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venture capital
geek love
iJustine and Justin dating -- but not that Justin
A tipster tells us that Justine Ezarik, the diminutive videoblogger better known as iJustine, has hooked up with a guy named Justin. Not the unprepossessing and socially inept Justin Kan of Justin.tv, with whom she's often jokingly linked, but Justin Fishner-Wolfson, a venture-capital associate at Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. The two make an adorable couple, our tipster says, especially because they see eye to eye. He estimates Ezarik's height at 5'1"; Fishner-Wolfson's not much taller, as his Stanford graduation photo shows. Not that his stature matters: By dating Ezarik, he rises above thousands of jealous iJustine fanboys. Update: Ezarik denies that she and Fishner-Wolfson are an item — and claims to be 5'3". (In heels, perhaps.)
internet famous
Facebook investor Peter Thiel No. 10 in Out's list of powerful gays
Peter Thiel, the famed venture capitalist who cofounded PayPal and funded Facebook, has not spoken about his private life since Valleywag broke the curious silence about the gay entrepreneur's sexuality in December. (He hadn't really discussed it before then, either.) But it has again become the topic of conversation. Out has put him in tenth place on its Power 50 list of prominent gays and lesbians. The magazine praises him for his multibillion-dollar hedge fund (Out says it's worth $3 billion, but we've heard $5 billion) as well as his $1 billion stake in Facebook and his funding of the Methuselah Foundation, an anti-aging research group. Knowing Peter, we suspect that none of this bothers him particularly — except for the fact that he wasn't No. 1.
hires
Facebook CTO Adam D'Angelo's next move
Adam D'Angelo's departure "broke my heart," one Facebook insider told us. But Facebook's backers are shedding no tears. We hear that both Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Accel Partners are considering D'Angelo for an entrepreneur-in-residence role — a sinecure venture capital firms offer Valley executives while they're looking for a new startup idea. He's also talking to Google, which is surely eager to reverse the flow of its employees to Facebook.
leaks
Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?
Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Wi-Fi startup Fon, has concocted another excuse for Web 2.0's jet set to rack up frequent-flier miles and buy carbon offsets: It's called Menorca TechTalk, held on Varsavsky's ranch on the Mediterranean island this weekend. The website is password-protected, but Valleywag got a list of who's going. It's a curious mix of professional conference attendees, like Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman, Loïc Le Meur of Seesmic, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and David Sifry of Technorati, mixed in with a few people who have day jobs. There are even Googlers on the list — and when have you known those lot to leave the protective bubble of Mountain View? Oddly, Jimmy Wales did not seem to make the cut, though his New York patroness, Louise Blouin MacBain, is listed. In the comments, sort the TechTalkers into your preferred categories. More »
great moments in journalism
4 things BusinessWeek won't tell you about its under-30 entrepreneurs
The problem with lists like BusinessWeek's collection of 13 under-30 entrepreneurs: Inevitably, in an effort to fill a demographic quota, editors scrape the bottom of the barrel. And presenting a balanced picture of these business novices cuts against the goal of serving up fresh faces. (Whether they're supposed to make BusinessWeek's 50something readers feel either young again or even older, I'm not quite sure.) Here are some things that BusinessWeek would just as soon you not know about members of its boy band: More »
sxsw
Facebook spends $50,000 of Microsoft's money on investor's nightclub
Microsoft's $200 million is not all going to buy servers, as Mark Zuckerberg would like you to think. He splashed out $50,000 to rent Pangaea, an Austin nightclub, for the week, or so a doorman said as he turned away a local the other night. Pangaea is part-owned by Ken Howery of the Founders Fund, a Facebook investor. The payoff of this cozy arrangement: When Zuckerberg needed to do damage control a day after his tragicomic keynote interview, he had a stage at the ready. (Photo by Yelp/Kevin N.)
stats
Quantcast gets $20 million in funding -- and more attention than it deserves
Why is it that some companies get coverage and others don't? One could go into all sorts of conspiracy theories, but I think the reason is often much simpler: Reporters write about what they understand. Quantcast fits the bill — which is why the Web-measurement service's $20 million round has gotten top billing on all the usual suspects. More »
venture capital
Max Levchin's Slide set to take in new funding
Serial entrepreneur and PayPal cofounder Max Levchin's widget maker Slide will take in a new round of funding, according to Boom Town. The deal, put together by New York-based Allen & Company, is said to propel Slide's value well past the $60 million to $80 million set just over a year ago. More »
geek love
Peter Thiel to move his hedge fund to New York
Why on earth is Silicon Valley's fastest-rising venture capitalist moving to New York? In the Valley, Peter Thiel is best known for his prescient investment in Facebook. His $500,000 grubstake is now worth $750 million on paper. And his Founders Fund may well revolutionize the venture-capital industry. But in real cash money, Thiel has made far more from Clarium Capital, the hedge fund he's operated since selling PayPal to eBay in 2002. More »
rumormonger
Is Plaxo ready to sell to Facebook?
