Early Pinterest investors enjoy a very nice mark-up on their investment, as the social network completes a whopping new $225 million round led by Fidelity Investments.

John Sculley is reportedly exploring a bid for Blackberry with some Canadian partners.

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Jim Robinson of RRE Ventures on Square, Bitcoin, and the Firm’s Next Fund

Jim Robinson, cofounder of 19-year-old RRE Ventures, is a veritable sage of the New York venture scene, having arrived earlier — and stayed longer — than many of his industry peers.

I caught up with Robinson yesterday to talk about what’s happening in New York, as well as to learn more about what’s happening specifically at RRE, a firm that now invests 75 percent of its capital in New York-based companies. Our conversation has been edited for length.

RRE has raised five funds to date. Will you be raising a sixth soon and if so, how much will you be targeting?

We’re still investing our fifth [$230 million] fund; we’re mostly through that. And we’ll raise a new fund shortly in the same, $250 million range.

Would we ever see RRE raise a bigger fund?

Fund sizes go in an out of vogue, but you go bigger either to do bigger deals or hire more people. Bigger deals have never been our business model, and we’ve always liked our size and shape: five or six partners, a couple of principals, a couple of associates. During the dot.com era, we’d gotten bigger and we sort of concluded that we didn’t want to grow our practice, [because] we felt a little more disconnected, both from our partners and the companies we were funding. When you have 10 VCs standing in a field, they’ll argue about the weather.

There’s obviously a lot going on in New York. Is there too much going on?

Are there too many startups right now? Probably. When you start hearing about whether you should bother with college or start a company instead, it’s probably [a bad sign], but these things [sort themselves out]. I think it’s probably more acute out there [in California]. Most people would rather do a little more following than leading in life, which is a normal human condition, and you don’t get to do that in a startup.

RRE has enjoyed some nice exits, including, most recently, the sale of payments company Braintree to eBay for $800 million in cash last month. I understand you had a chance to invest in the seed round of Square, too, but didn’t. Is that your biggest miss?

Hah, no, not even close. We’ve been around 20 years. We have a bunch of those. We didn’t do Priceline and should have. We didn’t do PayPal and should have. Long ago, we’d invested in Apriva [a point-of-sale dongle made to work with once-ubiquitous PalmPilot handhelds] and barely gotten our money back, so we were leery of incumbents in the payments processing world. We also worried about [Square’s] price. It seemed expensive to us at the time.

Many VCs argue that it’s worth paying up for the right deal. How do you feel about being price sensitive?

If you pay up and it works out great, you say, “Great, this was sensible.” If you pay up and it doesn’t work out, you don’t talk about it. If I had a growth fund here, there’s no question that I’d say on occasion, “This is too big an opportunity.” Then again, price is a function of supply and demand. We disregard it at our own peril.

What do you think about the digital currency bitcoin? 

We’ve been looking at bitcoin technology for over a year. We’ve probably looked at 20 [bitcoin-related] companies seriously and we’ve made very small seed investments in two, but we’ve been reticent to place a major bet on one to date. It gets down to regulatory issues, which seem to indicate that if you’re an institutional investor in a digital currency company, there’s some legal liability. If there are problems in the system, [the liability] doesn’t just stop at the company but can go through investors and even, potentially, investors’ investors. It’s just not field-tested yet.

No doubt we’ll have a major investment in a [bitcoin] company, whether it’s in one year or three years. But we’re watching what’s happening on the federal and state and international level right now. We’re still in studying mode.

New Fundings

Black Lotus, a 14-year-old, L.A.-based security company that caters to data centers, hosting providers and telecommunications carriers, has raised $3.5 million from Industry Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm.

BloomNation, a two-year-old, L.A.-based startup behind a marketplace for florists, has raised $1.65 million in seed funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Spark Capital, Chicago Ventures, and CrunchFund also participated.

BoostUp, a three-year-old, Detroit-based savings platform designed to help consumers save for major purchases (brands that want their business can help them, too), has raised $1 million led by Detroit Venture Partners. In August, the company moved to downtown Detroit from Chicago. It also ditched its original name, Motozuma, during the transition.

Cureatr, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that makes group messaging software for healthcare providers, has raised $5.7 million in Series A funding from Cardinal Partners and Milestone Venture Partners.

FormLabs, a two-year-old, Somerville, Mass.-based maker of desktop of 3D printers, has raised $19 million from DFJ Growth, Pitango Venture Capital, and Innovation Endeavors.

The Football App, a five-year-old, Berlin-based company whose mobile app provides users news about team updates and lets them communicate with other fans about sports news, has raised $7 million in fresh funding. The money comes from Union Square Ventures just six months after the company raised $10 million from EarlyBird Venture Capital. The Football App has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

Funding Circle, a three-year-old, U.K.-based online platform that connects people willing to lend money with small businesses needing capital, has raised $37 million in Series C funding. Accel Partners led the round, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, and Ribbit Capital. Funding Circle, which has now raised around $52 million to date, is using part of its newest financing to enter the U.S. market, reports TechCrunch. Specifically, the company is merging with San Francisco-based Endurance Lending Network. Much more on the news here.

