Which Venture Capitalist Is A Closet Pothead?
Justin Hartfield, the proprietor of online pot-dispensary locator WeedMaps, says a prominent VC has offered to buy the site himself — but doesn't want his employer's name aired in public.
Google Venture Fund Run by Old Pal of Cofounder's Wife
Silicon Valley is a meritocracy. Yeah, right! Take a look at who's behind Google's new $100 million venture-capital fund, and you'll see how things really work in the cradle of technology.
Twitter Now Worth $230 Million, According to Investors
No money? No problem! Twitter doesn't have any actual revenues, but venture capitalists have poured another $35 million into its coffers, valuing the text-update service for hipster oversharers at $230 million.
Facebook's Value: $3.7 Billion and Dropping
What's Facebook really worth? The fast-growing social network is adding to its 150 million users effortlessly. But revenues aren't growing as easily. And that has Mark Zuckerberg's company tied up in legal and financial knots.
Why Twitter Is the Perfect Startup
The financial world is in ashes. But that makes adorable little startup Twitter all the more precious. It is perhaps the only Internet dream left. And any economist will tell you that scarcity creates value.
Shirt-Doffing Tech Investor Loves Washington's "Cancer on Nation"
Tim Draper, the name-dropping venture capitalist who funded Hotmail and Skype, met a bunch of Washington insiders like John McCain and Vernon Jordan. He loved them all. He also thinks they're a "cancer"! Go figure.
Can Björk Save a Ruined Iceland?
Björk, the quirky Icelandic singer, is investing her very emotions in a fund for startups, in the hopes of turning her near-bankrupt country into a green paradise. Sort of!
It Costs Digg $5 Million a Year to Run the Internet
Perhaps Digg really is the future of the news business. The headline-discussion site, once an icon of the Web 2.0 movement, is losing millions of dollars a year.
Bill Joy sells $40 million condo to Hugh Jackman at half off
Dreamily inventive billionaire Bill Joy, the cofounder of Sun Microsystems, has predicted doom for the human race in the pages of
Wired. He has a new reason for pessimism: A Manhattan condo he has to Australian actor Hugh Jackman for $21 million — down from a . The five-bedroom, three-floor condominium has a view of…
Why venture capital won't save your job
Those who fund young, growing companies love to tout their industry's role in job creation. Jobs — we could use some of those now, right? But with venture-capital firms like Sequoia Capital insisting on across-the-board layoffs, it's hard to buy that argument; jobs may be created at startups quickly, but they are just…
AmEx Seeks Cash, GM's Prospects Darken
♦ American Express may be looking for as much as $3.5 billion in government assistance as the company struggles with reduced consumer spending and rising defaults. [WSJ]
♦ Hope is fading fast at GM. Shares fell to $2.92 on Tuesday, the lowest level in 65 years, and the company does not expect "to continue as a going…
Facebook CFO in two places at once
We've always been impressed by Facebook CFO Gideon Yu's ability to snooker investors around the world. The list of people he's taken for a ride include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Hong Kong telecom mogul Li Ka-Shing. Just last Friday, he
returned from a trip to Dubai, where he tried to shake loose some…
Why is VC Jeremy Levine lying for Jimmy Wales?
Money is a commodity. What venture capitalists really bank is their reputation. And Jeremy Levine of Bessemer Venture Partners has
just signaled that he's willing to cash in his reputation to protect a piddling $4 million investment. Levine is not amused by our report of how Levine got Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales…
Facebook CFO's excellent Middle East adventure
Gideon Yu is flying back from Dubai today, we hear. His coworkers at Facebook are surely anxious to know what gifts he's bringing back — and we don't mean the duty-free kind. TechCrunch
reports he was there on a fundraising mission. The Persian Gulf's sovereign wealth funds are swollen with petrodollars. But Yu's…
Startup guru Paul Graham's "greatest success" may be floundering
I've always thought Scribd, the online document-posting startup, was set up mostly so
its investors had an excuse to throw parties. They may not have that excuse much longer, if FuckedStartup's that Scribd is running out of money is accurate. At a time when any number of startups are running out of money, why fret…
Sequoia shows its favor
Venture capital is returning to an old formula: Doling out money for expansion to already-profitable businesses. That's why AdMob, a mobile-advertising startup, has
gotten $15.7 million from Sequoia Capital. Sequoia, the backer of Apple, Cisco, Yahoo, and Google, summoned portfolio-company CEOs to an emergency…
Who's shameless enough to go to The Lobby this year?
Silicon Valley venture capitalist David Hornik's invite-only dealmaking conference, The Lobby, takes place again next week at a plush resort in Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Camp Cyprus was nothing compared to this funeral pyre of cash. Who cares that twentysomethings spent their own money to vacation…
Sequoia shutters a startup
Some Valley investors succeed by spotting good ideas and nurturing them. Some succeed through utter ruthlessness. In that latter category lies Sequoia Capital, the investor behind Apple, Cisco, Yahoo, and Google. Skyrider, a file-sharing startup which had raised $25 million or more in venture capital, has
shut down,…
Tesla trying to raise $100 million?
Of troubled electric-car maker Tesla Motors, the shining light of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-transporation industry, commenter quistrl
writes: First we've heard. Anyone else know if Goldman is out peddling a stake in the company? If true, it must take guts on the parts of Goldman's bankers; as trendy as cleantech…
Sequoia's two-faced fundraising
Remember Sequoia Capital, the once-boisterous Google backer which has
turned gloomy of late? It turns out that Sequoia's wasn't meant for everyone. In September, Sequoia raised $1.7 billion in two new funds from its limited partners, including the $929.5 million U.S. Growth Fund. It alone accounted for 11 percent of…
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