Steve Ballmer is out; now three top Microsoft shareholders want Bill Gates to scoot along, too.

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Todd Chaffee on IVP’s Twitter Stake: Fred Wilson was “Instrumental”

Any day now, it’s expected that Twitter will make its IPO filing public, revealing exactly who owns what.

No one yet knows Institutional Venture Partners’s stake in Twitter, but based on the $35 million Series C round for the company that IVP led in January 2009, it’s clear the Sand Hill Road firm will generate a world-class return on its investment.

Yesterday, as part of a longer conversation, Chaffee shared the story of how that Twitter funding came together. It’s a good reminder of the importance of relationships in this business:

“One of the things we’re always doing is surveying the landscape for breakout companies, where they’re starting to gain traction…and their users and other metrics are starting to track up.  Twitter was classic case of company just starting to break out. 

One variable for us is: What could this be in terms of potential? An early-stage company can be interesting and getting some traction, but when you run the profile, [you realize it has the potential] of making 3x to 5x your return, [which isn’t a compelling enough exception for IVP, which specializes in later-stage companies that already have meaningful revenue]. 

Twitter fit our criteria [of being able to deliver a much bigger return]. And we had a view into that, so we called [early Twitter investor] Fred [Wilson] and asked if the Twitter guys would see us. 

‘We’re not raising money right now,’ Fred told us. ‘Go away.’ But we’re co-investors [with Union Square Ventures] in Comscore [which tracks Web and mobile usage]. And so [after another plea or two] Fred asked if the Twitter guys would see us, telling them, ‘Just meet with them, and when you’re ready to raise, [IVP] will be there.’ 

So we had them come in [to our office] on a Monday in early January 2009, and when we heard them describe the company as the ‘pulse of the planet’ — those were their words — we could see this was much more than a microblogging service. Ev Williams and Biz Stone are sharp guys. Some entrepreneurs have a vision that’s clearly infectious and much bigger than everyone realizes, and [that was the case here], so it was pretty straightforward. In fact, you could see everyone around the table, thinking, This one could really go. Meanwhile, they [thought] IVP was asking all the right questions, [that we could] see opportunities and threats more clearly than anyone else, and they told Fred that they could see IVP as a partner.

It was a hot deal for us, so we scrambled the jets and the next day I went up there [to San Francisco from Menlo Park] with [IVP colleagues] Dennis [Phelps] and Jules [Maltz] for a day of due diligence. This was a Tuesday. Wednesday night, I had dinner with Ev Williams. On Thursday, he was calling our CEOs to see what it’s like to work with IVP. And by Friday, we had a term sheet.

Eventually, that news broke, and it brought everyone out of the weeds to outbid us. We asked [Williams and Stone], ‘Who do you like best of these groups?’ and they said Benchmark [Capital], so we dialed Benchmark into the deal.

Fred was absolutely instrumental. Because Ev and Biz hadn’t done this many times, I [feel] like Fred was the one who really opened the door for us and said [to them], ‘Let’s do the IVP deal.’”

(Look for the inside story behind IVP’s rise to the top — and how the firm plans to stay there — on Friday.)

New Fundings

Algolia, a year-old, Paris-based company focused on helping developers to make their apps or sites smarter through its search technology, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Index Ventures, Point Nine Capital and Alven Capital.

CardFlight, an 18-month-old, New York- based company that enables developers to integrate in-person card payments into their own app, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by ff Venture Capital. The round also included Payment Ventures, Apostolos Apostolakis, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Plug & Play Ventures, and Great Oaks Venture Capital.

Estify, a  graduate of Amplify LA’s business accelerator that produces software for the auto collision industry, has raised an $800,000 round of seed capital, led by ff Venture Capital, with participation from Romulus Capital, REES Capital and Amplify LA.

Listia, a four-year-old, Mountain View, Calif.-based online trading marketplace, has raised $9 million led by General Catalyst Partners. The company had previously raised $2 million in seed funding, including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Y Combinator and individuals such as Max Levchin.

Quantopian, a year-old, Boston-based company that’s building an algorithmic trading platform for browsers, has raised a $6.7 million Series A round from Khosla Ventures and Spark Capital. In January, the company announced it had raised a seed round of $2.1 million from Spark Capital.

Sefaira, a four-year-old, U.K.-based company that makes cloud-based efficiency software that helps architects design higher-performing buildings, has raised $2 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The company has previously raised $18 million in equity from Braemar Energy Ventures, Chrysalix, and the Hermes GPE Environmental Innovation Fund.

Tackk, a year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based company that makes an online content creation and sharing tool, has raised $1.2 million in new funding led by ff Venture Capital, which was joined by several existing investors, including Hatch Partners and Drummond Road Capital.

Telogis, a 13-year-old company, Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based company whose software tracks commercial vehicles, has raised $93 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company plans to go public next year.

Wrike, a seven-year-old, San Jose, Calif.-based maker of collaboration software, has closed $10 million in Series A financing from Bain Capital Ventures. Wrike had raised $1 million in seed funding last year from TMT Financing.

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New Funds

SAP Ventures, a group spun out of the enterprise software giant in 2010, has raised $650 million for a direct investment fund, with the money coming from SAP and SAP Ventures’ executives. The firm has also created 10-person biz dev team intended to help its portfolio companies grow. SAP Ventures has been managing its first direct investment fund, a $353 million fund, since 2011; it also manages a $405 million fund of funds that owns stakes in other venture capital funds, including August Capital.

