Connie Loizos

It’s looking like the Small Business Innovation Research program will be retooled this month when authorization for the program in its current form ends. Whether VCs will be happy with the end result remains to be seen.

The TechCrunch 50 conference is happening right now in San Francisco, and I just watched a really terrific panel discussion with Ron Conway (one of Google's first backers), Israeli entrepreneur-turned-investor Yossi Vardi (his biggest hit was IM company ICQ), Google executive-turned-investor/advisor Chris Sacca, Matt Coffin (founder of LowerMyBills.com) and David Kidder, a (serial entrepreneur who recently founded the online advertising startup Clickable). Rather than analyze what was said, I'm just transcribing some of the conversation, as best I was able to jot it down (the old typing skills aren't what they once were). Hopefully, you'll find it as instructive as I did.

There’s an interesting piece in Dow Jones’s Financial News today, pointing out that domestic venture capital funds are playing nice with corporate venture arms, which it observes as a new development. (Apologies for the lack of link, but it’s a subscription-only service) There has, indeed, historically been friction between VC firms and corporate arms, which […]

CNet founder Halsey Minor has never been one to shy away from a fight, although his latest battle is a bit unexpected. Minor is being sued by auction house Sotheby’s, which claims he did not pay $16.8 million for several pieces of artwork he committed to buy back in May. This includes a piece by renowned American folk painter Edward Hicks -- titled, ironically, "The Peaceable Kingdom." So I asked Minor about Sotheby's allegations. He responds after the jump.

This morning, I was surprised to read in VentureWire that compensation across the private equity industry — from the buyout to the venture capital universe — is up dramatically this year from last year. I was particularly intrigued by the data, compiled and published by Dow Jones & Co., that concluded that the compensation of […]

Longworth Venture Partners of Waltham, Mass., is raising a third fund, according to a new regulatory filing that suggests the firm is targeting up to $180 million. Seems likely it will get close to that amount, too. It’s not exceedingly more than the firm’s second fund, which closed with $120 million in 2003. (Longworth’s first […]

I’m just reading an interesting interview with the CEO of enterprise resource planning giant Lawson Software, Harry Debes, who is predicting that customers’ love affair with the software-as-a-service model will soon end. It’s in his interests to pooh-pooh SaaS, since the future of Lawson relies on customers continuing to pay for its expensive software and […]

Nearly everyone who’s been a part of the venture capital industry for some time will remember meVC, a publicly traded venture capital mutual fund whose idea was first floated in December 1999 by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Indeed, based on the strength of DFJ and the promise of its contacts, deal flow, and expertise, meVC rounded […]

Could it be that the Segway X2 model for golf nuts — replete with golf bag carrier — is becoming a hit? Something has given the folks at the “personal transportation device” company, reason to begin raising a Series D, just months after closing their last tranche of a $35 million Series C funding. According […]

A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece for the San Jose Mercury News about some venture capitalists becoming startup entrepreneurs. One of my subjects was Vikram Kashyap, who had joined the West Coast office of Battery Ventures after graduating Harvard, but decided that he’d need some operating experience to become a “world-class” VC. […]