F-star, a seven-year-old, Cambridge, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company, has formed an immuno-oncology spin-off called F-star Alpha with $12.1 million in Series A funding from Atlas Ventures, Aescap Venture, TVM Capital, SR One, MP Healthcare Venture Management and MS Ventures. You can learn more about the deal — and this particular business model — here.

Gravitant, a nine-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that optimizes the cloud consumption of its enterprise customers, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. New investor Corsa Ventures led the round with participation from existing investor S3 Ventures. The company has raised $13.8 million to date.

HighFive, an 18-month-old, Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst, which was joined by Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. Other investors to participate include Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, Box CEO and cofounder Aaron Levie, and Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston. HighFive is still operating in stealth mode, but a spokeswoman tells me it is “reimagining the way people communicate at work” and will be “squarely focused on business.” She adds that the company is rolling out its beta products to its first customers in the next two weeks.

HomeShop18, a five-year-old company located in Uttar Pradesh, India, has raised $14 million in new funding, including from Network18 Group, a media group in India that operates some of the country’s news TV channels. HomeShop18 is an online and on-air retailer. GS Home Shopping, a Korea-based TV home shopping company, also participated in HomeShop18’s funding. The company has raised roughly $65 million to date.

Nutonian, a 2.5-year-old, Cambridge, Mass.-based that makes machine learning software, has raised a $4 million Series A round led by Atlas Venture. GigaOm has a more detailed write-up of what the company does here.

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Exits

Aexio, an eight-year-old Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based mobile network optimization company, was acquired yesterday by InfoVista, a Paris-based company focused on network performance management. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. In 2010, Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad, Malaysia’s largest venture firm, had acquired 23 percent of Aexio for an undisclosed amount of funding.

LookFlow, a four-year-old, Mountain View, Calif.-based company whose technology incorporates facial recognition and machine learning, was just acquired by Yahoo. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. LookFlow had raised an undisclosed amount of funding, including from Cloudera founder Jeff Hammerbacher and Wellsphere founder Dave Kashen.

Shutl, a three-year-old, U.K.-based same-day delivery service, was acquired yesterday by eBay for an undisclosed amount. Shutl had raised around $8.7 million from Hummingbird Ventures, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, e.ventures and Notion Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

SoCoCare, a San Diego-based startup focused on mobile customer care, was acquired yesterday by Five9, a San Ramon, Calif.-based company. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Twelve-year-old Five9 is backed by SAP Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Partech International. Five9 has raised at least $72 million over the years.

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Happenings

Business Insider hosts a conference in New York City today called Startup 2013. The focus is on “educating the next generation of startup leaders” and Henry Blodget will be on hand (of course), along with other big New York names, including RRE Ventures’ Stuart Ellman, Betaworks’ cofounder John Borthwick, and Dan Porter, the newly named head of digital at William Morris Endeavor.

Also kicking off today at the San Jose Convention Center in the Bay Area: the 2013 Net Impact Conference, a gathering with more than 350 speakers who are scheduled to talk for a wide range of tracks, from “tech for good” to “sustainable food” to “corporate impact.” You can find more details here.

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People

It’s looking like Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li will soon own Fisker Automotive. More here.

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Job Listings

GE is looking for a business development and ventures associate in its San Ramon, Calif., office. The new hire will join GE’s Software & Analytics Business Development and Strategy team, which “composes strategy and then sources and executes acquisitions, venture capital investments, strategic alliances, and licensing on behalf of GE Software and Analytics and GE Global Research.” To apply, click here.

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Essential Reads

The West Coast tech industry hearts recently elected Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. The Silicon Valley Business Journal counts the ways donations.

Enough with this “tech surge” business, says venture capitalist Fred Wilson. He thinks the government should open source the healthcare.gov project, “or at least all the components that easily lend themselves to open source,”  and he’s asking people to sign this petition toward that end.

The SEC releases a refreshed, 100-page crowdfunding proposal. The public has 90 days to respond.

LinkedIn wants the keys to your email for its innovative new Intro feature – but can you trust it?

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Detours

Zack Seckler tells jokes with a click of his camera’s shutter.

Googlers discuss how long any one employee has managed to live (live!) at the search giant’s accommodating headquarters.

Witness a very funny newspaper correction.

Dermatologists say to wash your face just once daily — in the evening.

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Retail Therapy

A men’s cologne made in collaboration with the Glenlivet distillery. (Is Glenlivet trying to get you fired? We think it might be.).

Earphones for a “high-powered look.” (Do not buy these.)

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The pressure builds on Kathleen Sebelius to resign as President Obama’s health secretary in the wake of the troubled rollout of the country’s new online insurance exchange.

Mark Zuckerberg’s CEO compensation last year, most of it from exercised shares, was a robust $2.28 billion.

