Dan Primack

After more than 3,000 posts (and more than 2,000 daily email blasts), this is my final item for peHUB. As you might imagine, leaving this brand behind was a very difficult decision. Inertia is a powerful magnet. So too was the thought of going solo, rather than marrying another corporate overlord. But I honestly feel that this is the right decision for me, and my gut is right 50.1% of the time. You, dear readers, are the best part of my job (no matter my employer), so I hope we can stay in touch. My email address going forward is danielprimack@gmail.com. Or you can follow me on Twitter @danprimack. Don't worry, this site will soldier on. Finally, I owe lots of debts of gratitude for enabling me to have this extraordinary platform. But there are a few people, in particular, I’d like to thank:

Jake Anderson has quietly joined Sequoia Capital, as a Silicon Valley partner associate focused on growth-stage investments in the healthcare sector. He previously spent two years as a senior manager with Cord Blood Registry, and before that was an associate with Pequot Capital. Jake also has some serious VC lineage: His father is Howard Anderson, co-founder of Battery Ventures and current senior lecturer at MIT...

When Andreessen Horowitz raised $300 million for its debut fund last year, I suggested that it was too much money. Actually, I said the original $250 million target was too large – particularly for a two-partner firm that said initial investment sizes would average around $500k. And my argument still makes sense to me. At least in theory. The reality, however, is that AH has already invested most of its stash -- including a giant check for the Skype carve-out -- and added staff. Moreover, Marc Andreessen has become even more influential in Silicon Valley, while Ben Horowitz has emerged from his famous partner’s shadow by penning one of the smartest VC blogs around. All of this adds up to AH becoming the hottest VC firm this side of Sequoia.

Venture capitalists have invested nearly $2.44 billion into 263 U.S.-based companies so far this quarter, according to Thomson Reuters. This compares to $2.56 billion raised by 365 U.S.-based companies during the same time period in 2009. So fewer companies, but larger rounds. Seems at odds with the seed-stage boom we keep hearing about. Maybe that's because TR doesn't record angel deals. Or maybe it's because the bulk of VC investment is in sectors other than consumer Internet, even though Foursquare, etc. suck up all the blog oxygen...

Flipping through the Form D filings yesterday, I came across one for something called Trunk Show Inc. Seems to have raised a $1.15 million VC round led by New Atlantic Ventures. NAV isn’t talking – the company is in stealth mode – but I did a bit of digging because the name was intriguing: In the fashion world, a trunk show is a special sale in which designers present new product directly to a select group of buyers (typically department store or boutique personnel). Trunk Show Inc. is hoping to put that process online – both for the masses and to better facilitate distribution to retailers.

(Warning: What follows is the most self-absorbed post I’ve ever written. And that’s saying something) In September 2002, a friend suggested we all take a day off work in order to go ride roller coasters at Six Flags. The conversation went like this: Me: “We can’t leave until 10am.” Friend: “Why not? Me: “Because I just started an email publication, and readers expect it each morning.” Friend: “How many readers?” Me: “About 300.” Friend: “Wow, that’s a lot. Ok, we’ll leave at 10.” Well, now there are 60,000 email readers. It’s quite humbling, and makes the following quite difficult to write: I’ve decided to leave Thomson Reuters. My final peHUB Wire – and last posts on this website – will be a week from this Thursday.

Bob Metcalfe, a general partner with Polaris Venture Partners, recently tweeted the following: “All 5 of my Polaris-backed enertech start-ups are raising rounds, in August. Today, 1 received an offer to buy the company, in August.” According to the Polaris website, Bob currently serves on seven boards. Two of those, however, are already out of business (Greenfuel and SiCortex). Another, Mintera, has agreed to be acquired by Oclaro (and wasn’t enertech).

peHUB has learned that Richard Kauffman has resigned as president and CEO of Good Energies, a multi-billion dollar firm that invests in renewable energy on behalf of the Cofra Group. In an email sent this morning to friends and colleagues, Kauffman did not give a specific reason for his decision. His immediate plans are to teach a glass on renewable energy this fall at Yale, while continuing to serve as chairman of the board at Levi Strauss & Co. He did not mention yesterday's resignation of Good Energies chief operating officer Hugh Frater, who has agreed to become CEO of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage.

Two months ago, readers of Philadelphia Magazine were treated to an extraordinary tale of covert military missions and technology investing. It was about Mike Burns, co-founding managing director of Guggenheim Ventures. Here’s the lead: The most successful Philadelphia entrepreneur no one has ever heard of wants to go off the record. Mike Burns, described by one friend as having an altar-boy face and an assassin’s heart, is in his understated King of Prussia office, from which he runs Guggenheim Venture Partners — the “deep tech” venture firm he founded with asset manager Guggenheim Partners, of the philanthropic New York family best known for a museum. Burns, who is all of 37 but looks little more than half that, entered into the Guggenheim partnership after he sold his first two companies for $750 million, one of those companies being Traffic.com. The problem? I’ve asked about the Lidocaine patch Burns is wearing on a particular body part. When he’s not making millions, the former naval officer is a reservist in Special Operations Forces, a volunteer troop of special-mission commandos. Burns doesn't talk about what he does as a reservist, but it presumably involves some Bond-like stuff. Last week he returned from his last deployment, likely an exotic place, and he injured said body part — a particularly vulnerable spot, given that he’d injured it before doing something else that was dangerous and secretive. “This has to be off the record,” he reiterates. “I don’t want the enemy knowing any weakness.” The piece carried on for several pages, including a Photoshopped image of Burns holding a gun in one hand and a briefcase in the other (see above). Fascinating stuff. Well, if it were true.

Today's Internet buzz has been about a woman who quit her job via whiteboard, and stuck it to her boss in the process (I hope @glennf is wrong about her being a fake -- UPDATE: He was right). In more provincial news, angel investor Chris Sacca has posted perhaps the best new job posting I've ever seen. It's for an intern at Lowercase Capital, the "institutional" fund that Sacca recently launched. As he explains: