You know things are slow when Forbes’ editors take the time to discern what the world’s 657 self-made billionaires have in common, but I’m glad they did. In the mag’s just-published findings, they’ve found a number of shared attributes among the supremely wealthy (extravagant toys notwithstanding). 1.) Math. The magazine says a “significant” percentage of billionaires were born to parents who were themselves proficient in math, as evidenced by their own professions, including accounting and engineering. 2.) More American billionaires were born in fall than in any other season.
1 min read · 02 April 2009
3 min read · 02 April 2009
2 min read · 01 April 2009
Individual angels have cut back on their support for startups, but not by nearly as much as one might expect. According to a new study published by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, although total angel dollars dropped by 26.2 percent last year over 2007 -- investment fell from $26 billion to $19.2 billion -- the 55,480 deals done in 2008 fell just slightly from the 57,120 companies that received angel funding in 2007. That's just two percent. As interesting, the number of active angels in 2008 didn’t change much, either. The University estimates that 260,500 wealthy individuals helped fund companies last year, up slightly from 2007's 258,200 individuals.
1 min read · 31 March 2009
PaidContent.org has just put together a list of 17 digital media CEOs and how they fared financially last year. Unsurprisingly, many lost billions; others lost tens of millions. In fact, just one of the CEOs on the list, Reed Hastings of Netflix, managed to actually make money. A snapshot of the bloodbath after the jump:
1 min read · 31 March 2009
Three growth equity partners from Bellevue-based VC firm Ignition Partners have packed up their offices, renamed themselves Ignition Capital and moved to a new home in downtown Seattle. Back in late 2007, Ignition raised two separate funds, a $400 million vehicle for early-stage investments (Ignition Ventures IV), and a $275 million fund for later-stage stage companies looking to scale faster (Ignition Growth Capital Fund). At the time, Ignition said it planned to make about 30 investments from the early-stage fund and eight to 10 investments from the growth fund, focusing on telecom, software and services. The growth fund had a global mandate, while the early-stage activities focused, sometimes to the firm's detriment, on the Pacific Northwest.
2 min read · 30 March 2009
Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was filed $25,000 over the weekend for “tweeting” his thoughts about the elbow that Denver Nuggets player J.R. Smith threw at the Maverick’s Antoine Wright. Cuban appears to have kept his sense of humor about the fine, though it strikes me as ludicrous, given the relatively innocuous nature of his comments (and frankly, footage that suggests that he was right).
1 min read · 30 March 2009
Paul Johnston and Parrish Jones, the former CEO and CFO of venture-backed SaaS company Entellium, received their sentencing on Friday for wire fraud. According to TechFlash, the two men choked back tears, as a Seattle judge imposed jail time and other penalties. A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office is after the jump, while you can go here to read some of our past coverage.
3 min read · 30 March 2009
As everyone in the industry now knows, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposed yesterday that many hedge funds, private equity firms and venture capital firms be required to register with the SEC. The proposal was lacking in any true details, but VCs and the NVCA are already up in arms, fearful that the Treasury Department will embrace some, if not all, of the suggestions outlined in a January bill introduced by Senators Charles Grassley and Carl Levin -- legislation that could subject private fund managers to additional SEC oversight as well as additional compliance and disclosure regulations under the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act. To get a better handle on what the Valley is doing to prepare itself for the additional regulations it may be facing, I chatted with Jonathan Axelrad, a renowned attorney who helps form venture funds, as well as sorts out their internal affairs, from the Menlo Park office of the law firm Goodwin Proctor.
4 min read · 28 March 2009
If you've recently been visiting coupon sites for the first time, you aren’t alone. Owing to factors like the lousy economy and privacy concerns, online coupon destinations are now the second-fastest-growing content sites behind job sites, according to the marketing research company comScore. In fact, the number of visitors to coupon sites is up 41% over this time last year. Venture capitalists have noticed. Joshua Goldman, a general partner at Norwest Venture Partners, has been wrestling for months with whether, and how, Norwest can capitalize on the trend. So has renowned angel investor Ron Conway, who said in an email earlier today that he’s been looking at an array of coupon sites with Baseline Ventures, the early-stage, San Francisco-based venture firm. Meanwhile, at last week’s “demo day” at Y Combinator, a Mountain View-based company that incubates startups, the rustling of paper was audible during the presentation of petaSales, a startup whose coupon site works with smaller retailers. The VC-packed audience was taking notes. To find out more about who the players are in the coupon space, and where the opportunities may be, I spoke at length with Norwest’s Goldman, an e-commerce expert who was the CEO of comparison shopping site MySimon when it sold to CNet in 2000 for $700 million. Q&A is after the jump.
5 min read · 27 March 2009
