Alastair Goldfisher

Google announced Thursday night that Kai-Fu Lee, president of its Chinese operations, will leave the company later this month to launch an undisclosed project. Kai-Fu, who joined the Internet search giant in 2005 after several years at Microsoft, played a key role in overseeing Google's growth in China. Interestingly, just last week, the U.K.'s Telegraph ran this story that quoted Kai-Fu about his thoughts on mobile computing. "Yes, we can confirm he is leaving us," a Google spokesperson told Reuters, but declined to give more details. I know what Beijing-based Kai-Fu is up to and why it's of prime interest to the venture capital community. But I'll honor the embargo until Sunday when Kai-Fu has promised to reveal all.

If you’re looking for a novel way to launch your startup, Drue Kataoka and her fiancé Svetlozar Kazanjiev might have you beat. The couple are getting married Saturday, Aug. 29 in front of about 200 VCs, entrepreneurs and other expected guests at Stanford Memorial Church, and as you no doubt have read online or seen […]

How awesome is it to wrap up your Monday morning GP meeting and step outside the office and relax in front of a crazy-cool Yoda water fountain? That's what Phil Sanderson gets to do. Sanderson is managing director of IDG Ventures SF. The firm, which raised $100 million for ita new fund late last year, is located in a group of buildings called the Letterman Digital Arts Center on the Presidio. The center houses not only such firms as IDG Ventures, Founders Fund, Clarium Capital and Francisco Partners, but also Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic. Thus, the Yoda water statue, seen here with Sanderson posing alongside. My colleague Connie (who's on maternity leave; no baby yet) wrote in the current issue of Venture Capital Journal how Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif., may be the epicenter of the venture capital community, but San Francisco and its amenities is beginning to give the famed VC strip a run for its money.

I’m not accustomed to reading a press release and seeing the word “sucks,” as in “That Sucks.” But that was the case today when I was poring over an embargoed release for Rooftop Comedy, a portfolio company of Azure Capital Partners. San Francisco-based Rooftop is announcing on Monday the launch of a TV series called […]

We at peHUB central have noticed lately that some VCs have allowed cyber dust to collect on their blogs, as some have not posted their thoughts online in months. Has the bloom fell off the blogging rose? Has Twitter, and its 140 characters of brevity, replaced blogging? Definitely, the "aura is off the medium," says Gerry Langeler, managing director of OVP Venture Partners. But blogging hasn't gone the way of the rotary dial telephone just yet. Langeler and OVP began its blog in late June, featuring posts by Langeler and his fellow team members, as well as guest

Last week, a couple of readers lambasted me—well, politely lambasted—for interviewing an unproven entrepreneur. I took notice. And I want you all to know I appreciate where the criticism stems from. After all, the conventional wisdom among Silicon Valley investors is that serial entrepreneurs are more backable than fledgling company founders. Most of the VCs I hear from—not all, but most—tell me they like repeat entrepreneurs. They like it when the founder has experience in the trenches, so to speak, and has proven himself or herself in the past. If this is indeed the case, I thought it would behoove me to get the perspective of one such entrepreneur. I did. His name is Diaz Nesamoney, founder of San Mateo, Calif.-based Jivox Corp., a provider of online video advertising services. Nesamoney already has two successful ventures under his belt. In 1993, he founded Informatica Corp. (NASDAQ: INFA), which raised

There’s an old saying that the cobbler’s son has no shoes. That’s not something that can be said for Foundation Capital. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture firm this morning issued a release to announce that it was recognized as being the first venture capital firm to have offices awarded LEED Gold Certification. The LEED certification […]

Don't let Shamoon Siddiqui's Facebook profile photo fool you. He's serious about his work. These days, Siddiqui's work is as president of PriceDrip, a Monroe Township, N.J.-based operator of an online auction site. Last week, PriceDrip raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 2G Associates, an angel investment firm located in Central New Jersey. PriceDrip says it stands apart from its competitors because prices of items for sale on its website fall as opposed to rise during the auction. This is Siddiqui's second startup. He previously launched BookSwim, a provider of an online book rental service. I call Siddiqui a cereal entrepreneur in the headline above because that's part of the tagline of Bootstrapper.com, where Siddiqui blogs about being an entrepreneur.

At times, I've felt like Segway is too easy of a target to make fun of. The Bedford, N.H.-based company--makers of the $6,000, two-wheeled, battery-powered transportation device--was the butt of many of a joke on "Arrested Development." And I assume that the TV program will resurrect all the one-liners and sight gags if that show ever makes it to the big screen. I've seen Segways at airports and malls, and I've heard there' a growing network of Segway Polo-playing teams, but they're hardly taking over the world. The latest criticism of Segway comes from none other than Paul Graham, co-founder of the tech incubator Y Combinator. You can read his post here. I would have thought Graham would have too much on his plate to worry about Segway. Earlier this year, he relocated

"Two words: Radio Shack." That was the tweet from ESPN reporter Bonnie Ford, who's covering the Tour de France for the sports cable network. The tweet was in response to the speculation that has been running rampant on the Twittersphere and elsewhere over what new U.S.-based sponsor seven-time TDF champion Lance Armstrong has partnered with for 2010 and beyond. Armstrong is expected to announce the U.S. sponsor on Thursday. In the meantime, I've heard several possibilities, including Twitter (Armstrong has more than 1.5 million followers on the micro-blogging site). I even read a rumor that Amazon (and by association its newly acquired VC-backed Zappos) were gonna get the nod from Armstrong.