire of VC jargon. When he last made an appearance 12 months ago, Snoman had become a global jetsetter, traveling to England, India and China. He also expressed some concern over the carried interest tax. However, he should have been more concerned
2 min read · 15 December 2008
As the economy contracts and layoffs abound everywhere, the plight of one man seems hardly worth talking about. But on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against William J. "Boots" Del Biaggio III alleging that he defrauded investors, banks and private lenders out of $65 million. According to the SEC complaint, Del Biaggio fraudulently pledged securities owned by innocent customers of a San Francisco-based broker dealer as collateral for more than $45 million in personal loans. The complaint states that Del Biaggio used $25 million of the loan proceeds to purchase an interest in the Nashville Predators professional hockey team, and used the rest
1 min read · 05 December 2008
