Alastair Goldfisher

What is it about politics and VCs? Another VC has come out and said he is exploring a political run. The Detroit Free Press has the in-depth story. Rick Snyder, founder and CEO of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based investment firm Ardesta (which seems to focus on seed stage deals in MEMS and nanotech), says he is […]

VC-backed Tesla Motors opened its Chicago store this month, the company’s first outside California and its third store overall, after Los Angeles and Menlo Park. But that’s not why you’re gonna hear a lot more about Tesla over the next week. Tesla—which has raised more than $87 million in funding from mid-2006 to late 2008 from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, VantangePoint Venture Partners and individual investors such as Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page—is set to debut its Telsa Motor's Model S sedan on March 26.

Tom Barton says that his firm likes to go after early stage deals that are "Under the radar." That description is an apt one for Barton's firm, too. Barton is one of two founding general partners of Broken Arrow Venture Capital, a venture firm based in Los Altos, Calif. (a few miles southwest of Sand Hill Road) that has so far invested in five companies, three of which are disclosed on Broken Arrow’s website. One of those disclosed investments was announced last week when Broken Arrow revealed it took part in the $4.5 million Series A funding for Conveneer, a Swedish company with a Palo Alto, Calif., locale. Conveneer provides mobile technology so that users can access their cell phones

With the economy in a tailspin and thousands of jobs being axed daily, should fostering innovation really be a priority? Don’t dare ask that question of Pascal Levensohn, founder and managing partner of Levensohn Venture Partners in San Francisco. Earlier today, Levensohn was in Washington, D.C. to deliver a 30-minute keynote address at the Cybersecurity Applications and Technologies Conference for Homeland Security. “Everything is connected and linked together,” Levensohn told me via cell phone after his keynote. “If we don’t pay attention and address innovation, then things are going to get worse. A comparative situation is the debt crisis. We had decades of people not paying attention. Then the situation exploded.”

I was cleaning out my files and I dug up notes that I never used about Canaan Partners’ annual party at last month’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. As Canaan’s activity in health care investing has grown over the years, so has its reception. General Partner Brent Ahrens says that years ago, the annual party included […]

I spoke recently with Kevin Kemmerer, executive VP and managing director of the technology group at Safeguard Scientifics. My interview notes will be part of a story that’s due to appear in next month’s Venture Capital Journal. Though the issue has already been sent to press (and should be available to subscribers online in a […]

Times are tough all over, especially for consumer-oriented websites. So I was little surprised and intrigued when I saw a release go out earlier this week for San Francisco-based Moxsie Inc., which operates an online marketplace for independent fashion, and is looking to reach out worldwide. I wanted to see what makes an e-tailer tick in a recession, so I hooked up with Moxsie’s Catalina Girald, founder and creative director of the company who also goes by the title Fashionista-in-Chief.

Earlier this week, President Obama said that he’d like to see the economic stimulus package include more education funding. "I'll be honest with you, the Senate version cut a lot of these education dollars. I would like to see some of them restored," he said.

It may not have been the best of weekends in the Del Biaggio home. Last week, onetime Sand Hill Capital GP William "Boots" Del Biaggio pled guilty to a single count of securities fraud in a federal court in San Francisco. He's now awaiting sentencing. Earlier today--talk about bittersweet--it was announced that Silicon Valley philanthropists Bill and Helen Del Biaggio, the parents of Boots, will be honored at the upcoming Valley of Heart's Delight fundraising dinner.

Sometimes, timing is everything. Earlier today, the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group for the communications industry, presented its Winter Small Business Symposium event at Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, Calif. You can check out my earlier post about it here. Among the event’s activities was a panel of three VCs discussing the challenges of raising capital in today tough economic climate. The TIA event also included roundtable discussions on capital raising techniques and top tech trends to watch in ’09.