E-consultancy - venture capital - Internet Marketing News and Blogs
E-consultancy: venture capital - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Seedcamp CEO plans fund for internet startups

Tech startups across Europe are currently preparing their entries for Seedcamp 2008, the annual contest that offers five or so winners the chance to secure early stage funding and advice from a panel of expert VCs (in return for a chunk of equity).

But any not making it may not have to wait for another twelve months to get their hands on the organisation’s cash.

Romanticizing recession

Some argue that an economic downturn is the ideal time to start a new business and to be sure, history evidences the fact that highly-successful companies are often born in challenging business environments.

This is little surprise. After all, they push entrepreneurs to be more innovative, resourceful and frugal than they may otherwise have been.

As they say, "necessity is the mother of all invention."

Wall Street to Sand Hill Road: we won't be fooled again

For the first time since 1978, a full calendar quarter went by with not a single VC-backed company going public.

The Web Week in Review

From more Yahoo drama to a big money investment and rumoured acquisition to the news that the mobile phone may be great for brain tumours, the tech news that interested me this week was diverse.

Is Web 2.0 changing the entrepreneur-VC dynamic?

In Web 1.0, a considerable amount of startup activity was centered on the notion that the internet was a "commercial" medium.

It wasn't uncommon to see an e-commerce startup raise an eight figure round of funding early on in its lifecycle.

The Web Week in Review - Money Edition

Drama 2.0 has his mind on his money and his money on his mind more than usual lately, so this week's installment of The Web Week in Review is focused on cold hard cash - who's making it and who isn't.

Web 2.0: the business equivalent of a hernia?

Although the Web 2.0 hype is still alive and well, an increasing number of people are starting to recognize that Web 2.0 probably isn't going to be the cash cow that many thought it was destined to be.

Last week, The Financial Times published an article that stated this fact quite bluntly: "Web 2.0 fails to produce cash".

Q&A: Livebookings’ David Norris on restaurants and e-marketing

Livebookings Network is a real-time restaurant booking service whose clients include The Ritz, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, La Tasca, Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Café, as well as portals like Time Out London and lastminute.com.

It bagged £6.5m in funding in a round led by Balderton Capital earlier this year and is planning to expand its presence in the UK and Europe.

Here, we speak to COO David Norris about which types of restaurants are making the best use of online marketing and what other opportunities are out there for its aggregated reservations model.

VC: European media companies need to buy more of my startups

Saul Klein, a partner at Index Ventures, one of Europe's largest venture capital firms, has some shocking advice for European media companies.

They need to buy more of the startups that VC firms like his have backed.

Q&A: Media Corp's Justin Drummond on online advertising

Justin Drummond is a well-known dotcom veteran and the founder of Media Corp, the LSE-listed business that includes online ad network Eyeconomy and various in-house websites.

The company has been diversifying away from its gambling investments after the US ban last year and is now looking to expand into Europe and the US.

Despite several interruptions from Justin's PR person, we managed to ask him a few questions about the highly competitive ad network space and where he sees the industry heading.

Facebook's hunger for capital continues

Facebook has added another huge pile of cash to its bank account, this time in the form of a $100m debt financing from TriplePoint Capital.

The company, which has already raised more than $350m in equity financing from investors such as Microsoft and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, says that the money will be used "entirely for servers."

The importance of knowing who you are

Perhaps one of the most challenging questions for an entrepreneur to answer is 'what does my company really do and what is its true role in the marketplace?'

It's a simple question. But it is difficult for many entrepreneurs to answer realistically, because there's a natural tendency on their part to think their companies do more and have more potential than is actually true.

The Greater Fool Theory and Web 2.0

Would you:

Put $20m into a company that you're valuing at $75m and has no proven mainstream appeal, scalability problems or business model?
Invest $25m at a $200m valuation in a company that has already raised $12.5m, has reportedly generated about $1m in revenues since its launch in 2005 and was unable to develop acquisition interest at $250m?
Give $50m and a $500m valuation to a profitless company that does $10-12m in annual revenues and whose CEO has said, "We’re like a teen in our clock cycle. Now, we have to figure out how do you get a job and work in the real world"?
Move over Dow Jones, Henry Blodget introduces the SAI25

You have to hand it to Henry Blodget. The infamous securities analyst who arguably promulgated more hype in Bubble 1.0 than anybody else on Wall Street seems to have a knack for bubbles.

His blog, Silicon Alley Insider, or SAI, is an increasingly influential force in the tech blogosphere and has given Blodget the ability to establish a front row seat for Bubble 2.0.

Time for a Web 2.0 vulture fund? Nope

As more Web 2.0 startups fail and the market for VC investment contracts, Om Malik has asked whether it's now an ideal time for somebody to create a vulture fund that acquires startups " with decent technologies that have otherwise failed to get themselves off the ground. "

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