It's curious that rumors of a Plaxo sale exploded at the same time that Robert Scoble got his Facebook account suspended using a secret, unreleased tool for extracting data from Facebook. Curious, too, that Plaxo is so eager to milk the incident for good PR. While a battle of words takes place in public, we hear that quieter talks are happening behind the scenes: A sale of Plaxo to Facebook. A clash between the companies' backers, though — the powerful VC Michael Moritz and the rising VC star Peter Thiel — could sink any deal. More »
6:30 AM on Fri Jan 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,729 views,
7 comments
Latest by N/A: I'd heard a comcast acquisition of Plaxo was all but done -- that these discussions have been going on for more »
Peter Thiel is totally Objectivist, people
By now, you've likely read how Peter Thiel is gay. There'll be a crush of coverage on his sexual preference. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is an Objectivist.
By now, you've likely read how Peter Thiel is gay. There'll be a crush of coverage on his sexual preference. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is an Objectivist.
exclusive
Peter Thiel is totally gay, people
By now, you've likely heard how Peter Thiel parlayed a $500,000 investment in Facebook to a stake now worth $750 million. There's been a crush of coverage on his $220 million Founders Fund, which may well change the way entrepreneurs get paid in the Valley. We know about his mansion (he rents it — clever!), his butler, his early-morning jogs. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is gay. More »
4:05 PM on Wed Dec 19 2007
By Owen Thomas
15,139 views,
47 comments
Latest by N/A: Um, a few things: 1. Let's be clear that the $500,000 investment in facebook is currently worth a fictional $750 million. 2. more »
founders fund
Peter Thiel's fund raises $220 million
Founders Fund, Peter Thiel's venture-capital vehicle for overturning Sand Hill Road's staid ways, has raised a war chest of $220 million. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of that has come from college endowments, including Stanford's, but there are whispers that some of it also came from overseas investors in Asia and the Middle East. No matter: What's important is where it's going. Unlike traditional VCs, Thiel's VC fund has no qualms about lining the pockets of entrepreneurs, even before their companies get sold or go public. Other VCs hate this, of course. Why settle for vague promises of riches, when Thiel's outfit is promising the real thing, right now?
scoop
Mark Zuckerberg cashes out?
Venture capital's ancien régime is on the verge of being overturned. We hear Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, may have cashed out — before an IPO, before a sale, and before his investors. In the company's recent financing round, insiders believe, he sold about $40 million worth of stock. A tiny portion of his $5 billion stake, but in cash rather than on paper, and "enough that he never has to think about money for the rest of his life," says a person made privy to details of the sale. On the Sand Hill Road of old, this is simply not how things are done. More »
10:58 PM on Fri Dec 7 2007
By Owen Thomas
11,386 views,
18 comments
Latest by Trackback: Nick Denton, who still claims he's the world's greatest investigative journalist even though he twice incorrectly identified Fake Steve and more »
ken howery
Founders Fund partners hiring personal assistant
Peter Thiel has a butler, and we're not the only ones who are jealous. The former PayPal CEO turned venture capitalist has, it seems, inspired his colleagues at the Founders Fund to get a bit more household help. Ken Howery, one of Thiel's partners at the fund, is seeking a personal assistant. You won't find the job listing on the fund's website — he's circulating this help-wanted by email. The assistant will help Howery and a colleague pay bills, keep house, go shopping, and do research. Want to be a gofer for San Francisco's hot VC firm of the moment? Drop Howery a line at first initial last name at foundersfund dot com. Oh, the firm's also hiring a CFO, controller, and associate. The personal-assistant job description, after the jump. More »
your privacy is an illusion
Sean Parker drops out of college, again and again and again
Earlier this week, we noted that on Facebook, Sean Parker, the social network's former president, claimed to have graduated simultaneously, from Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Pepperdine, USC, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, New York University, and Stanford, in 2002. As far as we can determine, the only diploma Parker has ever received was from Oakton High School. (A fellow northern Virginian!) Parker's profile has since been updated. He no longer belongs to those colleges' Facebook networks, a status which allowed him to view otherwise private student and alumni profiles. Oddly, though, he still claims to have attended those schools in the "Education" section of his profile. Parker, still a Facebook investor, now works at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, the Founders Fund. One hopes the fund's investors weren't going on Parker's fictional degrees when they plunked down their cash.
facebook
One of the chief justifications for Facebook's $15 billion valuation is that it traffics in real identities. To prove that you belong to a college or workplace, you must give the social network a matching email address. Unless, that is, you're an early employee and major shareholder. Sean Parker reportedly never even made it to college. But on Facebook, he lives out the fantasy of having simultaneously graduated from Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Pepperdine, USC, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, New York University, and Stanford. All this in 2002, when he was also working on Plaxo. He's also the member of several regional networks; Facebook allows most users to only join one. So why would Parker, of all people, need so many fake IDs?
More »
Sean Parker's illustrious college career
One of the chief justifications for Facebook's $15 billion valuation is that it traffics in real identities. To prove that you belong to a college or workplace, you must give the social network a matching email address. Unless, that is, you're an early employee and major shareholder. Sean Parker reportedly never even made it to college. But on Facebook, he lives out the fantasy of having simultaneously graduated from Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Pepperdine, USC, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, New York University, and Stanford. All this in 2002, when he was also working on Plaxo. He's also the member of several regional networks; Facebook allows most users to only join one. So why would Parker, of all people, need so many fake IDs?
More »
12:30 PM on Tue Oct 30 2007
By Owen Thomas
2,001 views,
2 comments
