Dan Primack

Take a look at the Quantcast traffic data for Demand Media, the VC-backed online content creator that on Friday filed for a $125 million IPO: The massive drop-off occured a few days prior to the IPO filing, and has stayed consistent over the past two days of Quantcast reports. It certainly could be an error […]

The VC-backed IPO pipeline got a bit more clogged since the last time we checked in, with six new issuers filing to raise around $616 million. Four companies priced offerings during the same period, meaning that the pipeline now holds 40 companies seeking to raise around $3.4 billion. The new filers are: Demand Media, JHorizon Pharma, Complete Genomics, SiGe Semiconductor, MakeMyTrip and Epocrates. I also considered including Skype, but that's more of a buyout-backed offering (despite the involvement of Andreessen Horowitz). Those that priced over were: Green Dot, Envestnet, Trius Therapeutics and RealD. The full pipeline is after the jump...

Nearly 300 peHUB readers took over Engine 11 in Atlanta last Thursday night, for our latest peHUB Shindig. Plus, we raised over $2,500 for Reach for Excellence, a local group that each year picks 30 "educationally underserved 6th graders" for a 3-year program that helps them succeed in high school and prepare for college. Great to see so many of you there. A final thanks to our sponsors: Atlanta Venture Forum, Grant Thornton, Navigation Capital Partners and Womble Carlyle. Photos can be viewed after the jump:

Each summer, advertising firm Deutsch Inc. has dozens of interns scurrying around its Manhattan offices. Most are in their early 20s, unpaid and (so far) relatively unaccomplished. But two years ago, the group also included a 34 year-old whose bank account would dwarf that of firm boss Donny Deutsch. That intern was Steve Nash, the future basketball Hall of Famer who still slings passes for the Phoenix Suns. His boss that summer was Mike Duda, Deutsch's chief strategy officer (and occasional peHUB contributor). The pair kept in touch after the internship ended, and late last year began discussing the creation of a new type of firm: One that would meld brand consulting with venture capital. The result is Consigliere, a New York-based group that has been meeting with potential investors and partners for the past several months (it also was the answer to a recent blind item). "There are a lot of guys who finish playing and then have no idea what to do with themselves," Nash told me during a recent phone call. "I'm not done yet but, when I am, I do not want to become one of them."

We've spent a lot of time lately discussing micro-VCs, including last week's news on Floodgate ($73m fund close) and 500 Startups (new $30m fund being raised). So I spent some time discussing the phenomenon with Chris Douvos, who invests in mico-VC funds through his role as a managing director with The Investment Fund for Foundations: How long have you been investing in micro-VC funds, or super-angel, funds?? We’ve been active in this space since around 2005, and have invested over time in several of the archetypal managers. Who are those archetypical managers? Well, the main one is someone we actually haven’t given money to: Ron Conway. He’s created a fantastic ecosystem. But we’ve backed some of the people who have taken types of things he does and refined them a bit. For example, one of our earliest investments was in First Round. We think those guys have brought an aggressively thoughtful approach to the challenges of investing in seed-stage companies. I love the O’Reilly AlphaTech guys, whose differential is that they’re leveraging the larger O’Reilly ecosystem. In the case of O’Reilly or First Round or Floodgate, they’ve created brands around themselves that magnetizes interesting people. That helps them punch above their weight.

Forty billionaires today agreed to donate at least half of their fortunes to charity, as part of "The Giving Pledge" program launched earlier this year by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Among those to sign on are venture capitalist John Doerr (along with wife Ann) and buyout king David Rubenstein. It's not a legal contract -- described as a "moral" one -- but each participant is expected to write a letter explaining their decision to pledge. A bunch of them already have been posted online, but neither Doerr's nor Rubenstein's are among them. While we wait, here is the letter from Blackstone Group co-founder Pete Peterson:

The Black Eyed Peas are performing in Boston tonight, and Will.i.am took some time out to meet with area venture capitalists. And their spouses. And their teenage daughters. It was a fundraiser for Will's i.am angel foundation, which provides: (1) College scholarships to disadvantaged teens; and (2) Finacial aid to those in jeopardy of defaulting on their home mortgages. Ron Conway has hosted a bunch of these in Silicon Valley, and .406 Ventures stepped up here in Boston. Pic after the jump...

Digital media companies like AOL and Yahoo get lots of flack for buying VC-backed startups at high valuations, and then later dumping them for just pennies on the dollar. Well, sometimes it also happens in the biotech world. Take the case of Idun Pharmaceuticals, developer of drugs focused on a type of cell death known as apoptosis. Idun raised around $100 million in VC funding between 1993 and 2005, at which point it was sold to Pfizer for around $298 million. Solid double for the VCs, and part of Pfizer's plan to use M&A to help supplant expiring patents. The Idun management team left a few months later to form Conatus Pharmaceuticals, a drug startup focused on inflammation and liver disease. It raised around $30 million -- all new investors, save for Aberdare Ventures -- and today announced that has bought Idun back from Pfizer.

Flybridge Capital Partners spent the past weekend in Kenebunkport, for its annual Catch the Wave event with other area VCs, entrepreneurs and family members. Yours truly maintained a sterling record of promising to attend, and then not (I really do mean it at the time, however). The weekend's highlight is always the Saturday night costume party, and this year's theme was "alter egos." Below is a shot of the Flybridge team: (from left to right) Chip Hazard, Jon Karlen, Matt Witheiler, Michael Greeley, David Aronoff and Jeff Bussgang.

A couple of notes from the world of institutionalized super-angels, via filings with the SEC: First up is Floodgate, the firm formerly known as (Mike) Maples Investments. It has raised $73.5 million for its third fund, which more than doubles the $33 million raised for Fund II back in 2008.