Peer Venture Partners, a Sand Hill Road firm with an exceedingly low profile (and bare-bones site), has just raised $36.6 million for its fourth fund, according to an SEC filing that lists the total offering amount as “indefinite.” Listed on the filing are Jared Hutchings and Mark Campbell, who previously helped manage University Venture Fund, the University of Utah’s student-run fund.

Emerald Ocean Capital Group, a Newport Beach, Calif. firm, is the process of raising a $10 million venture fund for marijuana startups. Dudes.

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People

Foundation Capital has a new EIR: Mitali Pattnaik, a former product and marketing lead at Twitter and Google has joined the firm to focus on building a new, consumer-focused companies. Foundation says Pattnaik is exploring “several areas of interest,” including education, mobile and collaborative consumption.

Jim Orlando is the newest managing director at OMERS Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of the OMERS pension plan. In the role, Orlando — who was most recently a managing director at OMERS Private Equity and has worked previously at Bell Canada and Battery Ventures — will be responsible for leading tech, media, and telecommunications investments in North America.

Mohammad Sabah, the former manager of data science and analytics at Facebook, is joining venture-backed Identified as its “chief data officer.” Identified, in San Francisco, transforms social data from Facebook into intelligence for consumers and enterprises. Since its fall 2010 founding, it has raised $22.5 million, including from Transmedia Capital, Capricorn Investment Group and a long list of individuals, such as Alexander Tamas, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Bill and Tim Draper.

MG Siegler, a partner at Google Ventures, is among a growing number of venture capitalists who is now spearheading an AngelList syndicate.

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Exits

41st Parameter, a nine-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based company that produces fraud detection and prevention software, is being acquired for $324 million by the global information services company Experian. Over the years, the company had raised roughly $38 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Jafco Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners, among others.

Yahoo is acquiring Hitpost, a South San Francisco-based company whose apps allow sports fans to connect and compete. The three-year-old company had raised roughly $2 million from investors, including RRE Ventures, Floodgate, and numerous angel investors. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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IPOs

The government shutdown won’t delay Twitter’s public offering. Here’s why.

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Job Listings

Singularity University, an elite Silicon Valley think tank, is launching a new venture fund and it’s looking for a managing partner for that fund. To apply, you’ll need previous experience with early-stage fund management, some board service, and an MBA. If you happen to have experience investing internationally, all the better.

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Essential Reads

New York Magazine profiles Tumblr founder David Karp. Said one source to the magazine of Tumblr’s sale to Yahoo: “It was the biggest game of chicken I’ve ever seen in a startup. Literally months away from bankruptcy, and he manages to find an angel in Marissa Mayer.”‘

Eek. Authorities and Internet-security experts say tens of thousands of dubious websites are popping up across the Internet.

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Detour

What it’s like to sell your company to Google: “Desks, laptops, no servers, here’s the intranet, figure it out.”

Truly amazing feats of facial hair.

Banksy is hosting a “show” on the streets of New York this month. Details are here.

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Retail Therapy

Time to say goodbye to that back-breaking rucksack you’ve been lugging along on your bike ride, and say hello to these cool, custom-made bicycle bags.

Happy socks! Who couldn’t use a pair of these?

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The government has shut down, meaning 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed, and another million employees will be asked to work without pay.

For you history buffs with some extra time on your hands today, here’s a recounting of every previous government shutdown, along with how they ended.

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The Case for Objective Ratings on AngelList

Last week, AngelList, the hugely popular platform that connects entrepreneurs with accredited investors, introduced what many have heralded as a game-changing new twist to its business. Called its Syndicate program, AngelList now allows angel investors to syndicate investments themselves, work for which they will receive carry. (An angel who syndicates a deal will earn 15 percent of any upside, while AngelList will collect 5 percent.)

If some of these syndicates involve the same groups of investors, and those groups morph into venture funds, don’t be surprised. As some angels have said on social media since AngelList announced its new program, it might allow many of the “best” angels to strengthen their brands and, potentially, move up the investing food chain.

And there’s no reason why angels shouldn’t be able to extract more leverage from their investments, particularly if they’re willing to manage a big syndicate or serve on a company’s board.

Still, while the syndicate program seems like a well-considered start, AngelList might think about providing some public accounting of the track records of its various syndicate leaders. As the gossip site Valleywag pointed out in its inimitable way yesterday, without a structure that manages to disclose something about the investors’ IRRs, the program seems likely to degenerate into a popularity contest. Much of AngelList’s matchmaking still rests on “social proof,” which isn’t quite the same thing as cash on cash returns.

Last week, for example, author and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss raised $350,000 for a logistics startup called Shyp in 53 minutes. Ferriss’ fundraising prowess is impressive, and nobody is prejudging Shyp, but it’s hard not to be skeptical about investments that are closed in less than an hour.

Most VCs wouldn’t wish their fundraising process on their worst enemy, but it does help them demonstrate their qualifications and commitment to the investment process to both their investors and their fellow partners. Through vetting their PPMs with Cambridge Associates, undergoing lengthy and arduous roadshows with family offices and pension funds, and sacrificing a large amount of their own capital – typically 3 percent – in order to launch their funds, venture investors let it all hang out. (Yes, there are top-tier funds that are able to raise funds by picking up the phone a few times, but that’s the exception not the norm.) By the time a firm has raised a fund, they have left a trail of evidence testifying to the work they will put into an investment. Can the same be said of Ferriss?

