BIZARRE PHOTOS: Katy Perry Hanging Out With Facebook Employees. Daniel Gregory; investor had eye for talent, knack for success. As cofounder of the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, which helped launch companies that defined the business community in Boston and the Route 128 corridor, Daniel Gregory had an eye for spotting talented people with good ideas. The secret, he said, lay in rigorous study, not magic or luck.
“Companies don’t grow and succeed through some sort of miracle or because you put a lot of money into them,’’ he told Harvard Business School in 2003, when he was among the recipients of an alumni achievement award. “During the ’90s, the process began to look ridiculously easy, but it’s not. It involves hard work that takes a considerable amount of focus and dedication.’’ Mr. Gregory, who also served for about a year as secretary of economic affairs under Governor William F. “What characterizes my father is a fascination in other people, an interest in what they want to accomplish,’’ said his son Daniel Jr. of Weston. Mr. Mr. In Mr. Mr. In addition to his wife and son, Mr.
At home, Mr. The-entrepreneur-center-nvtc-names-finalists-for-entrepreneur-navigator-awards-113268534. Grotech Venture's Don Rainey and Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area to Receive Lifetime and Organization Navigator Awards HERNDON, Va., Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC, a resource for technology-focused startups and entrepreneurs, announced today the Entrepreneur Navigator Awards finalists and the Organization and Lifetime Navigator Awards winners for 2011. Now in its second year, the program honors individuals and organizations that have mentored and advised entrepreneurs and startups in the Greater Washington region.
The award recipients will be honored at a reception on January 27 from 7:30 – 9:30 a.m. at The Tower Club in Tysons Corner, Va. The Navigator Award is presented to an individual that has raised the bar for mentoring/advising or otherwise helping improve the quality of the entrepreneur community. This year's award winner will be announced at the January 27 reception. Navigator Award About The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC. Bullpen Capital Launches First Venture Fund. Bullpen Capital formed a new venture capital fund. The vehicle will focus on second round financings. The Menlo Park, Calif.
-based firm makes follow-on investments in capital-efficient technology companies that were initially funded by super-angel funds. PRESS RELEASE Bullpen Capital today announced its new venture capital fund focused on second round financings. “There is a big hole in the emerging capital efficient, or lean investing, ecosystem,” said Paul Martino, founder and managing partner of Bullpen. Bullpen last week announced its first lead investment, a San Francisco-based company called Assistly, which provides a cloud-based customer service offering that is leading a new wave of social CRM innovation. Phil Black, managing partner of True Ventures, and the lead series A investor in Assistly, said, “I introduced Assistly to Bullpen, as I knew it was right in the wheelhouse of the kind of deals that they wanted to see.
About Bullpen Capital SOURCE Bullpen Capital. Venture Is Harder These Days, Says Industry Sage Bill Davidow. William Davidow is an author, a big thinker and perhaps the world’s expert on how Internet connectivity has accelerated the cadence of global business. Davidow, 75, also keeps a hand in venture, he co-founded Mohr Davidow Ventures several decades ago, where he remains listed as a partner emeritus. I had the chance to ask him about the current state of investing. Here is what he said: “I think venture is harder now than when I was an active investor. The reason is there is less margin for error.” Companies require more money to grow up and take longer to go public, he said. This will change, ultimately as fewer investors remain in the business, he added. Davidow has his fourth book available this month: Overconnected: The Promise And Threat of the Internet.
Adjusting for this overconnected world is no easy task. Yet Davidow is an optimist. French PE Firm Astorg Planning $1.31B Fund. French buyout shop Astorg is planning to raise 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) for new deals, Reuters reported. The firm plans to hold a close in mid-January for the fund, its fifth. Astorg invests primarily in French companies in the 100 million euro to 800 milllion euro enterprise value range, Reuters said. (Reuters) – French private equity firm Astorg is set to raise 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) for new deals, two people familiar with the situation said, beating management’s initial goal for its latest buyout fund. The firm is planning to hold a close on its fifth buyout fund — the point after which it can start investing the capital raised — in mid-January, one of the people, an investor in private equity funds, said.
Astorg joins a list of buyout firms, including Oaktree Capital [OAKCP.UL], Montagu Private Equity and BC Partners [BCPRT.UL], bucking the tough fundraising environment to raise billions of euros from investors. Astorg was unavailable for comment. VC Blog Ranks VC Bloggers. There are plenty of venture capitalists who blog. But Larry Cheng appears to have carved out a more specific niche: blogging about VCs who blog and who reads them. This week, the Volition Capital managing partner published the fourth edition of the Venture Capital Blog Directory – a list of the most widely read venture bloggers ranked according to the number of average monthly unique visitors in the fourth quarter.
The top three on his list, which is based on Compete traffic data, include the following: Paul Graham, of Ycombinator, tops the list with 97,227 monthly unique views, despite having just five short essays during the whole of the fourth quarter, looking at his site archives. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures comes in second. Wilson, whose blog, A VC, is a perennial favorite for comment posters, had 81,000 uniques. Mark Suster, of GRP Partners, came in third, with 53,655 uniques. Press Releases - Thomson Reuters. Walking The CES Booths With A VC Looking To ‘Liberate’ Good Ideas - Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ.
RPT-UPDATE 4-Goldman, Digital Sky invest in Facebook. Common sense key to entrepreneurial success: study. GM invests $5 million in wireless charging startup. Analysis: Facebook ignites Bubble 2.0 chatter. VC expert to head Ohio Development Department, till it’s privatized | Business First. Gov. -elect John Kasich has turned to a long-time friend, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Mark Kvamme, to help him privatize the Ohio Department of Development. “He will lift our game, no question,” Kasich said at a Friday press conference where he announced Kvamme will be the new director of the Development Department and lead the transition to Kasich’s JobsOhio program, a private, nonprofit corporation that will take over the state’s job-creation efforts.
“I’ve got a real pal and friend to advise me,” Kasich said, noting he has known Kvamme, a partner in Menlo Park, Calif. -based Sequoia Capital, for more than 10 years, including Kasich’s stint as managing director at Lehman Brothers from 2001-08. Kasich, who takes office Monday, said Kvamme will analyze Development Department programs, determining what works and what doesn’t. He’ll also work on the launch of JobsOhio, which Kasich hopes to have in place by mid-year. LPs Focused On GP Commitment, Management Fees.
It wasn’t necessarily the headline news coming out of the latest (and always excellent) Probitas Partners survey of institutional investors, but deep in the survey report you can learn which partnership terms and conditions LPs are most focused on going into the new year. Altogether more than 180 investors around the world–a mix of funds-of-funds managers, public pension funds, endowments, foundations and others–participated in the November survey. Respondents were asked to pick up to three terms on which they are most focused. The leading response, picked by 53 percent, was the GP commitment, followed by management fees (52 percent), how carried interest is divvied up among the senior investment professionals (32 percent), and a cap on fund size (31 percent).
Slightly further down the list came the key-person clause (30 percent), transaction fee splits (27 percent) and carry distribution waterfalls (27 percent). Some governors plan toned-down inaugural affairs. UPDATE 1-Silicon Valley Bank to form JV in China.