Corporate Factors

provocative conversations with start-ups that not everyone knows about, but ideally should (!), … frank chats with smart idea backers (venture caps, angel investors and advisors) with impressive batting records who help finance and coach the start-ups, … wise wisdom from biz gurus (leaders of successful start-ups, whose bold ideas and strategic actions propelled their relentless, high performing companies forward), …and…our Rodeo Roundup video cast series rounding up the WHO and WHAT to know in the VC and start-ups sectors. We not only showcase their captivating stories, but also the challenges that occasionally pummelled them, the brutal truth about what it takes to succeed, and the HOW’s, WHY’s and “AHA!” moments that repaved their sometimes bitter, rocky roads into smoother highways. We’re action driven and scan the globe for ingenious start-ups, idea backers and biz gurus to find the next mastermind brain to pick for our interviews. And, to get you out there, VCTV invites you to send us your videos to post at VCTV for our growing network of investors and start-ups from around the globe to review. VCTV aims to be a valuable, useful, and enjoyable resource for the VC and start-up community. We hope that you come back and visit us again soon!

My name is Fred Wilson. I am a VC. I have been for 19 years. I help people start and build technology companies. I do it in NYC, which isn't the easiest place to build technology companies, but its getting better. I love my work. I am the Managing Partner of two venture capital firms, Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures. I also am a husband and a father of 3 kids. I do that in NYC too. And it isn't the easiest place to raise a family either. But it's getting better too. I love my family more than my work. I also love music, art, yoga, biking, skiing, and golf. That's a lot of interests for a guy who works 70 hours a week and loves his family. But I manage to make it work. Interests family, music, art, yoga, biking, skiing, golf, technology, venture capital, internet

I’m a venture capitalist at Venrock Associates, which I joined in 2000. Dan Grossman

After almost 20 years as a lawyer (Wilson, Sonsini et al. (www.wsgr.com) and Latham & Watkins (www.lw.com)) representing entrepreneurs, I became a general partner at Mayfield (www.mayfield.com) about eight and a half years ago. During my career as a lawyer, I probably worked on more than 700 venture capital financings, mergers & acquisitions and strategic partnering transactions. Hence, my sympathies (hard-wired into my consciousness over the years) remain fundamentally with the entrepreneur. As a venture capitalist, my interests range widely across the software landscape --- and can be discerned pretty accurately from the companies that I’ve invested in. Currently, I’m on the boards of the following Mayfield companies: -- Varsity Group (NASDAQ: VSTY) (www.varsity-group.com) -- Beatnik (www.beatnik.com) -- Electric Cloud (www.electric-cloud.com) -- Scalix (www.scalix.com) -- Pluck (www.pluck.com) -- Black Arrow (www.blackarrow.tv) -- Snap (www.snap.com) -- Tagged (www.tagged.com) -- Slide (www.slide.com) I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past couple of years in the general area that I call “social software”. Like a lot of category descriptions, it’s somewhat vague, especially around the edges, but it includes companies using online community building-and-enabling tools (e.g., PlanetOut), social networking (term I prefer is “social mapping”)(e.g., Tribe), wiki’s (JotSpot), blogs, RSS tags and feeds (Pluck). I’m intrigued by companies like topix.net (www.topix.net) that are using technology and the richness of the web (both the variety of content on the web and the increasingly dense and powerful connections among content sites) to provide highly granular context and relevance to users in an era of increasing information overload. I love what Dan Gillmor’s working on in his new gig. I’m a big fan of EFF. I’m a big fan of Brewster Kahle and what he’s doing at the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). I think that Eric Stallman’s aphorism in “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”: “…With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow…” is an interesting insight into a lot of different business ideas on the web, especially if interpreted metaphorically. With the web, it’s possible to engage lots of people dispersed over wide geographical areas to cooperate on a common project. Check out sourceforge, obviously, for lots of examples in the software development space, but check out OhMyNews (http://english.ohmynews.com/) as an example in an entirely different space: news gathering and delivery. I’m also intrigued also by the promise of the effects that technology will have on the future of advertising, both on the web (e.g., Revenue Science, a Mayfield company for which I’m the back-up partner and quite involved) and on TV (e.g., Black Arrow). Reading interests away from work include economics, philosophy, history (of all kinds), biography, popular science. I’m happily married (since 1981) and have two teen-age kids (always good for keeping one’s perspective on things). I’m more excited about the next 10 years in the technology world than I was about the last 10 years.