Obviously, AngelList doesn’t need to replicate the venture business – it’s large enough as it is. But in the interests of both entrepreneurs and the syndicates themselves, it might be time for AngelList to adopt an objective ratings process, one that would provide everyone with more insight into an investor’s qualifications than just his or her Klout score. It would make an already promising program even better.

New Fundings

Cydan, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company focused on de-risking compounds with therapeutic and commercial potential, has raised $10 million in new financing from Lundbeckfond Ventures and Bay City Capital. Existing investors NEA and Alexandria Venture Investments also participated.

Dataguise, a seven-year-old company based in Fremont, Calif., has raised $13 million in Series B funding led by Toba Capital, which was joined by undisclosed investors. The company, a maker of data security intelligence and protection software, received a $7.3 million Series A round of financing in 2011, including from tech investor Herb Madan.

HelloFresh — a two-year-old, Berlin-based meal planning startup that invites users to choose from its online recipes, after which it delivers them the ingredients they need — has raised $7.5 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Phenomenon VC of Russia and included Vorwerk Ventures, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Investment AB Kinnevik and Rocket Internet. To date, the company has raised $17.5 million altogether.

MokiMobility, an 18-month-old, Salt Lake City, Utah-based company whose cloud-based software helps secure, monitor and otherwise manage mobile devices, has raised $6.6 million in funding from EPIC Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Allegis Capital and Plus550.

OMsignal, a two-year-old, Montreal-based company that makes apparel designed to track a wearer’s biometrics, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from new investor Mistral Venture Partners, whose managing director, Code Cubitt, has joined the board. OMsignal raised $1 million in seed funding earlier this year from Real Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, and David Cohen.

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New Funds

Three Crescendo Ventures partners who quietly raised at least $10.5 million for a new fund last year appear to be in the market again. Under the new brand Decathalon Alpha, John Borchers, David Spreng and Wayne Cantwell — all longtime GPs at Crescendo in Palo Alto, Calif. — are looking to raise a $150 million fund. They’ve so far secured $12.9 million toward that end, too, says a new SEC filing. (Interestingly, the form lists their location as Park City, Utah. I’ve asked for more information, and I’ll write more about their effort as I learn more.)

Miramar Digital Ventures, a four-year-old venture capital firm based in Corona Del Mar, Calif., is looking to raise up to $50 million for a new fund, according to an SEC filing. The form lists two partners: Bruce Hallett, who cofounded the firm and was previously managing partner of the Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison Orange County office, and Sherman Atkinson, who joined the firm two years ago and was previously was a CEO-in-Residence with Austin Ventures and before that, COO of Intermix Media. According to the filing, the firm has yet to begin raising capital for the new fund.

Endeavor Global, a New York-based nonprofit organization that selects, mentors and “accelerates” people who it identifies as “high-impact entrepreneurs” has filed a form with the SEC, outlining its plans to raise $50 million dollars in donated capital to further support the entrepreneurs with which it works. (The idea is to plug any returns into the rounds of future entrepreneurs.) The filing lists just $1.275 million in capital raised so far, but according to numerous reports and Endeavor’s own site, numerous supporters have already pledged $1 million to the new fund, including Michael Ahearn, chairman of True North Venture Partners; Edgar Bronfman, Jr, the former chairman of Warner Music Group; Michael Cline, a managing partner of Accretive LLC; Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Greylock Partners; and eBay founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar.

Altimeter Capital, the Boston-based investment firm run by travel entrepreneur Brad Gerstner, is raising a $15 million special purpose vehicle, according to an SEC filing, which reflects that the funds have yet to be raised. In late July, Gerstner, who has raised roughly $600 million since 2008 to take long and short positions in mostly public companies, also began raising a $75 million venture fund.

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People

 

More job cuts are forthcoming at Fab.com, its CEO hints in one of those awful emailed memos to employees.

Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban is finally going to trial over regulators’ claims that he engaged in insider trading nine years ago, in a case that many consider to be a huge gamble by the SEC.

Brad Feld and his partners at Foundry Group have decided to stop reading articles about AngelList’s new syndicate program and form a syndicate for themselves to see how it goes.

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Exits

Apparently, not even Debra Chrapaty could save the cloud computing and storage services company Nirvanix, which has shut down. I interviewed Chrapaty earlier this year when she left her post as the CIO of Zynga to join six-year-old Nirvanix as its fifth CEO. Chrapaty is a respected contact of Khosla Ventures, which had invested a $25 million round in Nirvanix in May of 2012 and, in an apparent effort to turn around the company, installed Chrapaty as the company’s executive chairwoman last November, before elevating her to chief executive in March. Nirvanix, founded in 2007, had raised $70 million over five rounds of funding, including from Valhalla Partners, Intel Capital, Mission Ventures and Windward Ventures.

Power2Switch, a Chicago-based company whose free service helps consumers shop and compare electricity providers online, has been acquired for an undisclosed amount by competitor Choose Energy of Plano, Texas. Power2Switch launched out of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 2010 and had raised $1.3 million, including from New World Ventures and Hyde Park Angels. Choose Energy, founded in 2005, raised a $4 million Series A earlier this year from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Stephens Capital Partners.

