Private Equity
Earlier this week, former VC Bill Stensrud published a piece at his blog about why venture capital as we know it is doomed. His argument has nothing to do with “the economy of other transitory exogenous factors” to which other doomsayers often point. Stensrud says the problem is much more fundamental. Specifically, he argues that that last truly life-changing innovation was the invention of the transistor in the 1950s (it was “the meteor hitting the earth”), and that pretty much everything else that has followed since -- the integrated circuit, the PC, wireless telephony and the Internet -- have been opportunities born of that invention. Big deal, right? Except Stensrud believes major innovation happens not in gradual, continuous streams but in rapid periods followed by long, stagnant periods -- and that we saw the end of a 50-year-period of “rapid” innovation in 2000. Because it’s an extreme view, and because Stensrud is no longer in the industry (the La Jolla, Calif., firm where he spent 10 years, Enterprise Partners, raised its last fund in 2001), I asked Stensrud to elucidate. The conversation was more interesting than I’d expected.
5 min read · 10 January 2009
Does anyone else think this upcoming course at the New York Academy of Sciences should be renamed?
1 min read · 09 January 2009
1 min read · 09 January 2009
1 min read · 08 January 2009
2 min read · 08 January 2009
4 min read · 07 January 2009
4 min read · 07 January 2009
1 min read · 06 January 2009
Rich media syndication startup Pictela launches in the next few weeks, and apparently it's compelling enough to lure Dave Morgan as a public supporter and investor. Those familiar with the ad industry will know that Morgan founded both ‘90s ad startup Real Media and behavioral targeting ad network TACODA, which was arguably the best behavioral targeting startup in the space before it was acquired in 2007 by America Online for an undisclosed amount. (Tacoda, founded in 2001, had raised $32 million, including from Union Square Ventures and Rho Ventures. Real Media, founded in 1995, raised $30 million and was sold after the bubble burst for $30 million.) Pictela isn’t responding to interview requests. La Jolla-based Avalon Ventures, which seeded the company along with Morgan (an SEC filing suggests it has raised $1.25 million), isn’t talking, either.
1 min read · 05 January 2009
2 min read · 05 January 2009
