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SNIP Mitt Romney was NOT primarily a venture capitalist. A venture capitalist invests in early-stage businesses with the hope that they grow and prosper. These early-stage businesses are often risky investments. Though most ultimately fail, some succeed spectacularly making the risks worthwhile. Apple Computer and Google are two such examples. This is what Mitt Romney means when he says some investments succeed and some fail. By contrast, Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor. Bain Capital invested in failing companies with the intention of either restructuring their business or stripping the business and selling its...

Megan McArdle writes in the Atlantic about the difference between government venture capital and private venture capital. By far the biggest difference is not even mentioned. There is a dramatic and critical difference between government loan guarantees and private venture capital (PVC). The PVC investor expects to make a bundle from his investment, typically by getting an equity stake and cashing out when the successful firm goes public. That’s the best case scenario for PVC. If the company fails, they’re out their seed capital. When the government gets into the venture capital business, risking your money and mine, what’s the...

The reinvention of Meg Whitman continues apace. The former eBay (EBAY) chief has been joining corporate boards at the rate of one a month in the wake of last year's unsuccessful run for governor. On Tuesday, powerhouse venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers announced Whitman is joining as a part-time strategic advisor. Whitman will coach entrepreneurs and help evaluate new digital investments, according to a statement. "Her experience and strategic advice will be invaluable," said Kleiner Perkins partner Ted Schlein. Whitman, in the statement, called Menlo Park-based Kleiner "fabulous advocates for technology-based start-ups." Whitman in January joined the...

Mark Cuban knows a thing or two about bubbles, having profited handsomely from an earlier Internet boom. But ask him if we’re seeing Bubble 2.0 and he’ll give you a different theory. “It’s almost the 2011 version of a private equity chain letter,” says Cuban, who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion and went on to buy the the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. “Remember the old chain letter, where you put up some money, then you got other people to put up some money, and you gave it to the people who were in the deal before you?...

I love this quote from clean-tech exec Eric Dresselhuys to the San Francisco Chronicle's David R. Baker: "If California isn't leading the charge on implementing these technologies, why be here? Do you want to be here for the high taxes, the high cost of living? Right now, you want to be here because California is where the action is." In a nutshell, that is the argument against Proposition 23 -- which would stall the impending implementation of AB32, California's landmark 2006 global-warming bill, until unemployment dips to 5.5 percent. If voters delay AB32, they will staunch the creation of clean-tech...

Reuters’ economists may have reason to move their already-pessimistic projections further downward. Yesterday afternoon, a study conducted jointly by Thompson Reuters and Price Waterhouse Cooper shows that venture capital investment dropped 7% in the third quarter, a harbinger of higher unemployment and economic decline: Venture capitalists poured less money into U.S. startups in the third quarter and split this among more companies, signaling that investors are trying to be more economical with their funds.According to a study set to be released Friday, startup investments declined 7 percent to $4.8 billion in the July-September period, compared with $5.2 billion invested during...

We hear a lot about “vested interests” in America these days. Here in California – it is the cry of Global Warming alarmists who are opposed to proposition 23 that is to be voted on in the November election. Prop 23 will suspend a “Global Warming solutions” act that will push up energy prices and drive even more jobs out of the state during one the biggest recessions in living memory. Understandably there is a lot of opposition to the Global Warming Act and Prop 23 is proving surprisingly popular in a state that practically invented the Green movement. Two...

SANTA CLARA, CA (KGO) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is blasting the backers of an effort to suspend the state's landmark global warming legislation that signed it into law four years ago. California's global warming law AB32 is a big part of Schwarzenegger's legacy. He is campaigning to stop Proposition 23, the November ballot measure that would suspend AB32. The governor told the Commonwealth Club audience that oil companies Valero and Tesoro are spending millions to promote Prop 23 with a bogus jobs argument. "Does anyone really believe that these companies out of the goodness of their black oil hearts are...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

Last week I had yet another lunch with yet another former venture capitalist from yet another imploding VC firm. Like a slow motion train wreck, the business of backing and building startups with private risk capital continues its decline. As the last of the money raised during the glory years gets carefully doled out to those start-ups fortunate enough to survive the triage process dominating the venture business these days, it pays to pause and ponder what the future might hold for the innovators that drive progress. Like all professionals associated with the finance industry, venture capitalists have come in...

