Mike Homer, the former Netscape executive suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, has inspired a YouTube channel for the "Defeat Dementia" campaign, an effort to educate the public about neurodegenerative diseases. Angel investor Ron Conway, Google advisor Bill Campbell, and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley organized…
Venture capitalist Tim Draper's daughter Jesse will soon launch a a new Web TV series called "Valley Girl." Watch the show's teaser, embedded here. It features awkward moments like Google CEO Eric Schmidt introducing himself as "I'm, like, Eric Schmidt" and angel investor Ron Conway doing the same. We're pleased as…
In the Valley, they call it "dropping the Ron bomb" — when prolific angel investor Ron Conway, a Midas who has touched everything from Google to StumbleUpon, showers cash on a promising startup. His latest bomb target, however, is a bit explosive himself. Ron Hornbaker is the CEO of Foomojo, a stealth startup whose…
Finally, Napster creator Shawn Fanning will make a little bank. After Napster went bankrupt and he sold Snocap to Imeem for not much at all, Fanning and cofounder Jon Baudanza have sold social network startup Rupture to Electronic Arts for $30 million. The best part: Fanning and Baudanza did it without launching a…
Former Fox Interactive exec turned venture capitalist Ross Levinsohn only needs to finish the paperwork to become the biggest name on Microsoft's list of 10 nominees to replace Yahoo's board, TechCrunch reports and BoomTown confirms. The high-profile rubber-stamping position should suit Levinsohn's ego just fine.
EQAL, the L.A. Web-video studio which first brought you Lonelygirl15's bedroom antics, today announced it's raised $5 million in funding. The moneymen backing Bree's braintrust include angel investor Ron Conway, Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, reality-TV producer Conrag Riggs, former Google exec Georges Harik, and…
It's unclear if wanterpreneurs Julia Allison, Meghan Asha and Mary Rambin will cancel their Silicon Valley tour entirely, but word is the trio has wised up to venture-capital realities. Valley angel Ron Conway, an early backer of Google and Ask.com, "has a list of 200 things he'd invest in and nowhere on there is…
"Are you a leader in Silicon Valley who has been unfairly left out of this work of art?" asks a project proposal on Strayform."Much like patronages offered by the leaders depicted in historical works, your patronage can earn you the recognition you deserve."
Jonathan Miller, the man who was ungracefully booted as AOL CEO, and Ross Levinsohn, the former Fox Interactive Media chief who was never quite as in charge of MySpace as he would have liked, will form a new group at VC firm ComVentures, SAI reports. They're callng it Velocity Interactive Group. The pair plan to…
Venture capital's ancien régime is on the verge of being overturned. We hear Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, may have cashed out — before an IPO, before a sale, and before his investors. In the company's recent financing round, insiders believe, he sold about $40 million worth of stock. A tiny portion of his
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Stanley Kirk Burrell, who sometimes goes by another name and often wears very large pants, as the video above, has teamed with Flock founders Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young to launch DanceJam, a new online video site. Burrell is perhaps best known for pairing with videoblogger Justine…
Digital media types here in New York are always looking for a reason to celebrate their own achievements. A couple of months ago, a few of them began calling themselves the Founders Club and decided to start holding mixers around town. Last night, NBC hosted the latest in the series on the set of Saturday Night Live.…
Hooman Khalili interviews Google backer Ron Conway at the recent TechCrunch40 conference. He describes the event as showcasing "40 great Silicon Valley companies," which shows he wasn't really paying attention, and doesn't say much else of interest. But his relentless monotone raises a question: How does the Valley's…
Microsoft executive Don Dodge captures a moment from the TechCrunch40 conference. Or, more specifically, after the conference, in the limo ferrying VIPs from the TechCrunch40 VIP dinner to the after party at Fluid. Pictured, from left, Mayfield Fund VC Raj Kapoor on the floor of the limo; Allen Morgan, also from…
The Valley's venture capitalists fall into and out of love with enterprise software. Today, with Facebook and other social networks the talk of the town, it's hard for the makers of boring IT products to get attention. But not, it seems, money. Splunk, in a lightning-fast fundraising effort, has pulled in $25 million…
The first rule of Valleywag: Never pitch Valleywag. But sometimes the temptation just proves too great. In response to a post about Google and Yelp's rivalry in local search, a MerchantCircle employee contacted us to tout the company's supposed leadership in the market, pitching the site for some Valleywag love. Well,…
