Valleywag
You're doing it wrong
-
-
online video
Will Ferrell's FunnyorDie takes HBO for up to $10 million
Comedy-video startup FunnyorDie, a project cofounded by yuksters Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy with Sequoia Capital's Mark Kvamme, has sold an equity stake to HBO of less than 10 percent. (FunnyorDie was valued at $100 million after the last round of funding; the new valuation, and HBO's exact investment, wasn't disclosed — if you know, please tell us.) In exchange, HBO also gets five hours of programming from Ferrell, McKay, Henchy and recent addition Judd Apatow. More » -
history lessons
How Mark Zuckerberg missed his meeting with Sequoia
Sequoia Capital never invested in Facebook. But Sequoia partner Mark Kvamme said at an ad conference today that the venture firm did take a meeting with founder Mark Zuckerberg early on. Problem was, according to Kvamme, Zuckerberg had forgotten about the appointment and woke up just before it started. So Zuck showed up at the meeting and made his pitch wearing pajamas. Sequoia passed — perhaps understandably, but definitely unfortunately, Kvamme told the crowd. "You kind of have to look past those things," he said. One could say the same about Kvamme's rewriting of history. We hear it's Facebook that passed on Sequoia — mostly due to a feud between the VC firm and Facebook backer Peter Thiel. (Photo by sunshinecity) -
searchme
New Sequoia-backed search engine not that great, just wants 1 percent market share
A tipster talks about working across the hall from Mark Kvamme-backed SearchMe.I talked to one of their engineers. He said, "We're just like Google." I asked if they were any better or going after verticals. "Nope. We figure that even 1 percent of Google's market is enough to make money on."
-
bad ideas
Sequoia clones unsuccessful search engine -- maybe Google will buy it anyway
Sequoia partner Mark Kvamme just plunked down $31 million on a company he also chairs, called Searchme. It's an image-based search engine. Search is a crowded field but Searchme CEO Randy Adams thinks there's room for innovation. "Search," he told BoomTown, "is still largely a text and list experience." True, but Snap CEO Tom McGovern told me almost the exact same thing in May 2006. Didn't work out for him. Now Snap is a site for bloggers. Below, a video demonstration of Searchme's "innovation" and another video showing two-year-old Snap doing pretty much the same things.
More » -
nerdspotting
Julia Allison canoodles with Sequoia moneyman
A tipster spotted the female half of Gawker's (and Valleywag's) favorite ex-couple, Julia Allison, leaving a CES party in Las Vegas with venture capitalist Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital. Kvamme, who was a frequent target of Valleywag emeritus Nick Denton, is responsible for Sequoia's investments in promising companies like LinkedIn. Oh, and also AdBrite. -
-
venture capital
Will Ferrell's Funny or Die gets another $15 million
Funny or Die, the humor video site from Will Ferrell and Blades of Glory director Adam McKay, started up last April with only $17,000 from Sequoia Capital, according to a profile of the company in Portfolio. After "The Landlord" got 50 million views, Sequoia and a pair of unnamed institutional investors came back with another $15 million in funding. Though Funny Or Die expects to gross "a few million" next year, as Sequioa partner and Funny Or Die cofounder Mark Kvamme told Portfolio, prospects aren't perfectly shiny for the funny site. More » -
minglebox
Sequoia keeps it in the family
Sequoia's Indian office recently led a $7m round for Minglebox, an Indian social network. Minglebox's founder is Kavita Iyer, who just happens to be the wife of Sandeep Singhal, managing director of the prestigious venture capital firm's Indian operation. Funny, that. But, before working one's self into a lather, best to remember that, back in meritocratic California, Mark Kvamme followed his father-in-law into the Sequoia clubhouse. Moral of the story? Merely, that Menlo Park is just as incestuous as Bangalore; and Sequoia faces fewer cultural divides, as the firm spreads outside the US, than one might think.
- 1
1-8 of 8 for "mark kvamme"
