An article today in Forbes makes the argument that for too long entrepreneurs have suffered via the control of some venture capitalists who are really money managers without real operating experience.   The argument is that over time, this crisis will help reveal where real value occurs (in early stage companies) and will re-align incentives and control.   Let’s hop

If these numbers work out, then often scaling is more a question of capital. In fact, this often becomes the mantra that we live by. Define what you need from a metrics and reporting standpoint. His picture provides a much richer understanding of what will be going on, but still in an understandable and measurable way. I'm not quite sure I believe the way he exactly models the value from each of these points as is shown in the following graphic, but a similar kind of model can certainly A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation.

Clean technology investments were not immune from the global slowdown, showing a 69 percent drop in capital and 48 percent decline in deals in Q1, according to a recent analysis by Ernst & Young. The report, based on data from Dow Jones Venture Source, found that $277M was raised across 24 deals in Q1. Tags: venturesource jones capital venture recession report cleantec According to the firm, clean technology firms received "markedly less" investment in Q1 2009 compared with previous quarters. Within the clean technology sector, the energy storage sector was the

Last week's angel investment report by the Angel Capital Association reported that investments by angel investors dropped nine percent in 2008, with a hefty percentage of angel investors--40 percent--expecting this year will be a down year. Capital efficient companies offering very competitive terms are still getting funded," says Al Schneider of the Tech Coast Angels , although it appears the group is much more sensitive about how it is investing in deals. However, a quick check of local, Southern California angel investors finds that although angel investment is down, investors are still investing--albeit much more selectively. "Capital

  By way of background, we believe that raising early rounds of capital has become extremely difficult for a number of reasons. Southern California has less than 3% of venture capital dollars raised since 2002;  amounts raised in Silicon Valley, Boston and New York at 10X, 6X and 5X more respectively.   Southern California is at the bottom of the barrel with other major markets having at least 2X and as much as 7X more capital ready to deploy If you follow the venture market, or if you have recently tried to raise money for an early stage company, you know that there is a serious “funding gap� in the early stage market across the US.

The Angel Capital Association reported this week that investing activity by angel investments groups dropped by nine percent between 2008 and 2007, and 40 percent of angel groups expect overall investment to decrease again this year. The group, which released its ACA Angel Group Confidence Report this week, also found that the average group investment per deal was $276,918 in 2008, with total invested by groups in 2008 averaging at $1.77M. Individual group totals were not broken out. The group attributed the dropping investment levels to loss of individual member wealth

Venture capital fundraising activity dropped significantly in Q4, according to a report released Monday by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The report, which tracks the fundraising activity of venture capital firms, found that there was $3.4 billion in forty-three venture capital funds raised in Q4 of 2008, down from $8.4 billion in the prior quarter, and down significantly from the $11.7 billion raised in Q4 of 2007.

Agoura Hills-based TouchCommerce , a provider of live chat services to help companies convert online customers, has reportedly raised $10M in a venture funding round. According to PEHub.com, the round included participation by existing investors Partech International, Emergence Capital, Dolphin Equity Partners and Hudson Ventures. Tags: touchcommerce venture capital live cah Bernard Louvat, President and CEO of TouchCommerce, did not reply to emails requesting comment on the funding. TouchCommerce was formerly known as inQ.

San Diego-based Slacker , which operates an Internet radio service, along with selling a music player linked to it service, has reportedly scored a $5M bridge financing round, according to industry publication VentureWire. VentureWire cited a regulatory filing in reporting the news. Tags: personal radio slacker venture capita Slacker is venture backed by Austin Ventures, Centennial Ventures, Mission Ventures, and Sevin Rosen Funds, and had previously raised $53.5M in funding.

On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital ” in which he linked to my blog.  The Original Post (after the jump): Venture Capital, By Mark Suster (December 2nd, 2006) Can Well … I have had many late nights and I really didn’t contemplate writing many blog postings this month because I spent November in this interesting venture capital / fund raising dance involving lots of On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs.