Alastair Goldfisher
It’s been just five weeks to the day since Apple Inc. unveiled the iPad tablet computer, which will be released later this month. But there’s been a steady growth of demand for developers to build applications for the device (which runs on the same iPhone OS as the iPhone and the iPod touch), according to […]
“It’s not as sexy as cleantech or social networking, but it is an active space and comes and goes in cycles.”
That’s what Ray Rothrock, partner of Venrock, said to me last week about security-related investments, in advance of the week-long RSA Conference that kicks off today in San Francisco.
Rothrock knows a thing or two about security deals. Having joined Venrock in 1988, he’s participated in 14 of the firm’s 16 security deals, with his first being in CheckPoint Software more than a decade ago.
Today, at the first PaidContent conference taking place in New York, stakeholders in the content industry have gathered to debate the latest business models for digital content.
Of course, many of these new media models will get launched thanks to venture backing, so I thought I’d ask four veteran investors the question: In today's volatile media environment, which models are working, and why?
Ammar Hanafi, general partner of Alloy Ventures:
When we look back, 2009 will be seen as a watershed year for the U.S. media industry. The economic downturn created enormous pressure for traditional media models, and the increase in online audiences pushed every type of media organization to the Web. What was “new media” is now simply "the media."
Update: Story updated to reflect that Credit Suisse invested an undisclosed amount in the Chrysalix fund, which has now raised more than $100M. On Sunday night, Chrysalix Energy CEO Wal van Lierop was dining in a downtown Vancouver restaurant when Alexandre Bilodeau, a 22-year-old Montreal native and men’s moguls competitor, became the first Canadian to […]
I spent part of my day last Saturday doing something that most adults try to avoid. I hung out with some teens. Specifically, I attended the second annual Teens in Technology conference at Google’s San Francisco offices. Co-chairs Sam Levin, 48, and Daniel Brusilovsky, 17, say that more than 150 people, aged 10 to 60, […]
It’s that time of the year again, when I and 90 million or so other viewers worldwide will watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. I’m hoping for a great game. (Go Saints!) But I also will have a keen eye on the ads. This has been an annual pursuit of mine since the mid-1990s when […]
If you want to know what’s going with the promise of 4G, the next generation of mobile broadband technology, the VC to talk with is Dan Deeney. Deeney is partner and co-founder of New Venture Partners, which focuses on corporate technology spin outs. The firm—which is based in Murray Hill, N.J., but also has offices […]
Get ready, personalized shopping services are coming to an online site near you.
Earlier today, Santa Monica, Calif.-based ThisNext announced that it has acquired Stylehive, a collaborative beauty and fashion network. The company also launched Curatemedia, a corporate brand that will operate ThisNext and Stylehive.
The acquisition of San Francisco-based Stylehive, which previously had raised about $4.3 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, follows last month's purchase of StyleFeeder by Time Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
Not all the news this week has to do with that tablet thingy, the iPad. It just seems that way, as your Twitter stream is no doubt full of jokes, pics and even a bona fide CEO poem about Apple’s latest “must-have” device. However, my attention this week has zeroed in on cleantech, including this […]
With all due respect to Malcolm Gladwell, who's latest article in The New Yorker explores the nature of entrepreneurship, a lot of factors go into making a successful entrepreneur, not just the conservative vs. risk-taking approach that he contends.
In fact, I was mulling over the nature of entrepreneurship over the weekend as I reported on TopTenReviews (TTR), an Ogden, Utah-based operator of product review websites. You can read my full story about the company raising an additional $1.5 million in funding on the Reuters website.
In reporting about the work of CEO and founder Jerry Ropelato and President Stan Bassett, I heard from investors Mark Solon, managing partner of Highway 12 Ventures, and Bo Peabody, managing general partner of Village Ventures. To date, the two firms have invested $7 million in the company.