Technology blogs TechCrunch and AllThingsD reported Thursday that the San Francisco microblogging upstart has raised at least $50 million in a new round of venture capital that values the company at $1 billion. Twitter, which lets you share your thoughts online — but only if they can be kept to 140 characters or less — has generated a lot of buzz, but not a lot of revenue. ($1,000,000,000 — that's 14 characters right there.) Last week, though, Twitter changed its terms of service to open the door to advertising on the site, and co-founder Biz Stone recently said the company...

SpineGuard and Qik don't have all that much in common, once you get past the fact that they're both startups, and that your Microsoft Word program won't recognize either spelling. The first company makes medical devices. The second makes a piece of software that turns your cell phone into a video camera. Both are part of a trend to warm the heart of tech-watchers and investors anywhere: Silicon Valley startup companies getting venture-capital funding. Neither is raising $200 million category like, say, Facebook, but in lean times, it's good to see VC pocketbooks open. SpineGuard's most recent haul comes from...

The next Silicon Valley? You're kidding, right? Google the phrase, and you'll find an archive of old stories with titles like "India likely to be the next Silicon Valley," "Could the next Silicon Valley be in a developing country?" "Is Vietnam the next Silicon Valley?" Or my favorite: "Could Silicon Valley be the next Detroit?" Long the preeminent high-tech center in North America and the world, Silicon Valley saw unrivaled success that has proved very tough to clone or import. The Valley has done a great job over the years of attracting and retaining global talent and local capital, and...

Speaking at the ECO:nonomics conference yesterday, John Doerr, Vinod Khosla, and Bryant Tongall said they're not interested in backing any companies working on algae biofuels. On the face of it, that makes sense. It's pond scum. However, algae was already used twice this year to fuel test flights of commercial planes. It was mixed with jatropha seed oil. But those test flights aren't enough to get major venture capitalists interested, even though Khosla said he looked at more than 100 algae biofuel companies. Environmental Capital: For Mr. Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, the problem is algae itself. To...

The global financial crisis is casting a pall over China's venture capital industry, with surveys showing that funds are getting harder to raise and investments are becoming harder to exit. The China Venture Capitalist Index, designed to reflect how VC investors based in China and Hong Kong see the mainland market developing over the next six to 18 months, fell in October to the lowest reading in the 3- years of the survey. "The credit crisis has finally smashed into venture capital in China," said Mark Cannice, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the University of San Francisco, who compiles...

Capitol Weekly asked the California Air Resources Board to submit a commentary for our special section on greenhouse gas. Ttwo commentaries were submitted by members of the public at CARB's request. --- Last year, clean technology venture capital poured into California at an unprecedented rate. Nearly 1.8 billion dollars were invested in California companies - that’s almost a 50 percent increase over the year before. What opened the floodgates? Multiple factors but perhaps the most significant was the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32). Before AB 32’s adoption, a lot of venture capital investment in clean technology...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a career marked by second acts, Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is becoming a partner at Silicon Valley's most storied venture capital firm. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said on Monday that Gore, a campaigner for action to slow global climate change, will join the Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm as a partner focused on alternative energy investments. The venture firm, which since 1972 has backed seminal computer start-ups ranging from Sun Microsystems to Compaq Computer to Amazon.com to Google Inc, has...

New Swedish companies are bursting with ideas in IT and biotech. It's time for international investors to sit up and take notice, says leading entrepreneur Johan Staël von Holstein.

I think I have a nifty idea for a software project, but since I am not independently wealthy AND I don't feel like having it ripped off so that I wind up with nothing, I was wondering if my fellow Freepers could advise me on how I could wisely go about getting funding for this project, and protect myself. If I should only stick with close friends and relatives, then I will do so. Thank you.

Sweden is in the European top three and probably one of the world’s best when it comes to attracting Venture Capital. In relation to GDP, Swedish companies are the best in Europe According to the EVCA (European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) 71 billion euro was invested in last year by Venture Capital companies. That is an increase with 50 percent compared to 2005. Among the European countries Swedish companies are the top receivers in relation to GDP. 1,44 percent of the GDP was invested by Venture Capital in Sweden last year. Great Britain is second with 1,26 percent...