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IPOs

Fully 26 venture-backed IPOs raised $2.7 billion during the third quarter of this year, a 13 percent increase from the second quarter and an 11 percent increase, by dollars according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. The quarter also marked the first consecutive quarter since 2004 that we’ve seen 20 or more venture-backed IPOs. More here.

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Job Listings

GE is looking for a managing director in its San Ramon, Calif., office to be “primarily responsible for sourcing, planning, and leading strategic investments and/or acquisitions on behalf of GE Software & Analytics.” To be considered, you’ll need a degree in science, tech, engineering, math or finance; at least 15 years of experience in software engineering, tech startups, corporate development, etc; and at least five years of venture or M&A experience.

Rusnano, a company owned by the government of Russia and aimed at commercializing developments in nanotechnology, is looking for a senior analyst in its Menlo Park, Calif. office. The analyst will be “responsible for the company’s institutional investment management platform” and the job requires a couple of years of “strong analytical and quantitative background.” Previous nanotech experience isn’t mandatory but preferred.

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Essential Reads

A Stanford mole (or one of Clinkle’s investors) has leaked the startup’s $25 million secret.

Assuming this is the “new normal,” Salon observes that “for those not lucky enough to have catered foodie gourmet lunches in brand-new downtown office complexes, the new normal sucks.”

What techies should know about the government shutdown.

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Detour

Need energy at the office? Skip the coffee and call your mom.

It’s official. Baseball is dominated by randomness.

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Retail Therapy

The Ralph Lauren “Polo Bear” sweater makes its return to the men’s department, though we cannot recommend wearing it on a date, in your car, at the gym, in the office, or even on a relaxing constitutional around your own home at nighttime. Trust us.

This 500-piece Breaking Bad Lego Lab is fantastic and not much more expensive than that Ninjago Lego set you bought your nephew last winter! Complete with meth-cooking outfit. Extra body parts sold separately.

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Sorry, Coca-Cola. Apple is now the most valuable brand in the world.

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Will Alibaba Draw VCs Back to China?

Although the American financial press seems preoccupied with Twitter’s impending IPO, Alibaba’s IPO could be an even bigger story. The China-based e-commerce juggernaut, which could go public as early as the first quarter of 2014, racked up revenues of $1.38 billion for the quarter ended in March, and analysts estimate that the company could be worth anywhere from $120 billion to $200 billion. (Facebook’s market cap as of this writing is $125 billion.)

As the Alibaba offering approaches, one can’t help wondering why U.S. investors have had so much trouble capitalizing on Chinese tech IPOs.

Although Yahoo remains among one of Alibaba’s biggest shareholders – with a 24 percent stake, half of which it plans to sell at the IPO – Alibaba has few U.S. investors other than GGV Capital, an expansion-stage firm on Sand Hill Road that invested in Alibaba in 2003; and Silver Lake, the private equity firm, which reportedly invested $300 million in Alibaba in 2011. (Japan’s Softbank owns 35 percent of the company; Alibaba’s founders and senior executives own another 13 percent.)

American tech types have tried repeatedly to capitalize on the country, but factors like partner defections, accounting scandals committed by China-based companies, and a slowdown in the country’s GDP growth rate have yielded disappointing returns.

Still, success will only come if a firm is willing to stick it out and take the time to forge relationships within China’s close-knit entrepreneurial community, says David Chao, co-founder and general partner of DCM, the early-stage venture firm.

Since 1999, DCM has backed more than 200 companies across the U.S. and China, and three of its most recent IPOs are China-based companies, including  Renren, Dandang, and Vipshop. (DCM owned 20 percent of Vipshop went it went public last year with a market cap of $600 million; today it’s valued at $3.2 billion.)

Last week, DCM scored another China-based investment win when Kanbox, a personal cloud storage service that is often likened to Dropbox, was acquired by Alibaba for an undisclosed amount.

Pointing to a separate, recent deal – the Beijing-based search engine Baidu’s agreement to pay $1.9 billion for China’s popular smartphone app store 91 Wireless – Chao says that it’s actually becoming easier for savvy investors to generate returns. “Five years ago,” he observes, “almost all successful Internet companies were destined to go public. Now that you have a second generation of successful Internet companies going public — large cash companies,” Internet investors can expect exits through M&A, too.

Other shifts Chao has witnessed include an “angel investor boom in the last year that will probably continue for a while,” and less copycat tech and more innovation, particularly when it comes to smartphones and mobile social networks. (Chao characterizes several companies as “way ahead” of anything we’ve seen in the U.S.) “What we’re seeing isn’t a 180-degree shift,” he adds, “but 10 years ago, 99 of 100 business plans were largely focused on being analogous counterparts to successful U.S. or Japanese Internet companies; today, that number is maybe 80 out of 100.”

I ask Chao if it’s too late for firms that still haven’t made a foray into China — as well as whether he thinks U.S. investors have the intestinal fortitude to stick it out. Will Alibaba be the company that refocuses their attention?

“It’s more difficult than it was 10 years ago” to enter the market, Chao notes. But plenty of venture brands are still being established in China, he says. Succeeding in China is all about the long game, he suggests, but “a firm can make its name in very quick order.”

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New Fundings

Azimo, a two-year-old, London-based payment processing startup, has raised $1 million in seed funding from eVentures, a global venture fund with offices in San Francisco and Hamburg, Germany among other spots.

