Private Equity
2 min read · 23 September 2009
2 min read · 21 September 2009
6 min read · 21 September 2009
1 min read · 21 September 2009
I had the pleasure of moderating the venture capital panel at GigaOm's Mobilize '09 conference yesterday. While investment in the mobile sector is down substantially, particularly for brand new startups, the five panelists are actively looking for deals and are optimistic that deal making will pick up next year. I think it was telling that after the discussion, Dixon Doll, a co-founder and general partner of DCM, who was one of the panelists, approached another panelist (who shall remain nameless) and expressed genuine interest in learning more about a new deal that the panelist was working on. More thoughts and video after the jump...
1 min read · 11 September 2009
Bain Capital has begun executing on a relatively new strategy in China of investing in companies serving the country's rapidly expanding middle class.
6 min read · 07 September 2009
By most measures, the mobile space is exploding. So why is venture investment in the sector down? That’s the principal question I’ll be asking when I moderate a venture panel at GigaOm’s Mobilize ‘09 conference on Sept. 10. U.S. VCs put just over $2 billion into 204 mobile companies last year, down from $2.5 billion invested in 237 such companies in 2007 and $3.3 billion invested in 252 such companies in 2006, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). This year is looking even worse, with just $1 billion invested in 66 mobile companies as of the end of August, according to preliminary data.
2 min read · 03 September 2009
News briefs about LPs New York Common and Pathway Capital
3 min read · 31 August 2009
Randy Komisar, who wrote the bestseller “The Monk and the Riddle,” will be back in bookstores in September with “Getting to Plan B.” A partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers since 2005, Komisar co-authored the book with London Business School Prof. John Mullins. The basic premise is that most entrepreneurs find success not by clinging to their original business plans, but by tweaking them, or even overhauling them, based on feedback from the marketplace. Don’t buy it? Well, consider this: When Komisar asked the CEOs at a KP offsite last year how many of them had discarded their original ideas for a Plan B, two-thirds of them raised their hands. And Mullins studied 70 businesses that his students had created over five years and found that more than 60% of the 63 companies that were still active were pursuing different strategies than the students started out with.
3 min read · 26 August 2009
If you’re looking for an easy-to-understand explanation for the problems facing the VC business, check out Bill Gurley’s essay: “What Is Really Happening to the Venture Capital Industry?” It does an exceptional job of explaining in plain language why the venture industry is shrinking. You can argue with Bill’s analysis, of course, but you can’t argue with the facts that he’s laid out. Definitely worth reading, especially on a slow summer day. Check it out here.
1 min read · 25 August 2009
