Venture Capitalists

An early Facebook employee and former assistant to Mark Zuckerberg will have a memoir out this summer. Katherine Losse, who joined the social network giant back in 2005 and remained for five years has a deal for "The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network. " The Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Tuesday that the book will come out June 26. Losse will offer a first-hand account of "the vision, culture, and tactics of the hackers, venture capitalists, and Ivy League grads" who helped make Facebook a worldwide force.

An early Facebook employee and former assistant to Mark Zuckerberg will have a memoir out this summer. Katherine Losse, who joined the social network giant back in 2005 and remained for five years has a deal for "The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network. " The Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Tuesday that the book will come out June 26. Losse will offer a first-hand account of "the vision, culture, and tactics of the hackers, venture capitalists, and Ivy League grads" who helped make Facebook a worldwide force.

SAN FRANCISCO - Venture capitalists cut their US investments in half during the spring, the second consecutive quarter to mark a more than 50 percent decline, leaving the money flowing to start-ups at the slowest trickle in 12 years. Nearly $3.7 billion poured into 612 venture capital deals in the three months ended in June, according to statistics to be released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Reuters, and the National Venture Capital Association. The dollars invested represented a 51 percent drop from more than $7.5 billion during the same period last year.

NEW YORK - When Eric Migicovsky wanted to develop wristwatches that could communicate with the iPhone, he went the traditional route of asking venture capitalists to finance his company. But he couldn't get a foot in the door, let alone secure any money for the Pebble watch. So he turned to Kickstarter, a site where ordinary people back creative projects. Backers could pledge $99 and were promised a watch in return. Less than two hours after the project went on the site, Migicovsky and his partners hit their goal of $100,000.

NEW YORK - When Eric Migicovsky wanted to develop wristwatches that could communicate with the iPhone, he went the traditional route of asking venture capitalists to finance his company. But he couldn't get a foot in the door, let alone secure any money for the Pebble watch. So he turned to Kickstarter, a site where ordinary people back creative projects. Backers could pledge $99 and were promised a watch in return. Less than two hours after the project went on the site, Migicovsky and his partners hit their goal of $100,000.

At PerkStreet's downtown headquarters, a dozen employees - mostly twentysomethings in jeans and sneakers - are chatting or pecking at laptops in a few rooms surrounded by blond Ikea furniture and green partitions. As at many tech start-ups, workers are paid partly with stock options. There's no dress code. Notes about what each worker is doing are scribbled on glass panels on one of the walls. But PerkStreet isn't developing a new video game or social networking site. Instead, it's marketing checking accounts, competing with financial giants such as Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.

SAN FRANCISCO -- While venture capitalists retrenched, many of the companies they helped create expanded during the past three years of economic turmoil, according to a study released yesterday. Venture-backed firms created 600,000 jobs nationwide from January 2001 through December 2003, a net gain of 6.5 percent, said Global Insights, a research firm that conducted the study for the National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group. Revenue among the venture-backed companies climbed $212 billion, or 11.6 percent, during those three years, the study found.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Seventeen companies funded by venture capitalists made their US stock market debuts during the final three months of 2003, contributing to the busiest quarter for initial public offerings in three years, according to figures released yesterday. The venture-backed IPOs completed in the fourth quarter represented the most since the final quarter of 2000, when 21 start-ups seeded by venture capitalists ripened into public companies, based on data compiled by Thomson Venture Economics for the National Venture Capital Association.

The Boston Celtics have a new member of the ownership group. Telecommunications entrepreneur Rob Hale has purchased an undisclosed share of the team, the Celtics announced on Friday. Hale is a resident of Hingham, Mass., and the president of Granite Communications, which is based in nearby Quincy. Granite Communications serves 86 of the Fortune 100 companies, and it has revenues of more than $650 million. Hale also owns FoxRock Properties, a Boston-based commercial real estate firm with over 1 million square feet of space.

Investments by venture capitalists in start-up companies were down sharply in the first quarter of this year, as funders discovered they don't have to put up as much money these days to get a new company going. New England start-ups received $678 million from venture capital firms during the period, down 14 percent from the last quarter of 2011, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association. Nationally, the decline was somewhat larger: a 19 percent drop in the amount invested during the period, and a 15 percent...

Governor Deval Patrick is establishing a Council for Innovation as part of an ongoing effort to use new technologies to find cost efficiencies in the delivery of government services, his office said Wednesday. To form the council, Patrick has recruited venture capitalists, academics, and start-up company founders. There is also a plan to create a government innovation officer position. The council's mandate is to advise the governor on how innovation and new technology can be used to streamline the delivery of services and cut expenses at a time when the government's...

Investments by venture capitalists in start-up companies were down sharply in the first quarter of this year, as funders discovered they don't have to put up as much money these days to get a new company going. New England start-ups received $678 million from venture capital firms during the period, down 14 percent from the last quarter of 2011, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association. Nationally, the decline was somewhat larger: a 19 percent drop in the amount invested during the period, and a...

To many observers besides Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Monday's announcement that the social network will spend $1 billion to acquire a start-up with a dozen-odd employees and zero revenues looked puzzling, even preposterous. Indeed, when venture capitalists made an investment just last week that presumed the company was worth $500 million, Silicon Valley watchers worried about a social-media bubble. Whatever its virtues, the Instagram deal should sound an even louder cautionary note.

The Boston Celtics have a new member of the ownership group. Telecommunications entrepreneur Rob Hale has purchased an undisclosed share of the team, the Celtics announced on Friday. Hale is a resident of Hingham, Mass., and the president of Granite Communications, which is based in nearby Quincy. Granite Communications serves 86 of the Fortune 100 companies, and it has revenues of more than $650 million. Hale also owns FoxRock Properties, a Boston-based commercial real estate firm with over 1 million square feet of space.

Funding for startups rose 19 percent in the fourth quarter as venture capitalists fueled money into more companies in the Internet, clean technology and other sectors. According to a study released Friday, startup investments grew to $6.57 billion in the October-December quarter from $5.52 billion in the same period in 2010. The volume of deals, though, did not keep up with the amount of money invested. There were 844 deals completed in the fourth quarter, down from 861 a year earlier.

Investments by venture capitalists in new companies increased dramatically last year, both nationally and in New England, where biotechnology funding led a rebound during the final quarter of 2011. Venture firms invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 US deals in 2011, an increase of 22 percent in dollars and a 4 percent rise in the number of deals compared with the prior year, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

Investments by venture capitalists in new companies increased dramatically last year, both nationally and in New England, where biotechnology funding led a rebound during the final quarter of 2011. Venture firms invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 US deals in 2011, an increase of 22 percent in dollars and a 4 percent rise in the number of deals compared with the prior year, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years" - Article II, Section 1 THE CONSTITUTION may be the foundation of American democracy, but the qualifications to run for president are — let's face it — so...

Investment in New England start-up companies by venture capital firms plummeted in the third quarter, falling 45 percent from the previous quarter to $586 million, as investors pulled back in life sciences, according to a report to be released today. Venture capital investment, a crucial source of funding for new companies, also declined nationwide during the same period but not as sharply: down 12 percent in the third quarter to $6.95 billion, according to the MoneyTree Report, published by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association and based on data...