Private Equity
Or so a couple of investors predict, a prospect that no doubt thrills Limited Partners. Former venture capitalist Chris Dixon (he worked at Bessemer) argues that VCs raise bigger and bigger funds and push more and more money at startups -- for the same valuation, even when those startups don't need it -- so they can keep justifying their management fees, which Dixon points out can add up fast when you take 2 percent of a $500 million fund every year for 10 years. Dixon's latest project is Hunch, a startup he co-founded that teaches machines how to help people make decisions. It appears not to have taken venture capital. He calls for VCs to adopt performance-based compensation -- not just for their startups, but for themselves.
2 min read · 31 August 2009
Alta Partners has promoted Robert Alexander to the position of director. He joined the San Francisco-based VC firm in 2005 as a principal.
2 min read · 31 August 2009
T. Kevin DeNicola has stepped down as senior vice president and CFO of KBR (NYSE: KBR), in order to pursue "venture capital opportunities in the alternative fuels area."
1 min read · 30 August 2009
Woody Marshall, a general partner of Technology Crossover Ventures, has joined the board of TheStreet.com (Nasdaq: TSCM). TCV invested $55 million into TSCM in November 2007 – buying preferred stock that would convert into common at $14.26 per share. Fellow TCV partner Jay Hoag quietly resigned from the TSCM board earlier this year.
3 min read · 28 August 2009
Aran Ron has joined Bessemer Venture Partners as a New York-based operating partner focused on healthcare. He previously was president and COO of Group Health Inc., a PPO and HMO plan.
2 min read · 27 August 2009
Michael Buhr has joined Shasta Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence, with a focus on online discovery and mobile opportunities. He most recently served as general manager for StumbleUpon and, before that, was senior director of corporate strategy at eBay.
2 min read · 25 August 2009
Matthew Nordan has joined Venrock as a vice president. He will focus on energy, environmental and materials tech opportunities out of the firm's Cambridge, Mass. office. He is a co-founder and former president of Lux Research.
3 min read · 24 August 2009
Peter Rothstein has joined the New England Clean Energy Council as a senior vice president, where he will lead the group's clean energy innovation consortia. He previously was an executive-in-residence with Flagship Ventures.
3 min read · 24 August 2009
SVB Capital, the fund-of-funds unit of Silicon Valley Bank, last week laid off seven employees, including five investment professionals. Firm spokeswoman Carrie Merritt said, in part: “It was a case of prioritization. For example, we’re looking at a broad global program that has taken on more of an Asia-centric focus, so we had some people in London who didn’t make as much sense to have, in terms of appropriate staffing… We also were looking to centralize some things like research with the larger SVB organization, so we basically tightened up some of those.”
1 min read · 21 August 2009
Shawn Singh has joined VistaGen Therapeutics as CEO. He previously was managing principal of Cato BioVentures, a VistaGen investor.
4 min read · 21 August 2009
