Last week, we published several interviews from our most recent StrictlyVC event in San Francisco. Today we’re running the last of those interviews, with venture capitalist Jeremy Liew. Liew joined Lightspeed Venture Partners in 2006 from AOL, where he’d worked in corporate development, and as many readers will know, his star has risen quickly in […]
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StrictlyVC: March 12, 2015
Hi, happy Thursday, everyone! (If you aren’t a subscriber yet, here’s an easier-to-read version of this emailed newsletter.) —– Top News in the A.M. The Guardian has effectively retracted much of its widely circulated reporting about the anonymous messaging app Whisper. More here. Twitter just changed its rules to prohibit users from publicly posting intimate, […]
StrictlyVC: January 12, 2015
Good Monday morning, readers! Welcome back. A quick update: Tickets to our February event are now sold out. (We’re hoping we can get some of you off the wait list; stay tuned.) Thanks to everyone who’s coming. Thanks, too, to our sponsors, including Ballou PR. We’re really looking forward to seeing all of you. —– […]
The Rolling Close: Here to Stay or Gone Tomorrow?
Venture capital was long a clubby, opaque industry, but AngelList and crowdfunding are two intertwined innovations that have since knocked that model onto its side. Now, another related twist looks poised to roil it again: the rolling close. You’ve probably heard the term in recent years. A rolling close is what happens when a management […]
With Kleiner’s Snapchat Deal, There Isn’t Much to See
A week ago, the WSJ reported that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is investing up to $20 million in Snapchat at a $10 billion valuation as part of a larger round that the messaging app is assembling. The piece noted that just months earlier, DST Global had also quietly committed capital — at a $7 billion valuation. The […]
The Beauty of Annoying Apps
Earlier this week, I stopped at the Palo Alto offices of General Catalyst Partners, an East Coast heavyweight that’s been politely muscling its way into more West Coast startups since planting a flag in the Bay Area in late 2010. One of those companies is Snapchat, the popular mobile messaging startup, and one of the […]
That’s It?
Almost a week ago, some odious years-old emails written by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel were leaked to the media, and it’s a wonder how quickly their content seems to be have been swept under the rug. It’s understandable, to a point. Spiegel’s emails were written when he was a college student trying to impress his […]
Innovation in Snapchat Time
There’s been a lot of talk of “ephemerality” in tech circles lately, driven in part by the rise of Snapchat, the popular mobile app that allows users to send self-destructing messages and images. But Niko Bonatsos, a principal at General Catalyst Partners — which participated in Snapchat’s A and B funding rounds — thinks the […]
So Snapchat is Worth More than $3 Billion. Got It.
Yesterday, there was lots of back and forth about Snapchat, the fast-growing messaging service, and the $3 billion all-cash offer from Facebook that it recently spurned, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources. (Apparently, three sources also confirmed this account to the New York Times.) As the Journal reported, the “rebuff” came as Snapchat is “being wooed by other […]
Venture Heavyweights Sit Back as Deal Sizes Soar
It’s been a banner week for a number of Internet companies. Last Wednesday, social network Pinterest acknowledged closing on a $225 million round that valued the company at $3.8 billion. Shortly thereafter, AllThingsD reported that Snapchat, the messaging app, is now weighing a $200 million investment round that would value the company at $3.5 billion. And just yesterday, NextDoor, […]