Private Equity
4 min read · 09 October 2008
Talk about an October surprise. Two executives of Seattle-based software startup Entellium have been arrested and charged with having cooked the books in an effort to attract, and to keep attracting, venture capital funding. Entellium’s former CEO, Paul Johnston, and its former CFO, Parrish Jones, appeared in U.S. District Court in Seattle late today, where neither entered a plea. Johnston is being held at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center because he’s a citizen of the U.K. and considered a flight risk, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. Jones was released on bond after putting up his Seattle condominium as collateral. Late late month, an HR employee of Seattle-based Entellium -- which sells online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software -- discovered financial information in the desk of a former sales VP that suggested Entellium's revenues were repeatedly misrepresented
2 min read · 09 October 2008
You'd be crazy to call Esther Dyson a space cadet, right? Dyson’s cred as technology prognosticator and influencer is about as solid as it gets, thanks to a decades-long career as a prolific angel investor, writer, and until 2006, organizer of PC Forum, the gold standard in tech conferences for more than 20 years. Yet a space cadet Dyson will be if certain stars align. The space enthusiast is spending the next six months in a $3 million cosmonaut training program at a center near Moscow, where she is being instructed as back-up for billionaire Charles Simonyi.
2 min read · 08 October 2008
1 min read · 08 October 2008
Not many people choose to leave the comfy confines of venture capital. After five years as a principal at Columbia Capital in Alexandria, Va., Roland Reynolds did just that.
4 min read · 07 October 2008
A couple of weeks ago, TechCrunch wrote a piece that asked whether venture firms could count on their LPs -- considering that a lot of wealthy individuals are now watching their net worth slip away like sands in an hourglass. Today I discussed that scenario with Mac Hofeditz, a partner with San Francisco-based fund placement firm Probitas Partners. We also talked about fund-raising activity, and what the credit crunch and acne have in common (he said it, not me). Read the Q&A after the jump.
4 min read · 06 October 2008
3 min read · 06 October 2008
2 min read · 03 October 2008
3 min read · 02 October 2008
"Where are these guys going to find another career that pays them nearly as much to do next to nothing? I mean, being a mediocre VC, it doesn't get any better. The funny thing is, if you tell a VC that, he laughs, thinking that you're talking about the next guy."
1 min read · 02 October 2008
