Ressi had the cheek to make a little video where he personally delivers the documents EDF requested. He assures the audience that they contain no information that will identify "John Doe," the unnamed defendant in the suit. The smiling Ressi makes a thumbs-up gesture at the end, clearly mocking the litigants. It also suggests that such charming and friendly customer service can be yours if you pay to promote your fund on the site.

]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:00:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041791&view=rss&microfeed=true Venture capitalists are rigorously image-conscious — and laughably bad, for the most part, at keeping up appearances. Take EDF Ventures, an obscure Michigan VC firm, which may well have gotten a bum rap on TheFunded.com, a VC-ratings site. After issuing a subpoena to find the identity of the entrepreneur who said the VC firm was "to be avoided unless you are desperate," it has now filed a lawsuit against the anonymous commenter. "If someone lies about you, it isn't right," says Mary Campbell, the firm's founder.

EDF's main factual quibble: The poster claimed to have worked with EDF on "several deals." EDF partner Mike DeVries says the company has never done multiple deals with the same entrepreneur.

Which just goes to show how tone-deaf EDF's legal adventure is. Most venture capitalists love to talk about how they keep entrepreneurs coming back for more. That EDF has never worked with the same entrepreneur twice is a far more damning admission — from the mouth of one of EDF's partners! — than anything written on TheFunded.com. Campbell and DeVries might be able to prove their point, at the cost of further damage to their firm's reputation.

Far better for EDF to have focused on the commenter's claim that EDF's deal terms are harsh. The PE Data Center, a research service, finds that EDF's terms, on balance, favor neither the investor nor the entrepreneur.

Dealing with Jeff Loomans, his dishonesty and malicious behavior for a year and a half has been a headache. In some ways, I am glad to part ways because I have never dealt with someone who seemed to relish petty power-plays and lying on a systematic basis as much as he obviously did.

TheFunded.com is surprised to learn that venture firms are spending money entrusted to them by their own investors to silence the opinions and constructive criticism of legitimate founders and CEOs.

The saving grace of Intelius's new directory? It's mostly useless. My boss tried to use it to ID the guy responsible for TheFunded.com, before Adeo Ressi outed himself in the pages of Wired. (Photo by freezelight)

I didn't see Mike Moritz on the list. Or partners from Accel, Benchmark, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Matrix, Greylock, Venrock. What I saw [was] a list of someday superstars. If TheFunded is going to be a resource we can rely on, Adeo needs to have two tiers of voters: people with real knowledge and others. Categorize the commenters so readers can judge the source, and not display poll results until the sample size is large enough.

TheFunded.com, a community site for startups to anonymously review and rank venture capital firms, has given entrepreneurs a peek into the secretive VC industry and a chance to dish about some of the unseemly behavior they've witnessed there. "We have seen distinctive pieces of our business plan end up in marketing materials of a competitor," reads one testimony. Another: "He had his feet up on the table the whole time he was telling us how bad our business is."

The site has 3,150 members. Neither Ted nor TheFunded is beloved by the venture capital community, which is more accustomed to CEOs kissing its butt than kicking its ass. "VCs are taken aback," says one former VC. "The peasants have revolted against them."

He's not making any money off of it. I asked where he wants it to be in five years. "Owned by a large media company," he replied, only half jokingly. (Hey, he sold Total New York to AOL a couple bubbles ago.) Ressi namechecked Dow Jones as his preferred owner. Meanwhile, he has this little problem where he can't get VC backing. When pressed, he admitted the site is a "charity case," and there's "not enough money to make a living off of it." Still, while a quick QuantCast lookup shows TheFunded far behind Fake Steve Jobs in readership, Ressi thinks he's the man of the moment. His reaction to Wired's 3,500-word feature story in the latest issue? They should have put him on the cover. He's totally serious about that.