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Michael Chasen’s New “Billion-Dollar Idea”

Michael Chasen speaks a mile a minute, and maybe there’s a reason why. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has discovered his next calling – providing location-based connections for young, mobile users. It’s a well-worn story at this point, but Chasen may just be the one to make money in this space.

If Chasen’s name sounds familiar, it’s likely because of Blackboard, an education software company that he cofounded with his college roommate in 1997. Blackboard went public in 2004 before it was acquired in 2011 by Providence Equity Partners for $1.64 billion.

Needless to say, Chasen never has to work again. But while visiting colleges during his Blackboard days, he realized his latest idea – connecting people who are in close proximity to each other through their phones – might be an even bigger opportunity than Blackboard. As a result, he quickly put together a 20-person company and, in June, closed on $12.5 million from NEA, Grotech Ventures, and a long line of celebrity entrepreneur-investors, including Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, and Dave Morin. He could have raised more. (“We actually had over $20 million in interest for the $12 million round,” Chasen tells me at at a San Francisco coffee shop. “We had investors we said no to, and we had to scale people back.”)

Investors were presumably taken with Chasen’s track record. But Chasen also argues that his company, SocialRadar, which is based in Washington, D.C., is a billion-dollar idea. Its objective: to cross-reference the location beacons in our pockets – our smartphones – with the now two billion social profiles online, to create real-time information about the people around us, whether they’re 300 feet or 50 miles away.

“With SocialRadar,” says Chasen, “you can walk into a room, and we’ll tell you there are 10 people here who you know: five coworkers, three people you went to college with, and two people who live on your street. Beyond that, we’ll tell you that your one college friend recently got his MBA and another was recently married.” Adds Chasen, “Right now, people might think, Why do I need to know who’s around? But it’s about having that information at your fingertips. You might not act on it, but maybe you will. It all depends on the context.”

SocialRadar is still in beta, with plans to launch by year end. (Chasen says the team is still working on all kinds of features, including around privacy, so that if you want to see who is around you but don’t want to be seen, you can list yourself as “anonymous” or use the app completely invisibly.)

Once it scales, SocialRadar intends to make money through directed commerce, by presenting location-aware offers and the like. But Chasen says the focus is very much on growing the business first  — something he thinks he can do quickly by leveraging location information from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google to show users who’s around, regardless of whether those acquaintances already have the SocialRadar app.

The strategy isn’t without huge risks. The location-based landscape is filled with the bones of entrepreneurs who’ve tried to make money off seemingly useful services and failed. More, some of these services might object to SocialRadar monitoring their users’ data. If Facebook, in particular – the veritable 900-pound gorilla in this space – decides that it doesn’t want to play nice, SocialRadar could find itself in a very tight position.

Then again, Chasen has proven that he can make money in a tough space. The number of investors who’ve made money in education is minuscule, and yet he succeeded twice, first in taking the company public, then in selling it to a major private equity firm. Chasen also seems realistic, the product of his many years as an entrepreneur, no doubt. As he puts it: “Just like mapping software has fundamentally influenced the way that people use technology and get around, this technology has the same potential. Five to 10 years from now, everyone will have this technology and use it on a daily basis — whether or not it’s SocialRadar.”

New Fundings

Bromium, a three-year-old, Cupertino, Calif.-based data security company, has raised $40 million led by Meritech Capital Partners, with existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners, Highland Capital Partners, and Intel Capital participating. Bromium analyzes malware for IT administrators after an attack; it has raised roughly $75 million to date.

CoolaData, a year-old, Tel Aviv-based company behind a behavioral analytics service, has raised $7.4 million in a Series A funding from Greylock Partners Israel and Carmel Ventures.

Easy Taxi, a three-year-old, Sao Paulo-based, Uber-like mobile application has raised $7 million from iMENA Holding and Rocket Internet, a six-year-old Berlin-based e-commerce incubator that was founded by the renowned Samwer brothers and which raised $500 million in June. The round for Easy Taxi is just the latest in a recent succession, reports TechCrunch, which notes that in July, Easy Taxi raised $10 million from Africa Internet Holding (AIH), a joint venture between Rocket Internet and AIH’s 35% owner Millicom, and that the two investors invested $15 million in Easy Taxi in June through another joint venture: Latin American Internet Holding, to help give Easy Taxi runway to grow in Latin America.

Handybook, an 18-month-old, Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up that invites users to book preapproved cleaners and repairmen, has raised $10 million in Series A funding, led by General Catalyst Partners and Highland Capital Partners. The two firms invested $2 million in Handybook a year ago.

Monteris Medical, a 14-year-old company headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has raised $13.3 million in equity and debt financing. BDC Venture Capital Healthcare Fund led the equity round, with SWMF Life Science Fund and other unnamed investors filling out the rest of the equity financing. Oxford Finance provided the debt financing. Monteris has developed a system that uses lasers, catheters, MRI machines and proprietary software to help surgeons treat brain cancer. Altogether, it has raised $34.5 million in funding.

