Alexander Haislip

What happens when wireless networks become inexpensive, pervasive and big enough to carry serious amounts of data? You get a condition of “squanderable abundance” where innovators can play with the network and build interesting applications on top of them. When resources are scarce, utilization is low and applications are highly specialized. “What would ordinary people […]

This story is from freelance reporter MARTHA SANCHEZ-AVILA, who initially covered Fabulis’s financing for Reuters.com. –Alex Jason Goldberg says he has no plans to sue Citibank after the company blocked him from accessing his startup’s bank account for several days, citing a problem with the content Goldberg had posted to his startup’s blog. The repeat […]

Computers, to my untrained mind, are things to be programmed to achieve useful tasks, such as attempting to run Microsoft software or challenging Russian grandmasters in chess. I have never fully understood the science behind computer science, even after inflicting several classes on the subject upon myself as an undergraduate. Most of what I learned […]

Aspatore has done a difficult thing in picking essays from leading cleantech thinkers and compiling them into a single book: “Green Venture Capital.” Absent are the hucksters, ideologues and other undesirables that pollute the pages of the Internet with their mindless musings on this emerging industry. That merits praise as venture capital-related content is not Aspatore’s specialty. The book weighs in at 97 pages and features essays from Maurice Gunderson, Michael Brown, John Ballbach, Kef Kasdin, Steve Westly and Jon Sakoda—each a respected participant in the cleantech industry. It is not designed to be read from beginning to end, but as separate white paper-style entries.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has flown his private jet to Washington at least 12 times since the beginning of last year—just months after Congress chastised the CEOs of GM, Chrysler and Ford for flying private jets to request public financing. FAA records collected by FlightAware.com show that Musk's jet, a Dassault Falcon 900, touched down in Washington June 15, 2009 – one week before the electric car maker won a guaranteed $465 million loan from the Department of Energy. Two weeks before that, Tesla began paying for the jet’s operating expenses. This worked out to $175,000 in costs for the final six months of 2009, according to a recent registration statement with the SEC (Tesla is planning to raise $100 million via an IPO). Since Tesla started paying for Musk’s work-related flights, the CEO’s plane went to Washington four more times, touching down on June 15, Sept. 7, Sept. 27, Nov. 4 and once since the new year began, records show.

The idea of bespoke liquor has always been appealing to me and Max Watman’s excellent new book, “Chasing the White Dog” does much to whet my interest in the industry of homemade hooch. It’s out in February from Simon & Schuster. Watman’s combination of history and personal experiences making booze goes down easy thanks in […]

Electric car maker Tesla Motors filed to raise $100 million from public market investors via an initial public offering Friday. Of course you already own part of Tesla Motors via the $465 million debt facility taxpayers loaned the company through the Department of Energy. And, based on the company’s financials, you’d better hope that we […]

Poor Yelp. The company does something (sort of) innovative and nobody notices. While Apple was busy applying the Steve Jobs reality distortion field on tech journalists, Yelp quietly announced it had secured a Series E financing deal worth $100 million over several years. On any other day, the announcement would have raised eyebrows for the sheer size of the investment. But the real interesting part of the equation isn’t the size of the round. It’s the fact that the company raised only $25 million in new equity. The rest of the round is going to buying out the shares of vested employees and “other eligible shareholders.”

Confidence is a funny thing: Too little leads to low self-esteem, too much makes one arrogant. When venture capitalists are confident, it means they expect their startups to outpace the growth in the overall market—a good thing for startups or a bad thing for the rest of the economy. Mark Cannice has been tracking venture capitalist confidence for half a decade at the University of San Francisco’s School of Business and reports that venture capital confidence is slowly improving from its fourth quarter 2008 low. “Notable return of exit opportunities—especially headline acquisitions—is breathing life into the venture business model,” Canice says. (Read our earlier coverage). That’s a sentiment that seems to be shared across the board. When the Venture Capital Journal surveyed investors for its January issue, it heard the same optimism for an M&A surge:

For tech nerds, today’s big Apple product announcement was a little like Christmas, with Steve Jobs as Santa Claus. But now, with wrapping paper strewn across the floor are you satisfied with the iPad? There’s a lot to be excited about. The device seems reasonably priced. You’re not locked into an AT&T contract, just a […]