Enmetric Systems, a five-year-old, Belmont, Calif.-based company whose software helps companies monitor, control and reduce their energy use and cost, has raised $1.5 million in follow-on financing led by Navitas Capital, with participation from new investors including Azure International, Belgravia Group, and several angel investors. The company  has raised $3.74 million to date.

Love Home Swap, a four-year-old, U.K.-based home swap holiday service, has raised follow-on funding from MMC Ventures of $1.6 million. The company has raised slight more than $4 million altogether, mostly from MMC.

Palantir, the nine-year-old, Palo Alto, Calif.-based data mining startup, has raised $196.5 million in funding, according to an SEC filing that was flagged by VentureBeat Friday afternoon. The funding brings the company’s funding to date to roughly $500 million, and sources tell the San Jose Mercury News that the company expects additional funding in the near future that could push the final round past $200 million. No investors are listed on the Form D, but Palantir’s existing investors include Founders Fund, Glynn Capital Management, and Ulu Ventures.

PowerbyProxi, a seven-year-old, Pleasanton, Calif.-based that makes chargers and power pads that allow users to power their smartphones wirelessly, has raised $4 million in funding from Samsung Ventures. The funding is part of a $9 million Series C round to which investors TE Connectivity and Movac, an expansion-stage investment firm in New Zealand, also participated earlier this year.

Sharecare, a three-year-old, Atlanta-based health information site launched by WebMD founder Jeff Arnold, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the healthcare-focused venture fund Heritage Group of Nashville that brings its total funding to $91 million. Some other Sharecare investors include Galen Partners and TomorrowVentures.

Swiftype, a 20-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that has developed what it claims is a smarter search engine for Websites, has raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by New Enterprise Associates, with individual investors participating. The company has also raised $1.7 million in seed funding to date, from a long line of investors that includes Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, CrunchFund, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Twitch, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based video platform for gamers, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Thrive Capital, with participation from WestSummit Capital and Take-Two Interactive Software. Previous investors in the company Alsop Louie Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, also participated. The company has raised $35 million to date.

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New Funds

Revolution Ventures, the venture capital arm of Revolution LLC, run by former AOL CEO Steve Case, has closed a new $200 million venture fund. Case, Tige Savage, and David Golden will lead the new fund, which was raised in just eight months, according to the firm.

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People

Steve Ballmer calls Microsoft “like a fourth child to me in a raw, emotional goodbye to the company, set to the theme song of his “favorite movie of all time,” the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.”

As Jeff Bezos prepares to take over, Don Graham leaves the Washington Post.

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Exits

Bureau of Trade, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that had created a men’s shopping marketplace, has sold to eBay for an undisclosed, all-cash amount. Investors including Foundation Capital and Founder Collective had provided the company with $1.2 million in seed funding.

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IPOs

Twitter‘s IPO filing — including details of how much Twitter intends to raise and what its shares will cost — will be made public this week, says Quartz.

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Job Listings

CMEA Capital, the San Francisco-based venture firm, is looking to hire a full-time associate to support the partners in its life sciences practice. It’s a “pre-MBA” position and the firm is looking for someone who has already spent a few years within the health group of an investment bank or venture firm or  private equity firm. The ideal candidate will also have a bachelor’s degree in biology, chemistry, or another life science field.

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Essential Reads

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson on the promise of AngelList’s Syndicates program: “It’s hard to be a great lead investor and a completely different thing than being a well sought after angel investor who can get into someone else’s deals.”

Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz weighs in on crowdfunding.

Never mind what you’ve heard in recent years. There’s plenty of money in Europe for solid startups, say European VCs.

Meet Anthony Noto, the Goldman Sachs banker taking Twitter public.

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Detour

More and more college aid is going to kids who less need it.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report makes it official: If we don’t address climate change in the next 30 years, we’re in for some nasty business.

Atul Gawande on the centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act: It “resembles nothing more sinister than an eBay for insurance.”

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Retail Therapy

Mugs to keep you motivated.

Nine things to do in St. Bart’s.

And: Do you have what it takes to survive for 24 whole hours in the wilderness of Surrey, England with no tent, water or food? (Well, you’d have limited food, and access to local streams and pools, but you’d have to forage for anything else!) Test your endurance at the new Survival Academy from British adventurer Bear Grylls, who has slept in a sheep’s carcass, quenched his thirst with his own urine, and now wants to share his extreme survival techniques with you, outdoor enthusiast. (Cost is $560. If you’d rather spend five days tramping around the Scottish Highlands with little more than a towel and head torch, the price is $3,000.)

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Ford CEO Alan Mulally is now the number one candidate to become Microsoft’s new CEO, reports AllThingsD.

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Attorney Jay Gould on the Pros and Cons of a Public Venture Offering: “Someone Will Do It Right”

Earlier this week, I wrote that venture capitalists should take advantage of new general solicitation rules that allow them to advertise when they’re in fundraising mode. I was expecting pushback from skeptical VCs; what I heard from them instead was confusion about how they could advertise without breaking the rules.

For help, I phoned Jay Gould, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who heads up the law firm’s investment funds practice. Gould — who’s in regular communication with the SEC and says those proposed amendments around the new rules will likely be “substantially” adopted — agreed to discuss the pros and cons for VCs interested in advertising.