OneClass, a three-year-old, Toronto-based company that’s been creating an interactive library for college-level content, has raised  $1.6 million in Series A funding from the private equity firm SAIF Partners. Existing investors, including Real Ventures, also participated.

Outbrain, a seven-year-old, New York-based company known for creating viral advertising links, has raised $35 million in a round that was led by HarbourVest and included Carmel Ventures, Index Ventures, and Gemini Israel Ventures. GlenRock Israel, Rhodium and Lightspeed Venture Partners also participated in the financing. The company has raised $64 million to date.

Perpetuuiti TechnoSoft Services, a 2.5-year-old, Mumbai-based discovery recovery management firm, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Intel Capital, which manages a $250 million India-focused pool of capital. Others of Intel’s India-based investments include Snapdeal, Healthkart, and Yatra Online. Peretuuiti, along with SkySQL (see below) are among 16 new investments around the world that Intel Capital revealed yesterday. The entire list can be found here found here.

Prism Skylabs, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based video analytics startup, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Intel Capital, which was joined by Triangle Peak, Presidio Ventures, Data Collective and Expa. The company has raised $25 million to date. Previous investors include TomorrowVentures, SV Angel, Data Collective, Andreessen Horowitz and CrunchFund.

Pronutria, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Mass.-based company, raised $10.8 million in Series A funding from Flagship Ventures. Founded by Flagship VenturesLabs, the company, which has been operating in stealth mode for the past two years, describes itself as a “revolutionary platform for identifying protein nutrients from within the human diet that have potent pharmacological effects.”

SkySQL, a three-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based open source software company, has raised $20 million led by Intel Capital, with California Technology Ventures, Finnish Industry Investment, Open Ocean Capital and Spintop Private Partners, participating.

Zen Planner, an eight-year-old, Denver-based maker of business management software for the health and fitness community, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from the growth equity firm Mainsail Partners.

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IPOs

500.com, an online sports-lottery operator in Shenzhen, China, has filed for a $150 million IPO in the U.S. The company is largely owned by executives. Those institutions with a sizable stake include Clear Treasure Group Limited, which owns 10.4 percent of the company; DeLite Limited, which owns 12.4 percent; Brothers Union International Limited, which owns 11.3 percent, and Smart Mega Holding Limited, which owns 11 percent. Sequoia Capital is also mentioned on the listing, though its holdings aren’t listed.

Moelis & Co, the seven-year-old, New York-based boutique investment bank, is reportedly mulling an IPO.

Sungy Mobile Ltd., a Guangzhou, China-based mobile applications maker, has filed to raise $80 million in a U.S. IPO. Among its shareholders are Freedom First Holdings, which owns 30.1 percent of the company, IDG Ventures, which owns 28.7 percent, and JAFCO, which owns 9.6 percent.

Twitter updated its S-1 yesterday, revealing that it has obtained a $1 billion credit facility this month. The move is reminiscent of Facebook and Zynga, two other companies that tapped the debt market in advance of their IPOs.

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Happenings

The FundingPost is featuring a venture and angel investor event this afternoon in New York. You can learn more here.

The Venture Atlanta conference also kicks off today. Dick Kramlich of NEA and John Balen are among the event’s featured speakers. Details are here.

If you’re in L.A. you might want to check out PandoDaily‘s monthly “Fireside Chat,” featuring investor Mark Suster. The program begins at 6 pm PST.

A two-day “predictive analytics” conference is also getting underway in London today. Click here for more information.

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People

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West became engaged(!!!) at AT&T Park in San Francisco Monday night, and their friends were there to see it, including Ben Horowitz, Mark and Ali Pincus, and Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis.

Barry McCarthy, who spent 11 years as the CFO of Netflix, beginning in 1999, has joined Clinkle, the San Francisco-based payments company that raised the “largest seed round in Silicon Valley history” and which is expected to formally launch its service next year. McCarthy, who has been an advisor for the past few years at Technology Crossover Ventures, is Clinkle’s new COO.

Tina Sharkey, the former CEO of BabyCenter, is joining Sherpa Foundry as CEO. Sherpa Foundry is a 10-month-old venture co-founded by investors Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford. AllThingsD has the lowdown.

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Job Listings

GrowthCap, a New York-based deal network that looks to pair private growth-stage companies with institutional investors, is looking for a VP of business development to help grow the company’s relationships in the PE and VC communities. The ideal candidate has a background in financial services.

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Essential Reads

Everything you need to know about yesterday’s Apple event.

Facebook is still struggling to find the line between violent content for the sake of raising awareness and violent content that simply celebrates violence.

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Detours

From a fun New York Times profile of Deadspin video editor, Tim Burke. The 35-year-old is “known among sports journalists for his ability to capture the moment – whether as a still, a video clip or in his favored format, a GIF – better, faster, more frequently and from more sports events than just about anyone. How he does it is a matter of wonder.”

Fatter animals are evidently translating into new business opportunities. Think pet gyms, pet pools — even fat camp for dogs.

A brief, visual history of beautiful coffeemakers, in FastCo.

