amcgloin@prosek.com

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

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.

I’ve heard a lot of people say recently that healthcare is recession-proof, and I suppose that is true. After all, people still get sick, even in a downturn, maybe more so, and they still need to go to the doc and get drugs and use other medical services. But does that mean healthcare venture capital is also recession-proof? I recently caught up with Alloy Ventures' Doug Kelly, who helped found with Palo Alto-based firm 13 years ago. Kelly and his partners are currently investing in tech and life sciences from a $368 million fund raised in 2005. Kelly, who is a trained physician, wanted to talk about what one life sciences company was doing to stimulate hair follicle growth, while I just wanted to know what that company could do for gray hair. That’s another story, however... Q: How risky is the overall sector right now? A: While there is a lot of upside if you pick the right deals, there is still considerable risk in healthcare investing. Financing/syndicate risk and lack of a clear liquidity horizon are the largest risks in this

Our Reuters.com colleague Deborah L. Cohen interviews NVCA president Mark Heesen: By Deborah L. Cohen Total investments in clean technology - including wind, solar, bio-fuels and a host of related technologies - totaled $4.09 billion through the end of 2008, compared to just $1.44 billion in 2006, according to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). That's still just a fraction of the overall $28.2 billion in venture capital investments but the area is steadily gaining momentum. In a recent interview with Reuters.com, Mark G. Heesen, president of the NVCA, the leading trade association for venture capitalists in the United States, representing the interests of more than 450 member firms, discussed the growing interest in clean technology and how this fast-growing sector will shape the future of early-stage investing.

Last month, when Nielsen Online research analyst David Martin reported that a majority of people who sign up for Twitter abandon the site after a month, the Twitter universe got its dander up. After all, Twitter, they say, thrives due to its third-party sites—such as TweetDeck, TwitPic, Twitstat, Hootsuite, EasyTweets, Tumblr, etc. Because of that, the […]

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.

Don Listwin’s resume includes a 10-year stint at Cisco Systems. But Don doesn’t talk much about his past gigs as he’s squarely focused on his current role, leading Sana Security, a developer of malware defense technology. Don says that he’s put in about $5 million into the San Mateo, Calif.-based company, which is expected to […]