Dawn Barber, InSITE Board Member, inaugural Pipeline Fund Fellow
TechCrunch Post metformin hydrochloride tablets by Lora Kologny The New York-based Pipeline Fund, which aims to increase the number of women who become angel investors and social entrepreneurs in the U.S., today announced its inaugural class of Pipeline Fund Fellows and mentors (listed at the end of this post). The Pipeline Fund Fellowship accepted ten women who are influencers in their fields, and have a track record of charitable giving. Together, they will go through a six-month “boot camp” in New York, learning how to route some of their wealth into angel deals, that will score them an equity stake in for-profit,...
Read MoreSportaneous wins at NYC BigApps
Congrats to our Fall 2010 Company, Sportaneous for their prizes at the Big Apps Competition. - Grand Prize Popular Choice Award - 2nd place Best Overall Application Full press release here. Way to go Omar and Aaron! For more on Sportaneous, contact Co-Founders, Omar Haroun or Aaron Royston
Read MoreIt’s Not a [Bubble/Pyramid Scheme/Minefield] People; It’s a . . . Plain Ol’ Liquidity Device?
With the flurry of articles on secondary trading, PEhub’s recent straw poll, and SharesPost’s recent financing, I was wondering, are second markets really a fad? The people working to create secondary trading companies must think there’s more to it. While the most common companies that come to mind in this space are SharesPost and SecondMarket, I’d like to point out that they aren’t the only online vehicles doing secondary trades. Even in Europe, secondary trading has manifested in companies like Alternativa, which was created in Sweden (before either SharesPost or...
Read MoreState of the VC Market
The first quarter of 2010 was generally positive for the venture capital industry. Techcrunch recently reported that although funding was down from the fourth quarter of 2009, the amount still doubled the first quarter of 2009. And liquidity is beginning to appear for venture-backed companies; the IPO window has opened, although it may only be slightly ajar. 8 venture-backed companies went public over the past three months, and many more are currently seeking to go public. Whether the IPO window will stay open is anyone’s guess. Professor Jay Ritter from the University of Florida, a...
Read MoreThoughts on Don’t Pull a Patzer
Since 2007, the world has freaked out about finance, and for good cause. Publicly traded equity markets have frozen, or stalled, depending on which politician you listen to at which press conference. Some say that debt issued by the American Treasury, typically referenced as the gold standard of safe, long-term investment vehicles, is on the precipice of a Moody’s downgrade from a Aaa to Aa rating. Small businesses still can’t make ends meet because they can’t get loans from banks well after the federal government pumped hundreds of billions of dollars to alleviate that specific...
Read MoreOn the First Mover Advantage
Questioning the wisdom of conventional axioms in early stage companies. Many entrepreneurs believe they have a “first mover advantage.” While this phrase is regularly overheard in entrepreneurial conversations and stated in venture capital pitch presentations – it is often misunderstood. Truthfully, the first mover may or may-not be in an advantageous position. In the Harvard Business Review article, The Half Truth of First Mover Advantage, Fernando Suarez and Gianvito Lanzolla argue the technology innovation trajectory and the speed at which the market is evolving determine if the...
Read More