Private Equity
Former Microsoft evangelist Don Dodge, who was laid off two weeks ago, had the satisfaction of announcing on the eve of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference -- one of Microsoft's most important annual events -- that he is joining Google. It sounds like he'll be doing essentially the same job at Google that he did at Microsoft -- helping developers and startups build products on top of Google, rather than Microsoft, technology. In his blog, he thanked Microsoft and then proceeded to criticize several of its products -- Outlook, Office, Windows Mobile and Internet Explorer -- as flawed. He's dropping them in favor of Google products. He also promised to write "extensively and honestly" about making the switch. Dodge's former colleagues, meanwhile, say that Microsoft is expanding its commitment to startups, despite Dodge's departure
2 min read · 18 November 2009
The New York Times has a story today on how volunteers around the world are walking their communities to improve the data that's available in online maps. The story does not mention CloudMade, a tiny startup founded in Britain and backed in Scandinavia by Sunstone Capital and Nikolaj Nyholm, an entrepreneur and angel investor who favors open source projects. CloudMade is building tools that will make it easier for non-technical people to add data to OpenStreetMap, an open-source non-profit project similar to Wikipedia. OpenStreetMap's goal is to map the world, but its tools are "geeky," says co-founder Nick Black. The 800-pound gorilla in online mapping is Google, which Black claims has been creating resentment
2 min read · 17 November 2009
Today was the deadline that Calacanis had set for various angel groups -- the Keiretsu Forum, Maverick Angels, AlwaysOn and several others -- to stop charging fees for entrepreneurs to present their startups. These groups have pretty much ignored him, so Calacanis -- who's sold two companies and is now CEO of the venture-backed startup Mahalo, as well as an angel investor himself -- says he will make good on his promise to start his own angel network, the Open Angel Forum. It will be a for-profit group with chapters planned in 20 cities, starting in the first quarter with Los Angeles (where Calacanis lives and says he plays poker with "two dozen *real* angel investors"). Details so far are scarce. Calacanis declines to say how he's going to make money.
2 min read · 17 November 2009
Here's a copy of the complaint filed last month in Kern County, California, alleging problems with the new -- and mandatory -- smart meters being installed in that part of the state. The plaintiff, Pete Flores, claims that his utility bill has tripled -- from $200 to as much as $600 a month -- since he got one of these devices, which he says were supposed to save him money. He's suing both his utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, and the installer of the meters, PG&E contractor Wellington Energy, for negligence, fraud, unjust enrichment etc. His attorney, Michael Louis Kelly, says that PG&E's suppliers might also be sued. These include General Electric and two private-equity backed companies -- Landis+Gyr, which makes the meters, and Silver Spring Networks, whose communications technology connects them. Silver Spring is advised by Al Gore
2 min read · 16 November 2009
The National Venture Capital Association and Startuphire.com have partnered to publish a list of job openings at startups and are looking for 140-character "testimonials" about what it's like to work at one. These are supposed to be positive stories, and to make sure you get that message, startup.com has posted some sample Tweets, which sound a bit like they may have been written by someone who's had too many cups of coffee -- or perhaps knows English as a second language. "You must have agility to be able to change hats mid-thought and analyze a problem in the opposite direction from someone else's shoes."
2 min read · 16 November 2009
Here's Harry Rein from Foundation Medical Partners telling Maria Bartiromo on CNBC today how innovation in the new healthcare reform bills has "hit the cutting room floor." "They're focused on access and reductions in cost...(but) you don't get to lower costs without innovation. It IS the solution," Rein said. Al Waxman of the Psilos Group has a very different view. Healthcare innovation does not always lower costs, he found -- sometimes it makes costs go up. Waxman discovered this first-hand in the 1970s, when he invented an ultrasound device that he thought would lower healthcare costs by eliminating unnecessary surgeries. But it didn't. It raised costs because doctors used the device to do unnecessary procedures to lower their chances of getting sued.
1 min read · 14 November 2009
Mayfield's David Ladd, who was on Voxeo's board when the company was struggling to survive in the wake of the dot-com bust (see my previous post), said founder and CEO Jonathan Taylor "has proven to be a true entrepreneur" and deserves all the success he gets. But Ladd also has no regrets about cutting Mayfield's losses and exiting the company when he did, five years ago. Mayfield turned over its interest to Taylor for $1, Ladd said, after investing, along with Crosspoint, around $38 million. "We could have been mean VCs -- we could have kept our ownership and said 'Too bad, good luck,'" he said.
2 min read · 14 November 2009
Voxeo issued a press release today announcing a $9 million investment by North Atlantic Capital and the Florida Growth Fund, but did not mention the $38 million it raised several years ago from Crosspoint and Mayfield. Crosspoint's Rich Shapero and Mayfield's David Ladd were on Voxeo's board -- in November of 2001 they replaced other board members from those firms and expressed their confidence in and commitment to the company. Thomson Reuters has Voxeo raising $78 million in funding between 2000 and 2002 and adds Silver Lake and Broadview Capital as investors, although Voxeo CEO Jonathan Taylor says some of that money was venture debt from Lighthouse. In any case, things did not go as planned for Voxeo,
2 min read · 13 November 2009
Even though Barris stressed that only three of the 12 investments NEA did in October were new, as opposed to follow-on rounds, he's not arguing with Larry's ranking of NEA as the most active venture capitalist in the U.S. -- at least for October. Mergers, acquisitions and IPOs are all picking up, he said, and he's predicting good times for venture capital next year. Just yesterday, NEA led a $43 million Series A round into Playdom, a social gaming company . We asked Barris to tell us more. 1. You cite new investments, more of an equilibrium in pricing, and less hesitation to make commitments in the last few weeks. Why are these changes happening? It depends on the nature of the investment. If it’s an early stage startup, I think there were a lot of entrepreneurs sitting on the sidelines waiting to get financed at a valuation they wanted. For more mature companies in need of working capital -- to the extent they could manage a delay in that -- they followed the same path as the entrepreneurs, waiting until things were better and we reached equilibrium in pricing. And I think some were out there squeezing expenses and finally got to the point where they have to have the capital.
4 min read · 13 November 2009
This is from the lawyers at Covington & Burling, who say they expect to see a final rule from the SEC restricting how investment advisers can influence contracts with public pension plans around the middle of next year. This would be just a few months before the 2010 elections, when campaigns are underway and investment advisors and their associates are already volunteering and raising money for candidates, creating all sorts of potential for conflicts of interest. "It will stir the pot," says Covington's Rob Kelner.
2 min read · 12 November 2009