According to Gould, one of the biggest downsides of advertising is “potentially” drawing more scrutiny from regulators and investors. (It’s already VCs’ biggest fear, seemingly.)

There’s also just a lot more paperwork. First, a firm will have to file a Form D at least 15 days before beginning its general solicitation for the offering. It will then have to elaborate on whatever advertising methods it plans to use. And it will need to file offering materials, like PPMs, with the SEC before it starts handing them out to investors. Not last, a follow-on form has to be filed once the offering is closed.

The solicitation period can also be a little labor intensive, particularly if it drags on and the firm’s performance changes during that time. The reason, says Gould, is Rule 156 of the Securities Act, which states that funds can’t represent information is any way that’s misleading or causes “material” confusion to investors. That means if an existing investment goes south during the marketing of a new fund, the firm needs to alter its advertising to reflect that change in its overall performance to stay in the good graces of the SEC. (Gould says firms should do this “promptly,” and suggests that even minor changes in performance could necessitate these updates.)

What if a venture firm embarks on a public offering, then decides to shifts gears to raise the rest of a new fund privately? It’s not something Gould recommends. Among other challenges: after a public offering closes, a firm has to wait another six months before launching a private offering. (It’s a rule meant to keep the offerings from becoming integrated.)

So what are the advantages for firms interested in availing themselves of the new rules, I ask Gould. He’s quick to point out that the funds that embrace them can post their performance numbers on their Websites, or go on television and talk about their funds without “getting grilled by compliance people.” Both could be effective in bolstering a firm’s brand and making it faster to raise a fund.

In fact, he says, Pillsbury already has “a couple” of fund clients that intend to pursue general solicitation. And he anticipates many more to come — even if it takes a couple of years for firms to grow comfortable with the prospect.

Most venture firms still “view these new rules somewhat suspiciously,” Gould notes. “But someone will do it right,” he says. “And it will be a really professional, polished effort. And people will go, ‘Holy shit. That’s the new standard. I guess I have to do this now.’”

New Fundings

3D Robotics, a four-year-old, San Diego-based maker of unmanned aerial vehicles, has raised $30 million in series B funding. The company, which was cofounded by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, raised the capital from Foundry Group, SK Ventures, and existing investors True Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. The company had raised a $5 million Series A round last year.

Antenna Software, a mobile applications developer based in Jersey City, New Jersey, is raising a $3 million round, according to an SEC filing, which states the company has so far raised $2.56 million, including from Investor Growth Capital and Integral Investment Capital.

Avocado Software, an 18-month-old, San Francisco-based company cofounded by Chris Weatherell, an early creator of Google Reader, and Jennifer Bilotta, formerly a senior user experience designer at YouTube, has raised nearly $900,000 in debt, according to an SEC filing. Avocado’s couple-focused app aims to help users “stay connected with the most important person in your life, through chat, lists, calendars, sketches” and more. Last year, the company closed a $1.3 seed round, including from Baseline Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, and General Catalyst.

DropThought, a year-old, Santa Clara, Calif.-based company focused on customer engagement analysis and social media marketing services, has raised $2. 5 million in Series A funding, according to an SEC filing. Investors include Xseed Capital.

Good Eggs, a two-year-old San Francisco based company that aggregates, packs and delivers locally grown food to its customers’ doors, has raised an $8.5 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital and joined by Harrison Metal, Collaborative Fund and angel investor Max Ventilla, among others.

Liftopia, an 8-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose online marketplace caters to the ski and mountain activity industries, has raised $5 million in financing led by Industry Ventures. New investors ru-Net, Thayer Ventures, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Walter Winshall also participated, as did existing investors First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, SK Ventures, Xandex and former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford. The company has now raised $7.9 million to date.

MakeSpace, a months-old startup based in New York City that offers customers on-demand storage (along with on-demand pick and drop off to its storage facilities in New Jersey), has raised $1.3 million in funding from Upfront Ventures, Lowercase Capital, High Peaks Venture Partners and Collaborative Fund. 

Porch, a two-year-old, Seattle-based company that’s building a data-driven marketplace for home improvement, has raised $8.2 million as part of a planned $27.6 million round, according to an SEC filing. It isn’t immediately clear whether or not the funding includes a $6.25 million seed round that the company disclosed in June of this year, and to which numerous high profile investors contributed, including Ron Conway and former eBay president Jeff Skoll.

RidePal, a two-year-old San Francisco-based company that provides Wi-Fi enabled bus rides for corporate employees, has raised $3.2 million in Series A financing led by Claremont Creek Ventures and Volvo Group Venture Capital. RidePal raised $500,000 in seed capital last year, including from 500 Startups and Amicus Capital.

Singulex, a 10-year-old biotechnology company based in Alameda, Calif., has secured a debt facility of up to $40 million from Oxford Finance and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has raised roughly $78 million in venture capital over numerous rounds and its backers include OrbiMed Advisors, Fisk Ventures, Prolog Ventures, and Jafco Ventures.

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People

Ronny Conway, son of renowned angel investor Ron Conway, is leaving his role as the head of Andressen Horowitz‘s seed-stage investing program and launching his own early-stage tech investment fund. As Dan Primack of Fortune reports, Conway introduced Andreessen Horowitz to the mobile sharing app Instagram. (The firm invested $250,000 and reaped $78 million when the company was later acquired for $1 billion by Facebook  Conway is expected to raise around $30 million for his new effort.