east coast venture capitalist investing in software, Internet, and digital media companies Ed Sim is a founding member and Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures which was established in 1998. With $290mm under management, Dawntreader Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm collaborating with entrepreneurs to build the next generation of software, Internet, and digital media companies. Ed's private equity career began in 1996 with Prospect Street Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm, where he worked on software and technology investments like 24/7 Real Media (Nasdaq: TFSM). Prior to joining Prospect Street, Ed worked with J.P. Morgan's Structured Derivatives Group on the development of a real-time trading application for global asset allocation. Ed graduated from Harvard College with a degree in economics and holds the CFA designation. Ed currently serves as a director of Sipphone/Gizmo Project, Deepnines Technologies, Greenplum, netForensics, and Answers Corporation (Nasdaq: ANSW). Ed is a former director of Moreover Technologies (acquired by Verisign, Nasdaq: VRSN). Expertcity/GoToMyPC (acquired by Citrix, Nasdaq: CTXS), LivePerson (Nasdaq: LPSN) and Flashbase (acquired by Doubleclick, Nasdaq: DCLK).

Bill Gurley joined Benchmark Capital in 1999 after spending two years as a partner with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Before entering the venture capital business, Bill spent four years on Wall Street as a top-ranked research analyst, including three years at CS First Boston focusing on the personal computer hardware and software business. His research coverage included such companies as Dell, Compaq, and Microsoft, and he was the lead analyst on the Amazon IPO. In both 1995 and 1996, Bill was a member of the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team. Prior to his investment career, Bill was a design engineer at Compaq Computer, where he worked on products such as the 486/50 and Compaq's initial multi-processor server. Before Compaq, he served in the technical marketing group of Advanced Micro Devices' embedded processor division. For the past seven years, Bill has authored the Above the Crowd newsletter which focuses on the evolution and economics of high technology businesses. Investments: Avamar Technologies, Business.com, Crossgain (acquired by BEA Systems), JAMDAT (JMDT, acquired by Electronic Arts), Linden Lab, OpenTable, Nanosolar, Nordstrom.com (acquired by Nordstrom), Shopping.com (SHOP, acquired by eBay), Tropos Networks and Zillow.com. Other Affiliations: Advisory board of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. Education: MBA from the University of Texas, 1993 and a BS in computer science from the University of Florida, 1989. Chartered Financial Analyst.

An entrepreneurship blog.

Since the beginning of Q4 2006 I have been running a hedge fund called Inductive Capital that is focused on leveraging private market insights to improve public portfolio management. Prior to Inductive, I was a venture capitalist with a focus on Infrastructure Software investments. Some of my VC investments include: Cyanea (sold to IBM), Datapower (sold to IBM), Dovebid (sold to Go Industry), LRN, Maaya (sold to Gold Systems), Stratify (sold to Iron Mountain) and United Devices (sold to Univa). Before my VC days, I was an investment analyst on Wall Street. I started out at Piper Jaffray and from there went to Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and finally to Credit Suisse First Boston. On the street I covered the E-Commerce Infrastructure space as well as Online Trading. I got started out in business at Booz Allen in NYC.