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Retail Therapy

We love this: An instant photo lab for those iPhone pictures you just have to convert into film.

This $45 million Falcon 5X private jet is none too shabby (we especially like its oversize windows).

This may be the perfect app for the person who not only doesn’t mow his own lawn but can’t be troubled to turn on the spigot outside to water it.

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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.

Microsoft is testing prototypes for its own Web-connected eyewear.

Marc Andreessen: Stories About Silicon Valley “Crack Me Up”

Silicon Valley has been receiving a lot of unfavorable media attention in recent months, from Valleywag to New York magazine to the New Yorker. Last week, during a sit-down with Marc Andreessen at the Sand Hill Road offices of his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, we discussed some of that coverage, and what he makes of it. Part of our conversation, lightly edited for length, follows. For more of our chat, visit StrictlyVC.

There’s a lot of hand-wringing in the media lately over whether or not Silicon Valley takes into mind the broader economy. Do you think some of those criticisms are valid?

The stories crack me up. There’s sort of two criticisms. One is that Silicon Valley is the new elite, the new one percent, the new oligarchy, and that all the billionaires don’t give a shit about society and [welcome a] Mad Max dystopian wasteland of no jobs [as] technology takes everything over.

The other argument is that technology produces nothing of value; it’s all just Snapchat apps so 14-year-old girls can send selfies to each other. I have a hard time reconciling the two arguments.

What of the argument that the Valley is building technologies that are primarily of value to a subset of people who can afford to use them?

That I don’t agree with. I think that’s almost just Uber, or the early-delivery services.

If you’re a journalist and come to Silicon Valley and you want to find three startups [whose services] only 25-year-olds and single people with discretionary income are ever going to use, you can do that, congratulations. If you want to come to Silicon Valley and find companies that are really going to open up access to transportation or education or financial services to people who haven’t had access to those things before, you can also do that.

These stories are very well-written and they’re entertaining, but they’re typically written by someone outside the Valley who wants to reach a certain conclusion to make them and their readers – in my view – feel better. I think it’s very reassuring, especially to people in New York right now, to think the Valley is just a bunch of kids farting around. But it’s only one slice.

Another widespread criticism is that tech entrepreneurs don’t give back enough. As a philanthropist, what do you think?

With tech — and you see this with a lot of these new entrepreneurs — they’re 25, 30, 35 years old, and they’re working to the limit of their physical capability. And from the outside, these companies look like they’re huge successes. On the inside, when you’re running one of these things, it always feels like you’re on the verge of failure; it always feels like it’s so close to slipping away. And people are quitting and competitors are attacking and the press is writing all these nasty articles about you, and you’re kind of on the ragged edge all the time. So to try and figure out how to find the time to intelligently allocate philanthropic capital, like, it just does not compute. It’s a timing issue.

Many founders I know, including a lot of really young founders, fully plan to give the vast majority away. They just plan to do it when they have time to do it properly. You could make the reasonable argument that the world would be better off if they gave the money away faster; it just begs the question of how, which is a harder question to answer. Even Warren Buffett couldn’t figure out how to do it without just giving it to Bill Gates. Maybe the answer is just give all the money to Bill Gates!

New Fundings

Blue Rooster, a 13-year-old, Seattle-based enterprise software company focused on interactive design and development, has raised $3 million from Fujitsu subsidiary PFU Limited. The money is part of a larger investment that has yet to be completed, reports TechCrunch.

Comprimato, a young, Prague-based company behind a newer, faster video compression technology, has received 200,000 euros in seed funding from the Czech seed fund Credo Ventures and corporate venture arm of Czech tech company Y Soft. Comprimato is a spin-off of CESNET, the Prague-based research institute.

Docurated, a two-year-old, New York-based startup whose cloud-based software helps companies organize their data in a more easily searchable way, has raised $3.75 million from Rogers Venture Partners, a nearly two-year-old, $150 million venture firm in Palo Alto. The company had previously raised $1.6 million in seed funding.

Kona Medical, a four-year-old, Bellevue, Wash.-based company that develops treatments for hypertension, has raised  $10 million in Series D financing from Morningside Group, an investment firm with a big presence in China. Just last year, Kona raised $30 million in Series C funding led by an unnamed “large-cap medical technology company,” which was joined in the financing by existing investors Essex Woodlands, Domain Associates, Morgenthaler Ventures and BioStar Ventures.

Soylent, a young San Francisco-based startup whose signature drink ostensibly addresses every human nutritional need, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from investors, including Lerer Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. (It’s the kind of “fringe” investment that AH will still back at the seed stage.) Other investors in the company include investors Alexis Ohanian, Harj Taggar, Garry Tan, and Jack and Sam Altman.

Sqrrl, an 18-month-old, Cambridge, Mass.-based company behind a scalable, NoSQL database that’s used by the NSA, has raised $5.2 million in Series A financing from Atlas Venture and Matrix Partners. The same two firms had provided Sqrrl with $2 million in seed funding in August 2012. TechCrunch has an interesting piece on the company here.