Roger Neal has been named senior VP of corporate strategy at Boston-based Gazelle, a consumer elecronics trade-in site. Neal was most recently executive director of NYC Media Lab and has served in executive roles at BusinessWeek and eBay. Gazelle is a venture-backed company whose investors include Venrock Associates, RockPort Capital Partners, Physic Ventures and Craton Equity Partners.

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IPOs

King, the British computer games maker behind Candy Crush Saga, has quietly filed documents with the SEC for an IPO that’s expected to value the firm at more than $5 billion.

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Job Listings

Burrill & Company in San Francisco is looking to hire an investment banking associate to work in the life sciences sector for its merchant banking group. Candidates have to have a bachelors degree in a life science-related field of study, or a business-related degree. The ideal candidate also has one to two years of experience in investment banking, private equity or venture capital.

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Essential Reads

What Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Instagram and Internet porn are doing to America’s teenage girls.

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Detour

As the debate continues in Washington over the funding of President Obama’s health care initiative, sources confirmed Thursday that 39-year-old Daniel Seaver, a man who understands a total of 8 percent of the Affordable Care Act, offered a vehement defense of the legislation to 41-year-old Alex Crawford, who understands 5 percent of it.

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Retail Therapy

We like this simple, refined bike rack for the fixie that deserves to be displayed properly.

Whoa.These black jeans were named after a black covered wagon that dropped off the corpses of 20th century miners in front of their homes. That’s pretty heavy! We probably won’t be buying them (too baggy), but we definitely think the company should win some kind of award for most dramatic backstory.

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Apple’s Jonathan Ive and Craig Federighi: The Complete Interview.

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Series A Investors Take the Gloves Off

In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about the symbiotic relationship between seed-stage and Series A investors.

But things are becoming a little less symbiotic of late, suggests Josh Felser, co-founder of Freestyle Capital, a San Francisco-based seed-stage firm that recently closed on a second, $40 million fund. Felser says that he has encountered a number of Series A deals recently that “pitted the entrepreneur against the seed investors.”

Here’s the scene that Felser has seen playing out more and more: A VC agrees to invest $5 million into a company with a $20 million pre-money valuation, giving the startup a post-money valuation of $25 million. The company’s seed investors, presumably holding convertible notes, ask to invest an additional $2 million in the Series A round to maintain their pro rata rights. But the VC refuses to go above the $25 million post money, telling the entrepreneur that if he or she wants to make room for those seed investors, the company will have to accept a lower pre-money valuation.

It isn’t a new tactic. It’s always been the case that some VCs don’t play nice with seed-stage investors. In certain situations, too, there are simply too many seed-stage investors to accommodate; if everyone maintains their pro rata rights going into the Series A, it doesn’t give the VC firm enough of an ownership stake to make the investment worth its while.

Still, in recent years, some Series A investors have either left room for seed investors or at least been upfront about their designs to maintain specific ownership levels, thus giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to look elsewhere.

That’s changing, says Felser, who has been involved with two recent investment rounds where VCs have put entrepreneurs and their seed backers in precarious positions by not disclosing their true intentions until very late in the game.

Felser tells me of one startup raising a Series A round that asked Freestyle to invest less than the $750,000 it had planned after the Series A investor laid down some inflexible terms. Felser and Freestyle co-founder Dave Samuel — successful founders themselves — reminded the entrepreneur of how much work they had poured into the startup. (As Felser jokingly tells it, for effect, they refreshed the entrepreneur’s memory over lunch in a darkly lit nightclub that opens out into an alley.)

Ultimately, the founder made room for Freestyle, accepting a lower pre-money valuation in the process. But Felser says the trend is “something [for early investors] to be worried about” and calls relations between seed and Series A investors “symbiotic still, but tense.”

Says Felser, “We depend on each other.” He acknowledges that “fixing the post-money [valuation of a startup] can make a ton of sense,” too. But he doesn’t like that some VCs are starting to play hardball, or that it’s happening “sneakily deep in the process” all of a sudden.

“It’s something we’re mindful of,” he says.

New Fundings

Appirio, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based IT consulting company that offers technology and professional services to companies wanting to adopt public cloud applications, has raised $4 million, according to a new SEC filing. The funding brings Appirio’s total funding to roughly $80 million. Investors include Sequoia Capital, GGV Capital, and General Atlantic.

Deem, a San Francisco-based, e-commerce platform company formerly known as Reardon Commerce, is in the process of raising a new, $100 million round, an SEC filing shows. According to the Form D, the company has already secured $70 million, including from new investors General Catalyst and HGGC, the middle market private equity firm, as well as previous investors Oak Investment Partners and Foundation Capital. Just two years ago, the company had raised $133 million in a financing that reportedly valued the company at $1.35 billion. The newest funding would bring the total raised by the 14-year-old company, whose apps help business and consumers manage online transactions like travel reservations and consumer loyalty programs, to roughly $450 million. Others of its investors include Khosla Ventures, and strategic investors American Express, Citi, and JPMorgan Chase.

Gyft, a two-year old San Francisco-based company that makes a mobile gift card app, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from A-Grade Investments, Social+Capital Partnership and Karlin Ventures. Gyft raised $1.25 million in seed funding a year ago from Google Ventures, Founder Collective and 500 Startups.

