Mark Boslet
It is hard not to be gloomy with the broad challenges facing investing and venture investing in particular. The European sovereign debt crisis is like a flu that won’t go away. Domestic economic growth may be picking up, but it remains uninspiring, especially with another European recession on the horizon. Finally, unemployment is intractably high, […]
Angel and seed investing remain among the most contentious issues in venture. Debates about style and substance attract strict adherents on both sides. Some claim investments must be made fast and furiously, driven more by volume than considered analysis. Others argue investors need to play heavy, hands-on roles during gestation, even as the low cost […]
Venture deal volume has slowed. But valuations creep higher. And while many venture capitalists anticipate investing will fall in 2012, they see brightening exit markets for IPOs and M&A. These conflicting views are evident in a venture industry decidedly less optimistic than a year ago and unsettled by the economic realities of a trying year […]
Seed investing fell 56% in the recent third quarter to the lowest level of the past six years, according to the MoneyTree Report. The question is whether this accurately reflects the seemingly irrepressible seed market. One line of thinking is that the MoneyTree study may not entirely capture the continued ground swell of support for […]
The venture industry is going through several transformations at once, so advice from experienced practitioners is worth the listen. That’s why I tuned in Tuesday morning as Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Managing Director Ann Winblad, Bridgescale Partners Managing Director Rob Chaplinsky and U.S. Venture Partners General Partner Paul Matteucci took the stage at the AlwaysOn […]
Jive Software is one of 11 U.S. companies scheduled to launch new stock offerings this week. Zynga is another. Zynga, the venture-backed titan of social gaming, will almost certainly do well. Jive could as well. If it does, the issue might be a sign the IPO market for small cap tech companies has reopened. Jive […]
Entrepreneurs in Chicago and New York until recently stood in the shadow of the nation’s premier tech center, Silicon Valley. No longer. Today, “these are great centers of innovation as good as Silicon Valley,” said Ron Conway during an on-stage interview Thursday afternoon at the Plug and Play Expo. “I couldn’t say that three years […]
The current wave of angel investing shows few signs of peaking. “There is more seed money now than I have seen in my life,” said Matt Miller, Walden Venture Capital managing director, at Thursday afternoon’s Plug and Play Expo. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. “I don’t think this is suddenly […]
Sens. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) last week introduced a bill seeking to make it easier for small companies to go public. The proposed legislation grew out of recommendations from a task force of venture capitalists, public market investors, entrepreneurs, academics, investment bankers and attorneys. One member of the task force […]
Zynga is preparing to launch the largest Internet company IPO since Google’s, besting Groupon’s offering last month. But several challenges confront Zynga, including at least a temporary slowdown in bookings. The social games developer said on Friday that it plans to sell 100 million Class A shares for $8.50 to $10 a piece, raising as […]