Awesome Jonathon Perrelli: Fools Are A Necessary Part Of The Economy

Here is an awesome inspirational message by Jonathon Perrelli with Fortify.vc to those who are as fool as me, currently struggling to find employment, and have at least 10% entrepreneurial DNA. Given our current economy and unemployment rate, I don’t think I need to remind you that most of the existing successful companies including Google, Microsoft, and GE launched their ventures during the poor economy. So, his message below is SIMPLEMENTE PERFCTO!

Message to Fools:
“If you have a day job, and you love it, shout hooray! If you woke up and realized that you are being pimped by an evil corporation and not being treated fairly, or you are bored out of your mind, or too smart to be locked down, get up and grab your red stapler and walk the F out the door. Fools are a necessary part of the economy and I too have been a fool more than once in my career, so I too “get” that it is quite difficult to leave the day job, etc. So either explore your business as a hobby (but not for too long) or live vicariously through your Founder and Farmer friends. Turn your dream into an innovative product or service. Be bold, but be careful. Know your personal financial situation and speak with others who have made the jump from Fool to Founder, prior to grabbing your stapler”  Jonathon Perrelli with Fortify.vc.   Read more of this post

Google to Invest in Offshore Wind Power Transmission Grid

Google has announced that it will invest in an offshore Mid-Atlantic electrical transmission backbone running from New Jersey to Virginia that will be able to connect 6,000 megawatts of wind turbines, enough to serve about 1.9 million households, according to the company.

Called the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) the backbone will be built around offshore power hubs that will collect the power from multiple offshore wind farms and deliver it through sub-sea cables to the land-based transmission system. Read more of this post

Awesome DC becomes a Gold Digger


I am very excited to announce Awesome DC’s  first Gold Digging experience for a local company, Motionsoft who just landed their $5.5 mil investment.

The company was one out of the eight local early/later stage firm whose technology caught my attention at MAVA Capital connection 2010 back in May. Here is my coverage on them.

Motionsoft secured their investment from Edison Venture Fund. The fund will be used for expanding the company  sales, marketing and development activities. Read more of this post

Entrepreneurs Learned their Lesson from the Bubble Days

Ron Conway and Paul Graham share some positive and optimistic information with the TechCrunch Founder, Michael Arrington and the audience during the Social Currency CrunchUp in Palo Alto,  on Friday. Unfortunately, they both mostly addressed the outcomes for investors, who always have liquidation preferences and other protections that put them ahead of founders.

Conway who said, has invested on over 500 startups, expects about one-third of them fail, one-third get investors their money back, and one-third bring a 2x to Google-x return which btw, Conway invested in Google and PayPal early on. But that’s not the case. Conway noticed that during the Internet Bubble in 1997 to 2001 — the failure rate was about 77 percent. Read more of this post

U.S. Venture Investment Hits Highest Level Since 2008


Venture capitalists invested $7.7 billion into U.S.-based companies during the second quarter, total of 744 deals,  the highest quarterly total since the third quarter of 2008, according to new statistics released by Dow Jones VentureSource.

The quarter’s 744 VC deals was a 13% increase from the prior year, while the capital invested rose 26%.

The second quarter’s deal count represents a 13% increase from the 656 deals closed during the same period last year, and capital raised is up 26% from the $6.1 billion invested in the year-ago period. Read more of this post

US Department of Energy will Invest $2 Billion in Solar Power


President Obama announced the Department of Energy would invest about $2 billion in conditional funding to two solar energy companies, Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. Nice idea that should have started 10 years ago! But, we were busy working on a plan to attack a wrong country called Iraq.

The good thing is that investing in renewable energy was always a top priority for Obama and he was very clear on this throughout his campaign and even once he became President. So this investment is to be expected.

Projects funded by this move are expected to create more than 5,000 construction and permanent jobs. Read more of this post

Local Companies Selected for June Grubstake Breakfast


The Business Alliance, a McLean-based networking and education organization aimed at entrepreneurs and early-stage companies in the region, has selected seven companies to present at next month’s Grubstake Breakfast.

The investor forum is set for June 10 in McLean. Presenters, each seeking $250,000-$2 million in investment capital, include: Read more of this post

Venture Capital Performance Improves in Short Term


by Elias Shams
Short-term venture capital investments improved, while longer-term investments continued to suffer for the period ending Dec. 31, according to new figures from Cambridge Associates and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

The quarterly and one-year returns of 3.3 and 3.0 percent were higher than returns from both the previous quarter and from one year ago as the venture-backed exit market began to shows signs of improvement at the end of 2009. Five and 10-year returns deteriorated with the 10 year horizon falling into negative territory. The longer term horizons of 15 and 20 years showed mild improvement and continued to outperform public market indices.

Bookmark and Share

Economic Recovery Not Far Way


by Elias Shams
As a serial entrepreneur, I’m excited to share some data I just read on Dow Jones. Looks to me  economic recovery – in particular in tech sector, is not that far way. As private equity investment has been going down, venture capital funding has been going up:

Throughout 2009, funds for early-stage companies and multi-stage funds saw significant growth — optimistic signs heralding the return of venture capital. Funds fluctuated from quarter to quarter last year, but the year still ended strongly and Q1 2010 is robust compared to the beginning of last year. see more…

Healthcare Reform to Drive Government IT spending


by
Elias Shams
A positive and promising report by Reston-based INPUT was released yesterday that indicates a boost in IT spending and consequently the employment.

The report says the recently passed healthcare reform bill will force federal, state and local governments to invest more than $5 billion in information technology over the next five years to meet new requirements. read more…

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 358 other followers