How to blame VCs for the crash
"Venture Capitalists: Don't blame us" is the title of an 800-word essay at The Deal. This kind of headline always has an obvious, hidden meaning: Yes, VCs are to blame. Let's skip to the end and see how they did it:
There is no VC conspiracy, says VC Fred Wilson
"This is not some coordinated cynical attempt by VCs to talk down valuations or put entrepreneurs on the defensive. We are not spreading the contagion of gloom and doom. It's all about acting responsibly and making sure we all survive to fight another day. Because in the end, survival is what darwinian capitalism is…
Sequoia's complete gloom-and-doom presentation
Silicon Valley is obsessed with a presentation by Sequoia Capital, the backer of Google, titled "R.I.P. Good Times". The venture capital firm's partners delivered it to its portfolio companies at a special meeting, predicting a long, painful recovery and advocating immediate cost cuts. We'd gotten notes from an…
The long march
"Slash expenses, cut deep and keep marching. You can't be a general if you turn back." — Sequoia Capital partner Eric Upin at a mandatory all-CEO meeting on Thursday. For you, just remember that creep in the corner office isn't happy as your CEO. He wants to be a general.
How deep did Entellium's fraud go?
$50 million of venture capital down the drain. A fraudulent set of books, going back to 2004. How did this happen? Entellium, a Seattle-based software company, saw CEO Paul Johnston and CFO Parrish Jones resign, days before the two were charged with wire fraud. What no one has explained: How on earth were the two…
Venture capital from beyond the grave
Lehman Brothers was one of the investors who put $12 million into MyShape, an online clothing store. Lehman Brothers, the bankrupt investment bank? Yes; its VC arm, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, had committed to the investment in August, before its parent company collapsed. The venture group, which had raised $1.1…
Software startup's ex-execs charged with defrauding VCs
Here's an inventive business model: When you're not actually making money, try making it up. The former CEO and CFO of Entellium, a software startup in Seattle, have been charged with wire fraud after an employee found the company keeping a cooked set of books for its investors. Paul Johnston, the CEO, and Parrish…
Sequoia calls off the boom
The good times are over, the partners of Sequoia Capital are telling the entrepreneurs they fund. Quite literally: They sent a summons to a summit meeting with a picture of a gravestone with the writing "R.I.P. Good Times," rival venture capitalist Om Malik reports. There, partners including Michael Moritz and Doug…
The fire sales to come
Silicon Valley has its own portfolio of toxic investments that no one likes to talk about. The office parks along 101 are littered with the living dead, startups running on fumes of hope and trickles of venture capital. What their future looks like: The $5 million asset sale of Radiance Technologies, a digital-video…
Om Malik Arrington-proofs his blogs with $4.5 million funding
The founder of the GigaOm blog network isn't one of those guys who just wants to write, write, write. Om Malik, who reported on Valley VCs for Red Herring and Forbes in the '90s, is now on his second stint as a venture capitalist. His announcement this morning of a $4.5 million round of investment led by Palo…
Superinvestor Ron Conway suffers confidence crisis
Venture capitalists' "confidence" is at its lowest level since the University of San Francisco began a survey of startup investors in 2004. Sharing the pessimism, angel investor Ron Conway told Silicon Alley Insider that, given current economic conditions, wantrepreneurs should "keep their day job." If they can't find…
I knew Q4 would be tough, but this is ridiculous
"Gigya announces $11 funding round," says one of the better typos in this morning's inbox. But seriously, closing $11 million this week? I'd be excited, too.
Bezos and Benioff buy into ZocDoc
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff invested around $3 million in ZocDoc, a service for making medical appointments on the Web. Their money joins Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla's, who led ZocDoc's $3 million first round. "We're looking for wealthy individuals to invest and…
Sneaky ad startup Jellycloud deflates, taking $50 million-plus with it
The online-ad network market is clogged with startups; most are bound to fail. But no death may be greeted with more joy than Jellycloud, the latest incarnation of Gator, a startup whose software was caught spying on users. A tipster tells us Jellycloud, with 36 employees, went under this weekend, with liquidators…
Silicon Valley afraid to ask "Where's my bailout?"
The Wall Street bailout act failed to pass. One imagines the well-padded VCs of Sand Hill Road smirking: "How sad!" Congress will surely have another go, with more lobbyist-written provisions and earmarks to grease the wheels. It all seems so far away from Silicon Valley, the mostly debt-free innovation machine. But…
Reduced emissions from electric car offset by VCs' unwillingness to carpool
Of the handful of Tesla Roadster coupes on America's byways, guess where you can find two parked side by side? At the office of Tesla Motors investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson on Sand Hill Road. They even have matching paint jobs! Mock away your envy in the comments — best effort becomes the new title. Yesterday's…
Vinod Khosla explains Wall Street crisis
Confused by Wall Street? Join the club. Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist who is one of Silicon Valley's most revered brains, doesn't get what's happening, either. "If I can't understand it, I suspect a lot of people can't," he told Beet.tv's Andy Plesser in this video interview. "In the name of economic efficiency…
The fake crisis that's killing startups
Ever heard of Uber.com? Join the club. But the Los Angeles-based social networking startup now says it's a victim of "the crisis in the economy." Investors like Discovery Communications and Universal Music Group, which sunk up to $7.6 million in the social network-turned-publishing platform, want what's left of their…
Venture capitalist charged in hit-and-run
Timothy Biro, managing partner at Cleveland's Ohio Innovation Fund, is facing vehicular homicide charges after running over bicyclist Terrell Jones who later died at a Cleveland hospital Wednesday night. When police stopped Biro and informed him of the accident, Biro told officers he thought he'd hit a pothole. Biro…
Did Kevin Rose cash out?
The whispers have started: How much money did Kevin Rose make personally by selling shares in Digg's latest round of VC funding? The talk that Rose has sold shares is driven by equal parts envy and admiration. To understand the reaction, it helps to realize that the notion of an entrepreneur selling his own shares…
