Internet companies and the billion dollar money drain

Photo via Images of Money

Over the last ten years, more than $43 billion was invested in 7,200+ Internet-related companies, according to the PWC MoneyTree report. Fifty percent of those companies will disappear within the first three years of operations, and the average venture capital fund will fail to even return back the capital plus management fees as per the… Read More…

Report: Venture capital returns beat the public markets in 2011

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There’s been a lot of chatter in recent months about the “broken” model for venture capital, highlighted by a blistering report last month from the Kauffman Foundation which found that most VC funds that it has worked with have failed to outperform the Nasdaq or Dow over the years. Now, here comes some contradictory data… Read More…

Alliance of Angels takes flight, spins off from the Technology Alliance

alliance of angels

The Alliance of Angels — a 15-year-old Seattle angel investment organization that boasts more than 60 members — is spinning off from its longtime non-profit parent organization, the Technology Alliance. In a press release today, Alliance of Angels Chairman Dan Rosen said that the move marked the “next logical step” for the angel group. “Our… Read More…

Crowding out angels from startup financings?

Photo via Bigstock

As early as next week, we may know whether Congress will change US securities laws to permit startups to sell stock to the general public over the internet. You know how, today, companies raise money on Kickstarter by offering products, t-shirts, and other bennies? Imagine those same companies selling stock to investors over a Kickstarter-like… Read More…

Angel groups in Seattle: How they’re doing, what they cost

Angel in Guisley. Photo via Baldur McAqueen

Over the past three days, GeekWire Chief Business Officer Rebecca Lovell and I both have moderated panels about the state of angel financing in Seattle. The discussions have been lively, and fun. [Previously: Angel mind meld: What early-stage investors really want] But, at the end of the day, what entrepreneurs really want to know is where… Read More…

Meet the 9 startups bankrolled by the Northwest Energy Angels

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The Northwest Energy Angels, a 50-person angel investment group, said today that its members invested more than $880,000 in nine clean tech startups last year. Of course, that’s a drop in the bucket, especially in the capital-intensive arena of clean technology. (The MoneyTree report found that venture capitalists invested $4.3 billion in 323 deals nationwide last… Read More…

Hadi Partovi to Michael Arrington: Valuations are ‘out of control’ and Seattle is a ‘viable’ startup hub

Hadi Partovi

We’ve been talking a lot about the startup ecosystem in Seattle and what needs to happen to make the region an even better place for entrepreneurs. Given that discussion on GeekWire, I was particularly interested in some comments that Seattle entrepreneur-turned-angel investor Hadi Partovi made at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco this week…. Read More…

Marc Andreessen: Wall Street hates tech and why Microsoft and others are undervalued

Marc Andreessen (Photo via Wikipedia)

Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, who has quickly become one of the most influential Silicon Valley venture capitalists, made some waves last month when he declared that there’s no bubble in the startup community. And now the backer of companies such as Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook — some of the most wildly valued Internet companies around… Read More…

Bubble 2.0: The infographic

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We’ve been writing a lot about some of the frothy conditions in the tech market. And the bubble talk was highlighted today when money-losing online radio service Pandora went public with a $3 billion valuation, and last month when Microsoft agreed to shell out $8.5 billion for Skype. Now, the folks over at Udemy, have compiled… Read More…

Floyd, LeFaivre, others named to NW Energy Angels advisory board

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The Pacific Northwest has a solid slate of clean tech companies — from fuel cell maker ReliOn which just scored $6 million in funding to turbine maker Hydrovolts. But there’s certainly more the region can do to help spark innovation in the sector. And as part of that, the Northwest Energy Angels today announced the… Read More…