TechCrunch is now reporting that Groupon is on the verge of closing a $130 million Series C round at a stunning $1.35 billion valuation. According to TC’s source, Digital Sky Technologies, the same Russian holding company that’s become a major stakeholder in Facebook, is leading the round with participation from Battery Ventures and, presumably, Accel Partners, which led the company’s $30 million Series B just five months ago. The best part about this story? According to TC, Groupon isn’t raising the money for operations because it’s right now making money “hand over fist.” Instead, Groupon is taking the money to cash out insiders. If we were talking about twentysomethings without enough capital to buy themselves penthouse apartments, I could understand their rationale. But Groupon’s insiders are fabulously wealthy.
2 min read · 15 April 2010
Jim Rose has some stories to share. Like a lot of ambitious young people, the now 36-year-old Wisconsin native moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 to make his fortune. Indeed, he quickly co-founded Mobshop, one of the first online startups to let consumers pool their buying power in exchange for discounted goods. The company raised more than $50 million from the likes of Marc Andreessen and Mayfield Fund before shutting down in the wake of the dot.com explosion. The experience of going “up with the bubble and down with the crash” wasn’t an easy one for Rose, but it taught him lessons about pacing — and fundraising. Indeed, Rose raised just $400,000 when he next founded a vertical search site called Vamoose that was acquired by Internet Brands for a “sub $10 million” exit one year later. Today, Rose is at it again with his third startup, StorySomething, an online storytelling platform that he recently cofounded with Jonathan Ehrlich, director of consumer marking at Facebook. We talked yesterday about StorySomething, what’s happening on the fundraising front, and what — as someone well-acquainted with the group-buying model — Rose makes of Groupon’s reported new valuation of roughly $1.2 billion.
5 min read · 15 April 2010
As Twitter turns its attention toward real revenue and “official” Twitter applications, I asked Chris Sacca for some insight. Sacca is an angel investor in more than two dozen startups, including both Twitter and the URL shortener bit.ly (highlighted in a widely-read Biz Insider piece titled: "Here's Who Just Got Screwed by Twitter"). He weighed in on whether third-party Twitter developers really are cooked. What did you think of Business Insider's round-up? Is there room for small players to coexist alongside Twitter or is it now the case that if Twitter can build it, they will? Business Insider has attained a level of sensationalism that I can't take seriously as journalism any more. Just look at how many times they retweeted their own article today. The ecosystem developers have the lead right now. They have innovated faster than Twitter and they will continue to do so. They are smaller and nimbler and have the freedom to take more chances.
2 min read · 14 April 2010
TechCrunch is reporting that the group buying site Groupon, which raised a $30 million round at a $250 million valuation in December from NEA and Accel Partners and has raised $35.8 million altogether, is raising more money right now at a stunning $1.2 billion valuation. You can read the story here. In light of the news, it might be interesting to contemplate the fate of some of Groupon’s predecessors, including the once-popular group-buying site MobShop, which raised $51 million from Marc Andreessen and Mayfield Fund before going belly up in 2001. As with Groupon, analysts loved, loved, loved the idea of MobShop. As with Groupon, MobShop had plenty of competitors. Know what? They all disappeared. Maybe it was purely bad timing. Maybe it was, a little bit, the sustainability of the concept, too. You decide. Is Groupon really worth $1.2 billion or are we heading down a well-worn path?
2 min read · 13 April 2010
2 min read · 13 April 2010
2 min read · 12 April 2010
If you’re looking for a way to capitalize on the so-called demise of traditional publishing, you might want to take a look at NewsLabs. The startup graduated from Y Combinator two weeks ago and tomorrow launches an interesting new content platform for journalists. Though the company has raised just a small seed round to get it through the next six months, it will shop for a “six figure” round in June or July, says its CEO, Paul Biggar, a computer science PhD who talked with me about the company.
5 min read · 12 April 2010
6 min read · 09 April 2010
6 min read · 09 April 2010
Beet.TV, Vator.TV and TechCrunch are doing it, and now, so is Jason Calacanis: publishing online video interviews with entrepreneurs and investors. Except for my favorite online show, the very funny "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis," I'd personally prefer to read most Q&As for the sake of time. You, on the other hand, might enjoy watching Calacanis sit down with investor Mark Suster in a conversation touching on everything from Foursquare's recent acquisition rumors to the
1 min read · 08 April 2010
