2 min read · 07 August 2009
5 min read · 07 August 2009
3 min read · 05 August 2009
2 min read · 05 August 2009
2 min read · 04 August 2009
Todd Park, an entrepreneur well-known to Valley VCs, is the latest appointee to the Obama administration. The 36-year-old just accepted the role of CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working under former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius. Athenahealth, an online services company that handles the administrative headaches of running a physician's office, was founded by Park and the company's current CEO, Jonathan Bush -- George W.'s first cousin -- back in 1997. It went on to raise $49.6 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Richards, Oak Investment Partners, Venrock Associates, and other firms and individuals before going public in September 2007. Park, who now needs to divest his stock position in the company, stands to make about $45 million off his shares’ sale, according to the Boston Business Journal, which reports that as of April 15, Park
1 min read · 03 August 2009
What makes Sequoia India tick? If you're interested in the answer, it so happens that the question is explored in a newly published, nearly 3,000-word article in Outlook Business magazine ("India's business magazine for decision-makers"). Though at times overly glowing, the feature offers many interesting data points. For example, it says that in the last 22 months, Sequoia has invested in 10 start-up firms from its third, $300 million, India-focused fund, making it the most active investor in the country. Perhaps more interestingly, the piece says that of the India-focused venture firms that launched alongside Sequoia India in 2000, Sequoia is the last man standing; the rest have either gone out of
2 min read · 31 July 2009
“Hey, how’s everybody doing tonight? Great, great. You, in the front row, did you hear the one about the Greek and the Italian? How about the one about the on-demand cloud call center? See, five years ago, some college buddies and I started a Voice over IP consulting company and…” If you think that comedy clubs and entrepreneurial pitches don’t mix, 40-year-old Ami Kassar is proving you wrong twice a month, in both Philadelphia and LA, where since earlier this year, his events business has been attracting enough entrepreneurs, service professionals, and investors to fill the small clubs it rents. There is no stand-up comedy involved (except in my imagination). Rather, for between 90 seconds and a few minutes, budding and established entrepreneurs take the stage during open-mike nights to share their ideas, hoping to improve on them with the audience’s participation as well, sometimes, to entice an investor seated in the crowd.
3 min read · 31 July 2009
Mike Alfred thinks Silicon Valley VCs are mostly clueless, and he plans to prove it with the help of some powerful financiers. Alfred, 28, is co-founder and chief executive of San Diego-based Brightscope, a two-year-old company focused on giving people tools to compare their company’s 401(k) plan to that of other similar companies. Brightscope -- the brainchild of Dan Weeks, a longtime Hewlett-Packard executive turned Brightscope cofounder and COO -- began its effort by using Department of Labor data to reconstruct and rate roughly 2,500 company-sponsored 401(k) plans according to 200 data inputs, including performance, plan cost, and hidden fees.
3 min read · 31 July 2009
I haven’t subscribed to Fortune for a few years, mostly because I can’t find the time to read it anymore. Still, I’ve long enjoyed the work of columnist and humor writer Stanley Bing (outed several years ago as CBS’s corporate communications head Gil Schwartz). In fact, it's because I'm a fan that I was surprised to read his blog post this morning, titled “Forget Ponzi Schemes: Try Venture Capital!”
3 min read · 28 July 2009
