Dan Primack

We've got a new President and a new Congress. We've also got 5 Questions for Mark Heesen, head of of the National Venture Capital Association. 1. What is the NVCA’s top legislative priority for this session? First of all you have to look at the stimulus package. I think Obama understands very clearly the importance of cleantech and the importance of technology in general. Infrastructure is not just bridges and roads, but it’s also things like a new energy grid and greater broadband access. So, at the end of the day, what we want is to make sure those words during the campaign and inaugural address become legislative language. It’s a short-term priority, but also a top priority. 2. What is your general viewpoint toward what the federal government has done over the past few months, vis-à-vis the economy? We look at it from an entrepreneur’s viewpoint. After the bubble burst in 2000, Silicon Valley and its companies didn’t run to the government to bail them out. Entrepreneurial companies that fail, fail. So that’s our basic instinct. But I think that’s been tempered by the fact of a worldwide economic slump. And government is an integral part of venture capital, because we don’t do

Washington Mutual has agreed to sell its LP interests in three VC funds managed by FT Ventures, according to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Industry Ventures will buy the positions for $3.46 million, plus the assumption of $6.9 million in unfunded commitments. This one is a bit interesting, if only because it’s unusual for us outsiders to have visibility into a secondary sale’s pricing. WaMu reports that it had already funded $13.1 million, which means the deal has a discount in excess of 70 percent. Of course, WaMu is a particularly motivated seller, and still has some inventory to move. You can download WaMu's filing and sale agreement after the jump.

What follows are six VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. They have not been otherwise disclosed: * Ardian Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of a medical device to treat congestive heart failure, has secured $30 million of a $60 million venture round, according to a regulatory filing. Listed shareholders include return backers Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital. It had previously raised over $18 million. * Maskless Lithography Inc. of San Jose, California has raised around $29.5 million in Series A funding, according to a regulatory filing. Backers include TL Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners. The company does not yet have a working website. * Potbelly Corp., a Chicago-based quick-service sandwich shop chain, has secured $10.6 million of a $20 million Series F round, according to a regulatory filing. Backers include Benchmark Capital, Maveron LLC and Oak Investment Partners.

Last week, we got word that a Boston-area venture firm was informally shopping one of its hottest portfolio companies to other VC firms. Not shopping the whole thing, mind you, but just the venture firm’s stake. So I called one of the firm’s managing partners, who was understandably cagey in his response. “We’re always talking to other firms about our companies. Sometimes we call them, and sometimes they call us. And we’re obviously scouring other firms’ portfolios, to see if there’s anything there that we might want to express interest in.” My point here isn’t to report on the specific situation (still not quite comfortable enough, despite the non-confirmation confirmation), but rather to suggest that venture capital may finally be getting around to recognizing sponsor-to-sponsor sales as a viable exit avenue. It’s what helped buyout firms begin their gold rush earlier this decade, and may be venture’s last best hope for juicing wilted returns.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is very concerned about the lack of liquidity options for current portfolio companies, and peHUB has learned that it is taking steps to ensure an abundance of dry powder. The landmark VC firm is currently raising annex funds for its eleventh (2004) and twelfth funds (2006), in order to have […]

Not quite sure what to make of this yet, but I’ve found a regulatory filing for a company that lists eBay founder Pierre Omidyar as an executive. I’d heard rumors that he was engaged in a new venture, and this may well be it. The company is called Peer News Inc., but is operating as Ginx. There is very little publicly-available information but, from what I can tell, Ginx looks a lot like Twitter. There’s sure to be some big differences, and maybe one of the trial users can fill us in… In addition to Omidyar, the company’s management roster includes Randy Ching, a longtime eBay

Big personnel move in the cleantech VC world, as Todd Kimmel has left Advanced Technology Ventures to become a partner with Mayfield Fund. For the uninitiated, Kimmel originally joined ATV in 2003 at just 27 years old, and invested in companies like Great Point Energy and CaliSolar. He then transitioned to an entrepreneur-in-residence role in 2006, and co-founded cellulosic ethanol company Coskata (yeah, the one that just got money from Blackstone). Early last year he returned fulltime to ATV, but now is moving on. Last Friday I spoke to Kimmel, who said the move was largely due to Mayfield’s global platform. “Every company I invested in with ATV needed to address going outside the U.S.,” Kimmel explains. “GreatPoint has been in conversations with a Chinese power company about building a factory, CaliSolar built a facility in Germany because it got support from the German government and so on.” He added that it was difficult to leave ATV, because “they gave me my first VC opportunity.” Kimmel has transferred

It’s been about a year since Jerry Newman left Bear Stearns, where he had been a senior managing director and head of venture capital coverage. Now we’ve learned that he’s reemerged as a co-founding partner of Next-Gen Ventures, a $20 million angel/seed fund focused on digital media and Web-based SaaS efforts. So far, the group has invested in Zogix, True Choice and FiltrBox (run by Jerry’s son, Ari). His partner if John Wander, the founder of GiantStep Angel Network and a former principal with Stonegate Partners. Other team members include associate Adam Gold, who previously was director of business development for a Denver-based energy drink company called Xelr8.

We're nearing the expiration period for 2009 prediction videos, but Charlie O'Donnell has crowdsourced a worthy set of 7-second clips from tech VCs and entrepreneurs. For those who don't know Charlie, he's an LP (with GM Asset Management) turned VC (Union Square Ventures) turned entrepreneur (Path101). And, as you'll see from the video, he also seems to fancy himself as an amateur Rich Little. The list of all participants is available here:

Lip-Bu Tan, founder and chairman of venture capital firm Walden International, has been named CEO of semiconductor company Cadence Design Systems (Nasdaq: CDNS), effective immediately. Tan had been a long-serving member of the Cadence board of directors, and had been serving as interim vice chairman. Cadence said in a statement that Tan would continue to serve as Walden Interenational's chairman, but I'm not exactly sure what that means on a practical level. Public company CEO is a fulltime job, which either means that: (A) Tan will cut way back on his Walden International responsibilities, or (B) Tan already had cut way back on his Walden International responsibilities. Please note that I keep writing both Walden and International, so as to distinguish the firm from the unaffiliated WaldenVC.