Investor, entrepreneur, and kitchen goddess. Christine Herron is a venture advisor for First Round Capital and an independent startup consultant. Previously, Christine was a director at Omidyar Network, where she invested in social media. Prior to Omidyar Network, Christine held operational roles with Mission Research, NetObjects, and Microsoft, and co-founded both Cycle Partners and Mercury2. Christine started as an investor with Geocapital Partners, where she funded early Internet and network infrastructure businesses such as Netcom and AXON Networks. Her current advisory board participation includes Mission Research, Nickel Tour Productions, and Six Apart's Typepad Consumer Advisory Board. Christine was ranked among the Top 20 Women in Technology in 2000 by AltaVista and holds degrees from Stanford University and Columbia University. With Full Detail: Christine Herron has spent her career finding new applications for infrastructure technologies. As a venture advisor for First Round Capital and an independent startup consultant, she seeks new and innovative information technologies. As a past director at Omidyar Network, Christine made investments supporting social media. Prior to Omidyar Network, Christine was the VP of Marketing for Mission Research, which develops software for emerging nonprofits. As a principal with Cycle Partners, she conducted strategy, marketing, and research projects for technology vendors and social community groups. Christine was the founder of Mercury2, an international trade policy software vendor, and has managed Internet products and strategy for both NetObjects and Microsoft. She started as an investor with Geocapital Partners, where she focused on early Internet infrastructure and network management software. Her portfolio included Netcom Online Communications, AXON Networks, D-Vision Systems, ViaGrafix, and FocusVision. In each case, Geocapital was the initial professional investor and helped to bring the company to a dominant market position. Christine's current advisory board participation includes Mission Research, Nickel Tour Productions, and Six Apart's Typepad Consumer Advisory Board. Christine was ranked one of the Top 20 Women in Technology in 2000 by AltaVista and holds both an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in English from Columbia University.

Peter Rip, General Partner, Crosslink Capital

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital. Brad currently serves on the board of directors of Gnip, Oblong, and Zynga Game Network for Foundry Group. Previously, Brad served as chief technology officer of AmeriData Technologies. AmeriData acquired Feld Technologies, a firm he founded in 1987 that specialized in custom software applications. Brad had grown Feld Technologies into one of Boston's leading software consulting firms prior to the acquisition. He also directed the diversification into software consulting at AmeriData, a $1.5 billion publicly-traded company which was acquired by GE Capital in 1995. In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and co-chairman of the Colorado Governor's Innovation Council. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes widely read and well respected blogs at www.feld.com and www.askthevc.com. Notable companies that Brad has invested in and/or sat on the boards of include Abuzz (acq. NYT), Anyday.com (acq. PALM), Critical Path (CPTH), Cyanea (acq. IBM), Dante Group (acq. WEBM), DataPower (acq. IBM), FeedBurner (acq. by GOOG), Feld Group (acq. by EDS), Harmonix (acq. VIA), NetGenesis (IPO), ServiceMagic (acq. IACI), and ServiceMetrics (acq. EXDS). Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed ten marathons as part of his mission to run a marathon in each of the 50 states.

The ignition geeks

Giga Omni Media’s network of sites provide one of the leading daily online news reads for the key influencers in the emerging technology market place. We deliver technology news, analysis and opinions on topics ranging from broadband and online games to Web 2.0. Founded in 2006, we now serve a monthly global audience of 1.5 million consumers and professionals interested in the latest news in the world of high-tech. Built by experienced journalists, the GigaOM team spots the trends and applies a professional journalistic perspective to provide the reader with a definite point of view. GigaOM reports the news and makes the audience smarter through informed analysis. Our unique combination of in-depth reporting, editorial articles, opinion polls, and market metrics help us to highlight the most interesting startups, trends, products, and people in technology. GigaOM fosters a community with its readers and engages with them in a dialogue about where technology is heading both online and in person at its insider events. Giga Omni Media’s network of sites have received multiple accolades: * CNET: 100 Most Influential Blogs * Business Week: Best of the Web for Tech News in 2006 and 2007 * PC Magazine: 100 Favorite Blogs * Technorati: Top 50 Blogs * Hitwise: Top 100 IT News Sites * Forbes: The Web Celeb 25 Founder & Senior Writer Om Malik, Founder and Senior Writer. Before launching his own publishing venture, Om was a senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine covering telecom and broadband

The title of this blog came from my one month old son. Newborns can’t see well and have limited ability to process information. They focus on a few key features that matter for their survival, e.g., the eyes and hairline of their parents, and ignore all else. Extracting patterns and insights from floods of data, honing in on key information and ignoring noise are fundamental skills in the post-broadband era. Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists all seek high contrast to drive decisions & actions. My name is Simeon Simeonov. I’m a technologist turned entrepreneur turned VC. It’s been a winding road from Bulgaria, where I was born under communism, to serving Adam Smith’s invisible hand with my partners at Polaris Venture Partners.

Thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm that manages over $2 billion of capital commitments. We closed Lightspeed VIII, an $800 million fund, in early 2008. Over the past two decades, our investment professionals have backed more than 150 companies, many of which have gone on to become leaders in their respective industries. Our team invests in the U.S. and internationally, with investment professionals and advisors located in Silicon Valley, China, India, and Israel. We are proud to have partnered with many exceptional management teams. Our investment professionals have contributed domain expertise and operational experience to help build high-growth, market-leading companies such as Blue Nile (NILE), Brocade (BRCD), Calista (acquired by MSFT), Ciena (CIEN), DoubleClick (DCLK), eHealth (EHTH), Galileo Technology (acquired by MRVL), Growth Networks (acquired by CSCO), Informatica (INFA), Kiva Software (acquired by AOL), Lightlogic (acquired by INTC), Maker Communications (acquired by CNXT), Metasolv (acquired by ORCL), Openwave (OPWV), Quantum Effect Devices (acquired by PMCS), Sirocco (acquired by SCMR), and Waveset (acquired by SUNW). Some of our recent exits include the top-performing tech IPO of 2006, Riverbed Technology (RVBD), and the top enterprise software acquisition of 2006, Virsa Systems (acquired by SAP). While the majority of our portfolio companies are U.S.-based, the Lightspeed team has invested internationally for over ten years in companies such as 99Bill, AMEC, Galileo Technology, Optier, ScaleMP and TutorVista. The firm has also launched the Lightspeed-Gemini Internet Lab, a joint initiative with Gemini Israel Funds to seed Israel-based Internet companies.

Longworth Venture Partners is a Boston-based venture firm investing in early-stage software, internet, and media companies.

Steve Hall's "notes to self" and anyone else who happens to read this page....I'm spending most of my time at present looking for early stage companies focused on innovation around whichever one of the following buzz words you prefer: Web 2.0, data intelligence, intelligent Web, next-gen Internet, the post-Google world of automated knowledge discovery, semantic Web, communal knowledge compilation, smarter collaboration, intelligent data aggregation and predictive agents. I'm also quite interested in embedded networks, wireless sensors, dsitributed data collection, alternative energy and the emergence of the "home data center". I live on Bainbridge Island with my wife and two daughters (4 and 1) and have the privilege of taking a ferry to work. Legal Disclaimer: Comments on this site are reflections of my own personal perspectives and are in no way affiliated with or attributed to my venture firm or related personnel. Interests Emerging companies that will change the world.

Jeremy is a Partner with Bessemer Venture Partners. He focuses primarily on software and Internet investments. Prior to joining BVP in 2001, Jeremy was Vice President of Operations at Dash, an Internet software publisher. Jeremy joined Dash from AEA Investors, a private equity firm with an expertise in leveraged and management buyouts, where he specialized in consumer products and light industrials in the U.S. and in Europe. Earlier, he was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, helping Fortune 500 financial services and consumer products companies address challenges in strategy and technology. Jeremy graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics.

At O'Reilly, a big part of our business is paying attention to what's new and interesting in the world of technology. We have a pretty good record at having anticipated some of the big technology developments in recent history. For instance, we launched the first commercial Web site, GNN, in 1993; we organized the meeting at which the term "open source" was first adopted; we were early investors in Blogger, which helped launch the blogging revolution; and more recently, our Web 2.0 conference launched a world-wide meme. We call this predictive sense the "O'Reilly Radar." And while we're certainly not always right, we are, at least, good at making interesting guesses. Our methodology is simple: we draw from the wisdom of the alpha geeks in our midst, paying attention to what's interesting to them, amplifying these weak signals, and seeing where they fit into the innovation ecology. Add to that the original research conducted by our Research team, and you start to get a good picture of what the technology world is thinking about. What books are people just now starting to buy, and which are falling off in interest? Which tech-related Google AdWords are rising or falling in price? What can we learn from predictive markets tracking tech trends? What do help-wanted ads tell us about technology adoption?

