Private Equity
Alan Crane has been named a general partner with Polaris Venture Partners. He has been a venture partner with the firm since 2002, during which time he has served as CEO of both Cerulean Pharmaceuticals and Momenta Pharmaceuticals.
2 min read · 14 May 2009
1 min read · 13 May 2009
David Danielson is leaving venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners, in order to join the U.S. Department of Energy, peHUB has learned. Danielson will move to Washington DC to become part of the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), a program created by Congress in 2007 to support transformational energy research projects. Kind of like what DARPA does for the Department of Defense, but with a much larger and more collaborative "client" base. Only problem -- and it's a big one -- is that Congress' mandate wasn't coupled with any actual funding. In fact, the Bush Administration didn't even have DOE set up an ARPA-E office. That has finally begun to change under the Obama Administration, with $400 million allocated to ARPA-E as part of the economic stimulus package. Not terribly surprising, given that the program's original architect was new DOE Secretary Steven Chu.
2 min read · 11 May 2009
Software whiz Peter Norton is now trying to sell two lavish pads in Manhattan, but he's not having much luck. Norton, creator of Norton Utilities, this week lowered the price of his 4,415 square-foot, 4-bedroom, 6.5-marble-bath condo, on the 45th floor of the Trump International on New York’s Upper West Side. The price is now $17.9 million after being listed for $16.25 million back in January. What? Too small for you? Norton and his downstairs neighbor -- mogul Richard Ullman, who’s been trying to sell his own 4,415-square-foot condo for $18.5 million -- will also sell you their condos as a would-be duplex if you don’t mind coughing up $34.7 million first. Okay, and $277,068 per year in monthly maintenance charges. But think of all
2 min read · 08 May 2009
John Brooks, a co-founder of Prism VentureWorks, has joined life sciences I-bank Johnston Blakely & Co. as a senior advisor.
2 min read · 05 May 2009
Omidyar Network, the philanthropic venture capital firm formed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has laid off several staffers, including members of its investment team. In an email to friends and colleagues, one investor wrote: "The organization has gone through some restructuring to better reflect current market conditions and support its evolving investment model. Several positions have been eliminated, including my own." I've left a message for Omidyar Network's spokeswoman, in order to get more details. Specifically, I'm interested in how the group views the "current market conditions," given that it hired six new staffers just seven months ago.
1 min read · 04 May 2009
Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes recently joined VC firm General Catalyst Partners as an entrepreneur-in-residence, and today tells Xconomy a little more about what that one-week-a-month role entails. Interestingly, it's not just about what Hughes calls "typical EIR stuff, talking to a lot of smart people, asking questions, assimilating their ideas, learning, and so forth." He's also being sent to top colleges around the country to press the flesh -- and gather intel for General Catalyst. So far, Hughes has visited Columbia, Yale, and MIT in search of what he describes as “personal interactions with smart students who have good ideas.”
1 min read · 04 May 2009
Thomas Klein has joined the Silicon Valley office of law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, as a shareholder in the law firm's corporate and securities practice. He will focus on startup and VC transactions, M&A and public company representation. Klein previously was with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
3 min read · 04 May 2009
Last month, when Brad Feld, managing director and co-founder of the the Foundry Group said he was going to cook and serve fries at the Spud Bros eatery in Boulder, Colo., I asked if he was kidding. He said it was definitely NOT a joke. Sure enough, Feld worked behind the counter of Spud Bros, which claims to make "Quite Possibly the World's Greatest French Fries," and served up tasty potatoes for two hours. Having Feld as a guest chef raised $500 for a local nonprofit called the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. This weekend, Spud Bros (with the help of the marketing agency Metzger Associates) posted a video of Feld's culinary techniques. You can see it after the jump, including a reference to Twitter that would make Feld's VC pal Fred Wilson grin.
1 min read · 03 May 2009
4 min read · 01 May 2009