HotelQuickly, a Hong Kong-based maker of a hotel booking app, has raised $1.16 million in Series A funding, including from former Singtel and Singapore Airlines chairman Boon Hwee Koh and Temasek Holdings.

JustFab, the three-year-old, El Segundo, Calif.-based e-commerce company, has raised $40 million in Series C financing, led by Shining Capital of Hong Kong, with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners, Rho Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures and Intelligent Beauty. The company has raised $150 to date.

Ranovus, a year-old company based in Ottawa, Ontario, that produces advanced digital and photonics integrated circuit technologies (among other things), has raised $11 million from Azure Capital Partners, OMERS Ventures, T-Venture, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and BDC Venture Capital.

Shyp, a San Francisco-based company that promises to pick up packages, professionally package them, then send them on their way quickly and cheaply, has raised $250,000 from investors that include the venture firm Homebrew; author-investor Tim Ferriss; Paypal President David Marcus; and Google exec Brian McClendon.

Synergis Education, a two-year-old, Phoenix-based company that’s working with six universities to fund, establish and grow higher education programs for adults, has raised a $33 million Series A round. The funding was led by University Ventures and included Bertelsmann SE and the University of Texas Investment Management Company.

Urban Compass, a two-year-old, New York-based home rentals platform and social network, has raised a $20 million Series A round that values the company at $150 million, according to TechCrunch. New investors include Conde Nast parent company Advance Publications and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff. Existing investors to participate in the funding include Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, and .406 Ventures. Urban Compass has raised $28 million to date.

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People

Sarah Guo has joined Greylock Partners from the Goldman Sachs investment banking group, where she led coverage of private enterprise technology companies. Guo worked on the IPO of the HR giant Workday, a company that continues to be co-led by Greylock partner Asheem Chanda. According to Greylock, Guo also championed Goldman’s investment in Dropbox and has advised several public companies, including Netflix and Zynga. Her title is “investor.”

Ellie Wheeler has been promoted to principal at Greycroft Partners, which has offices in both New York and L.A.. Wheeler will continue to be based out of New York, where she works alongside the firm’s managing partner and founder, Alan Patricof, co-founder and partner Ian Sigalow, and partner John Elton.

Marissa Mayer is getting the unauthorized book treatment care of Business Insider’s deputy editor Nicholas Carson, who has just landed a deal with Hachette Book Group. We’re expecting good stuff. (Now the question is: when does the movie version get made, starring Reese Witherspoon?)

Benjamin Nye, co-managing partner of Bain Capital Partners, has just been named CEO of the Boston-based software maker VMTurbo, backed by Bain, Highland Capital Partners and Globespan Capital Partners. Nye will continue in his role at Bain. Meanwhile, VMTurbo founder Shmuel Kliger, a former VP of architecture and applied research at EMC, becomes president of the company.

Anup Arora, Paul Edwards, Forbes Burtt, Mark Modica, and Daniel Holman have joined Hercules Technology Growth Capital in Palo Alto, Calif., as managing directors. Hercules is a specialty finance firm that provides senior loans to venture-backed companies.

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Exits

Ebay’s PayPal has acquired Chicago-based payments gateway Braintree, in an all-cash deal worth $800 million. The six-year-old company had raised roughly $70, including from Accel Partners, New Enterprise Associates, RRE Ventures and Greycroft Partners.

Automattic, the San Francisco-based parent company of WordPress, has acquired Cloudup, a seed-funded file-sharing service that launched this year and  Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The purchase represents Automattic’s 12th acquisition. Cloudup’s backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Atlas Venture.

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IPOs

Enzymotec, an Israel-based company that produces lipid-based food supplements is expected to raise $75 million tomorrow in a public offering, with its shares priced at between $16 and $18. The company is owned by GlenRock Israel, Millennium Material Technologies Fund, Kibbutz Maanit’s Galam Ltd., Ofer Hi-Tech Ltd., and Mexico’s Arancia Industrial SA de CV.

RingCentral, a San Mateo, Calif.-based company that makes multi-location, multi-user, enterprise-grade communications software, is also expected to go public tomorrow, with its shares offered at between $11 and $13 to garner around $90 million. The company has raised roughly $55 million from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, DAG Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank and Cisco.

Violin Memory, a Mountain View, Calif.-based flash storage company, is expected to begin trading tomorrow at between $8 and $10 per share, which would raise about $160 million. The company’s investors include Highland Capital Partners, SAP Ventures, Toshiba and Juniper Networks.

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Essential Reads

Who gets richest when Twitter goes public? Ev Williams. Not enough-to-buy-an-America’s-Cup-team rich, but pretty rich. Bloomberg has the story.

Reuters columnist Felix Salmon does not approve of SecondMarket‘s new bitcoin fund, warning investors to steer clear.

Bill Gates finally admits that Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake.

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Detour

The former president of Trader Joe’s is opening up a restaurant for expired food.

A reporter documents her campaign to make 300 sandwiches for her boyfriend, after which he has promised to propose to her. Someone, please bring us a tissue as we follow this sweet, empowering love story.

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Retail Therapy

Four words: This thing shoots marshmallows.

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Please feel free to send us any and all story suggestions (anonymous or otherwise) by clicking here. If you’re interested in advertising in our email newsletter, please click here. To sign up for the newsletter, visit strictlyvc.com.