Andrew Braccia of Accel Partners doesn’t tweet or write blog posts. He rarely talks with the media. But that doesn’t mean the 39-year-old isn’t working it. In fact, Braccia may have landed as big a deal for Accel as Facebook, whose $12.7 million Series A investment produced billions of dollars for its investors. That company? Slack. […]
Accel Partners
A French VC Shows off a New Fund — and Growing Interest in Europe
Frédéric Court has been a venture capitalist for about 15 years, but it was only recently that he hit the fundraising trail for the first time. The experience went well, apparently. This morning, Court, a longtime partner with the European venture firm Advent Venture Partners, is taking the wraps off his own, London-based venture fund, […]
Fred Destin of Accel Partners on What’s Changing (Fast) in Europe
Almost exactly a year ago, Belgian-born venture capitalist Fred Destin left his longtime post with Atlas Venture in Boston and joined Accel Partners in London. Last week, over a charcuterie board at a French cafe in San Francisco, Destin talked with StrictlyVC about the move, what the Accel team in London shares in common with […]
Big-League LP: “It’s a Good Time to Be Asking Questions”
Roughly one year ago, FLAG Capital Management, the limited partnership, revealed that after 20 years, Diana Frazier would step down from her role as co-head of U.S. venture capital, and that Peter Denious, who formerly headed the firm’s emerging markets efforts, would assume her role. Denious has been fairly quiet since then, possibly because the […]
Richard Wolpert’s Big Idea: Tech Support for Your Parents
“I’m no spring chicken,” says Richard Wolpert. “But I’ve been at this for 30 years and I have a lot of great experience under my belt.” Wolpert — who sold companies to Adobe and RealNetworks and launched Disney’s earliest online businesses before joining Accel Partners as a venture partner and cofounding Amplify.la — is explaining […]
Troubled Payday Lender Wonga Still Has a Chance, Insist Insiders
In the span of seven years, Wonga, a London-based online payday lender, managed to become one of the best known Internet brands in the U.K, with half the buses in London plastered with its ads, along with a good number of soccer players, through Wonga’s sponsorship of the English Premier League team Newcastle United. Then, […]
Amplify.LA Turns the Accelerator Model Inside Out (Completely)
Since Y Combinator first swung open its doors nine years ago, hundreds of accelerator programs have sprung into existence, almost all modeled in similar fashion — holding classes at certain times of the year, accepting a pre-determined number of startup teams, and staging “demo days.” Paul Bricault, a founder the two-and-a-half-year-old accelerator Amplify.LA in Venice, Ca., […]
Accel Partners Backs Father-Son Team in Sookasa
Sookasa, a 2.5-year-old, 12-person startup in San Mateo, Ca., is taking the wraps off its business today, as well as unveiling $5 million in Series A funding led by Accel Partners, which it closed on last August. No doubt Accel was attracted to the startup’s technology, which promises to dramatically simplify the protection of sensitive […]
The Lesson of Jim Goetz: Great VCs Make Their Own Luck
People may be surprised that low-profile Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital just landed the largest-ever acquisition of a venture-backed company. They shouldn’t be. Researchers have shown that superstar investors are remarkably consistent over time. In fact, when it comes to predicting which startups will be successful, individual VCs are roughly five times more powerful as leading indicators than […]
Dropcam, the $50M Startup That Should Keep ADT Awake at Night
Dropcam is watching you. To date, the four-year-old startup has raised $47.8 million for its HD wireless home-monitoring cameras that allow consumers to watch the kids from the office, glimpse which neighbor isn’t picking up after his dog, or catch break-ins. Greg Duffy, Dropcam’s 26-year-old cofounder and CEO, won’t disclose how many of the company’s […]