Superpedestrian, a four-year-old, Boston-based company that was spun of MIT, has raised $2.1 million in Series A funding from Spark Capital and Tumblr founder David Karp. The company produces a very neat wheel technology that can turn any bike into an electric hybrid. Boston Business Journal has much more here.

Telly, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup has raised $3.4 million, according to an SEC document spied yesterday by VentureBeat. Telly’s video platform shows users videos based on what their friends have enjoyed, and the company has previously raised $6.5 million, including from Azure Capital, Draper Fisher Juvetson, and Siemer Ventures. More here.

Unbound, a young, London-based online platform that invites authors to pitch their ideas and visitors to choose which get written, has raised $1.82 million in seed financing from DFJ Esprit, Cambridge Angels Group, and Forward Investment Partners.

United Capital Financial Partners, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based company with offices around the country, has raised $38 million in growth financing led by Sageview Capital, which was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners and Grail Partners. United Capital Financial runs a fast-growing registered investment advisory (RIA) firm that, since 2005, has grown through dozens of acquisitions of smaller RIA firms. BVP and Grail have participated in previous rounds of financing for the company.

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IPOs

Varonis Systems, an eight-year-old, New York-based data company that helps organizations manage and analyze their unstructured data, has filed to go public, in an offering expected to raise around $100 million. The company plans to list on Nasdaq. Among its biggest shareholders are Accel Partners, which owns 25.6 percent of the company; Evergreen Venture Partners, which owns 23.1 percent; Pitango Venture Capital, which owns 17.1 percent, and JPMorgan, which owns 9.1 percent.

Renaissance Capital observes that “with printed jet engines, cakes and even organs on the horizon, excitement for 3D printing is climbing quickly. The latest public 3D printing player” — VoxelJet, a maker of large industrial-use systems that counts numerous German VCs as principal shareholders — “had the second best debut of the year for a US IPO, jumping 121.5%” last week. More from Renaissance about that offering and others here.

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Exits

FlexyCorp, a Rennes, France-based company behind an Android performance boosting app called DroidBooster, has been acquired by Google for undisclosed terms, report both TechCrunch and France’s L’Expansion.

Tellabs, a 38-year-old, Naperville Ill.-based  telecom and optical networking equipment maker that went public in 1980, is being acquired by the private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners for $891 million in cash, a 4.3 percent premium over its October 18 closing price. As columnist-investor Om Malik notes, the amount is “less than [the] quarterly sales it logged during the heyday of telecom” during the go-go ’90s.

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Happenings

Apple‘s highly anticipated event — in which new iPads, iMacs and more are expected to be featured —  is happening today in downtown San Francisco. Plan accordingly if you work in SOMA. And if you’d rather not catch every detail over Twitter, you might be interested in signing up for CNet’s live event blog.

What? In Abu Dhabi, you say? Then you might want to tune into Nokia’s Innovation Reinvented event, where half a dozen new devices are expected to be unveiled. The U.K.-based gadget site Pocket-lint is already out there and evidently sweating to death in order to provide readers up-to-the-minute details, so if you can’t make it, just check out its feed here.

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People

Renowned tech columnist David Pogue is ditching the New York Times for Yahoo.

Lane MacDonald becomes the head of private equity investments at Harvard Management Company in December. In April, longtime PE head Peter Dolan left the position. MacDonald, who attended Harvard College, joined the unit in 2008. Reuters has much more here.

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Job Listings

Lighter Capital, a 3.5-year-old, Seattle-based firm that loans tech startups anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000 in exchange for a percentage of their future revenues, is looking for an associate who doesn’t mind being a jack of all trades.  (Because the firm is small, you’d be helping on the investment side, as well as assisting with marketing, biz dev, and even software development input and testing.) Requirements include an undergraduate degree and two to three years in investment banking or private equity/venture capital.

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Essential Reads

Unaccredited investors may finally get the go-ahead to fund startups during an open meeting at the SEC tomorrow.

Most VCs do just fine, but they aren’t “insanely rich,” according to these calculations.

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Detours

Can we, as a nation, take one more minute of Keith Olbermann? GQ investigates.

Fully 86 percent of college students are texting throughout their classes, reports a new study.

These powerful ads use real google searches to show the scope of sexism worldwide.

Thirty Hollywood stars who started out in horror movies! Mmmwhahaha.

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Retail Therapy

Have $48 million to spend on a New York penthouse? We’ve got just the place for you.

Witness: A muscle shirt with built-in padding to make you look buff. It is not a joke. Do not, under any circumstances, buy this alarming product. If you do not heed this advice, at least do not, under any circumstances, wear it on a date with someone who might be inclined to unbutton your shirt unless you secretly hate this person.

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Addendum: StrictlyVC was told by several readers that the hand-sewn penny loafers we featured yesterday were awful. One reader specifically asked that we “do a man-check on some of this stuff first.” Point taken.

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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.

Tablet shipments are expected to grow a whopping 53 percent this year.