Pascal Levensohn is the founder of Levensohn Venture Partners. A professional equity investor since 1983, he has worked actively with portfolio company management teams since 1990. Outside of blogging, Pascal has published numerous articles on trends in venture capital, with a particular emphasis on best governance practices in the boardroom. Directors and Boards magazine has published four of his articles since 1999, most recently featuring Pascal's third collaborative VC industry white paper "A Simple Guide to the Basic Responsibilities of VC-Backed Company Directors" in the Spring 2007 issue. In addition to receiving international attention from the media and the venture industry, these white papers are part of the governance curriculum at several U.S. business schools, including the Harvard Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Engineering, and the Center for Venture Education's Kauffmann Fellows Program. Pascal received a BA in Government from Harvard University. Pascal is a former Vice President of Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, where he served as a director for six years, and a former director of the American Friends of Hand in Hand: Center for Bilingual Arab-Jewish Education in Israel. Pascal was elected to the board of the National Venture Capital Association in April 2007, where he serves on the NVCA's education committee. He is currently the Chairman of the Business Leadership Council of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Socrates Society Advisory Board, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Kedrosky is an investor and entrepreneur. He is a sought-after speaker; an analyst for CNBC television; the editor of Infectious Greed (at http://paul.kedrosky.com. ), one of the best known business blogs on the Internet; and he is frequently quoted in major publications around the world.

Social Media is Driving Brand Engagement. Are you participating? With today’s fragmented media and marketing landscape, audiences are spending more time reading vertical-interest blogs, interacting on Facebook, attending live and virtual events, posting their photos on Flickr and sharing their favorite online videos. Everyone is discovering and listening to each other – across all types of platforms and media. Are you listening? Are you involved? Social Media Social media is more than just a buzzword – it’s a set of tools that allows marketers to participate in the flow of ideas and conversations that are taking place online in forums ranging from networking sites and blogs to video and photo-sharing sites and even “old media” landmarks like newspapers and TV networks. And because social media is interactive, it’s about more than just creating great content — it’s also about listening to what people are saying, and sometimes what they aren’t saying. It offers an exciting twist on conventional media messaging. Brand Engagement Brands that strategically integrate social media with their traditional marketing efforts will build better relationships, gain more influence with their customers, and learn more about their target markets.

Redeye VC is written by Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital. Despite being coastally challenged (Josh lives in Philadelphia), Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Josh founded Half.com in July of 1999, and led it to become one of the largest sellers of used books, movies and music in the world. Half.com was acquired by eBay in July 2000 -- and Josh remained with eBay for three years, running the Half.com business unit and growing eBay’s Media marketplace to almost half a billion dollars in annual gross merchandise sales. In late 2003 Josh helped to found TurnTide, an anti-spam company that created the world's first anti-spam router. TurnTide was acquired by Symantec just six months later. In addition to being an active angel investor, Josh has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Comcast Interactive Capital - a $350 million venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Corporation. Josh is an inventor on five U.S. Patents for his work in Internet technology. In June 2000, he was awarded Ernst and Young’s prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for the Greater Philadelphia region. Josh has also been recognized as one of the “10 Most Influential People in Philadelphia Technology” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the “76 Smartest Philadelphians” by Philadelphia Magazine and as one of forty individuals under the age of forty who have made the biggest impact on the Philadelphia region by the Philadelphia Business Journal. Josh is often quoted in industry trade journals and national newspapers, has appeared on numerous national television shows, and is a frequent speaker at industry-wide conferences on entrepreneurship, Internet marketing and the future of Internet services. In 2001 Josh and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on angel philanthropy to provide “start-up” grants to social entrepreneurs. Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Markets, Technology & Musings