Apple debuts its first iPhone 5S TV spot.

Oops. An identity theft service that sold Social Security and drivers license numbers purchased much of its data from Experian.

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Andreessen Horowitz Backs Out of Seed Investing

There’s been a lot of back and forth in recent weeks about whether or not the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz is dialing back on certain types of Series A investments. But cofounder Marc Andreessen suggests a bigger shift is the firm’s decision to get out of seed investing, except when presented with “fringe” opportunities. 

Andreessen explained the firm’s thinking during a sit-down last week at his Sand Hill Road office. Our conversation — which we’ll run more of this week — has been edited slightly for clarity.

You think companies have to compete against themselves to stay innovative. How is Andreessen Horowitz continuing to innovate?

Probably the biggest change is that we’re pulling back significantly on the number of seed investments we’re making. We’ve had this policy, which all [venture] investors have, which is that if we invest in the [Series A or later] stage, we’re not going to invest in a competitive company, because that’s very damaging to an entrepreneur. For seed, we’ve always been explicit that if we’re putting in $50,000 to $100,000 [we can invest in competing companies, too].

Which can still create signaling issues, of course. Isn’t that why you’d launched a scouting program, using entrepreneurs to quietly seek out seed deals on your behalf?

We tried for a while to minimize [signaling damage] through the scout program; that was one potential layer of interaction that we thought would help. We also tried briefly to have this A16z seed brand and under that program, we could make multiple bets in one category.

Nobody can really do seed investing with a conflict policy because it’s all so uncertain at that point. You don’t have any idea what these companies are going to be doing in a year, much less whether you’re investing in the right one. And you’re putting very small amounts of money to work, so if you can only invest in one [startup per] category, you could never make many investments.

So what changed?

What we tell everybody is we don’t take the conflict policy with seed investments. But [entrepreneurs] don’t necessarily hear us, and it causes them problems anyway and makes them feel bad.

Also, the outside world doesn’t necessarily understand the difference. So we think there are more and more entrepreneurs at the seed stage who don’t want to talk with us because they think we’re already invested in a competitor. They think we’re conflicted out of the category. And they don’t differentiate between the seed and venture category. So we’re backing off of the number of seed investments we make basically to prevent that problem from getting worse.

What will happen instead?

One, we’re going to work even more closely with a bunch of the top-tier seed firms to be an even better source of deal flow for them. There’s also stuff we’ll do with seed companies to help them out without actually having investment stakes. We’ll kind of do favors, build a relationship [with them].

What we will back is fringe, where you couldn’t even conceive that there will be a competitor. So something that looks really nuts becomes very attractive for that program, which, arguably, is the best thing to invest in at the seed stage, because the whole point of the seed investments is to learn. ‘Here’s a brand new idea: Is it going to work. Is it not going to work? Is this person for real or are they crazy?’ You kind of want to figure that out before you write the big check.

New Fundings

Everest, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup behind a mobile app that reminds users of their personal goals, is raising a $500,000 round of funding, according to an SEC filing. TechCrunch reported earlier this year that the company has already received some financial support from investor Peter Thiel; according to the Form D, Everest, listed as EVRST, has already raised $50,000.

Gremln, a four-year-old, St. Louis, Missouri-based startup that makes social media management software, has collected roughly half of a $962,000 round it’s raising, according to an SEC filing. Gremln raised $700,000 late last year from a St. Louis accelerator program called Capital Innovators.

Insightra Medical, a 12-year-old, Irvine, Calif.-based company whose products serve the hernia repair market, has closed an undisclosed amount of Series C funding from Baird Capital and Tekla Capital Management. Others of its previous investors include Manipal Group, Samos Investments, and Vision Sciences.

K2 Learning, a nascent, Bangalore-based education startup with both software and hardware components (it plans to make specialized tablets), has raised $1.3 million in angel funding from Radheshyam Agarwal, founder and director of Calcutta Tube India.

M-DAQ, a three-year-old, Singapore-based financial tech startup whose platform allows users to price and trade exchange-traded products in more than one currency, has raised $11.7 million in Series B funding led by GSR Ventures and Citi Ventures. With its previous rounds, the company’s total capital comes to roughly $24 million.

Panorama Education, a three-yeard-old, Boston-based  data analytics company designed to give school districts information about their students and teachers, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Startup:Education, A-Grade Investments, Yale University, Softech VC and Google Ventures.

Panoramic Power, a four-year-old company that’s headquartered in Kfar Saba, Israel, and makes real-time energy management software for commercial businesses, has raised $8 million in funding. The round was led by Marker, a year-old fund launched by Rick Scanlon, cofounder of Crescent Group. Other participants in the financing included Greylock Partners, Israel Cleantech Ventures Funds, Clal Energy, and Qualcomm Ventures.

OKPanda, a new, New York-based startup that produces digital products to help users learn English, has raised $1.4 million, including from Resolute Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Kapor Capital and 500 Startups. You can learn more here.

Swift Biosciences, a four-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based company whose technologies examine disease-related genes and help enable tools for managing cancer, has closed $7 million in Series B financing. Fletcher Spaght Ventures led the round with participation from Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, the Mercury Fund, Michigan Accelerator Fund and several Michigan-based individual investors. The company had raised a $3 million Series A in August 2010.

TapStream, an 18-month-old, British Columbia company that makes app marketing software, has raised about $680,000 in seed funding led by BDC Venture Capital, which was joined by unnamed individual investors.

Teads, a two-year-old Paris-based company that has developed a platform for video advertising, has raised $5.15 million in Series A funding from Partech Ventures and Elaia Partners.

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New Funds

The investing team at Felicis Ventures in Palo Alto, Calif., has raised a separate, $7 million fund called Clover Fund, according to an SEC filing, which lists Felicis Ventures’ founder Aydin Senkut along with his partners Renata Streit Quintini and Sundeep Peechu.

Turn/River Capital, a San Francisco-based, tech-focused firm is targeting $2 million for a side venture fund, according to a new SEC filing. Turn/River was founded by Dominic Ang, who held junior roles at Plumtree Software, Advent International, and Vector Capital before taking over an apparel site in 2008 and later selling it in 2010 to the women’s media network Popsugar for undisclosed terms. Turn/River registered paperworkwith the SEC last year to raise a separate $10 million.

Versant Venture Capital, a 14-year-old Sand Hill Road venture firm, is looking to raise $250 million for its fifth fund, judging by a new SEC filing. Versant raised its last fund, a $500 million pool, in 2008. Robin Praeger, the firm’s CFO, is listed on the form, along with just six of the 10 managing directors who are featured at its site: Brad Bolzon, Sam Colella, Ross Jaffe, William Link, Kirk Nielsen, and Charles Warden. Versant invests in medical devices, biopharmaceuticals and other life science companies.

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IPOs

Nimble Storage, a five-year-old, San Jose-based data storage company has filed to go public.The number of shares to be sold and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, but Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been selected as book-running managers for the offering. The company has raised more than $80 million to date, with early investors Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures Partners poised to see the biggest returns. Accel and Sequoia each own 20.9 percent of the company; Lightspeed owns 15.8 percent of its shares.

Paylocity, a 16-year-old, Arlington Heights, Ill.-based online payroll and human resources software company, has picked Bank of America Corp, Deutsche Bank and William Blair to lead an IPO for the company that could come next year, sources tell Reuters. The offering could reportedly raise around $100 million. The company raised $9.5 million from Adams Street Ventures in 2008.

TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals, a 10-year-old, Malvern, Pa.-based biopharmaceutical company whose drug is being tested for treating colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, and blood cancers, filed to go public on Friday, for an offering of up to $103.5 million. The company hasn’t yet generated any product revenue. HealthCare Ventures, Novitas Capital, Quaker BioVentures, Latterell Venture Partners, Clarus Life Sciences, Hatteras Venture Partners, and Pfizer each own 5 percent or more of the company’s outstanding shares, says its filing.

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Happenings

The Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit kicks off today at the Marina Del Ray Ritz Carlton in Southern California. Here are some details about the lineup.

The Wolfram Technology Conference gets underway in Champaign, Ill., today. More details here.

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People

Dennis Crowley, founder and CEO of Foursquare, is a happily married man. He was wed this past Saturday.

Edward Nadel has joined Lowenstein Sandler‘s Investment Management Group as Senior Counsel. He was previously general counsel and COO at Star Mountain Capital and, prior to that, was the Director of Alternative Investments at Credit Suisse.

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Job Listings

Google is looking for a Corporate Development Associate to work at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The role involves working collaboratively across the company’s legal, finance and people operations to find and evaluate acquisition and investment opportunities. To apply, you need at least two years of relevant work experience in corporate development, venture capital, private equity or investment banking. An MBA or other advanced degree is preferred.

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Essential Reads

Does Twitter have a patent problem?

Sure, Android is open — except for al the good parts.

The “road show” for star running back Arian Foster initial public offering has gotten off to a lousy start.

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Detours

Google’s latest terms and conditions are harder to comprehend than both Beowulf and War and Peace, say scientific researchers at the University of Nottingham.

Kings of the Dot.Com Bubble: Where are they now?

The man who forgot everything.

We couldn’t stop reading this excerpt from Mike Tyson’s autobiography.

Kai Rysdall of Marketplace is also a pretty fascinating guy.

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Retail Therapy

When it comes to cool, we think this $1.2 million, 42-foot-long J Craft Torpedo Boat, made in Stockholm, is very hard to beat. Supple leather, handcrafted cabinetry, a handsome Nardi steering wheel. Drool.

Sunglasses by Persol. For outings on your J Craft Torpedo Boat.

You’ll also need shoes (yes, also for the the boat). You could go with a nice pair of top siders, but as long as you’re already channeling Dickie Greenleaf, we kind of like this pair of hand-sewn penny loafers.

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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.