John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Latest Check Shows Insufficient Venture Funds

The “Darwinian contraction” in the venture capital industry continues with no end in sight. A joint study released today by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters found that VC firms in the U.S. raised just $1.9 billion in the second quarter of 2010. That’s a nasty 49 percent decline from the $3.7 billion they raised in the first quarter. It’s also the weakest quarter for VC fundraising in nearly seven years. The last time the industry saw this low of a dollar commitment was the third quarter of 2003.

“Ongoing economic uncertainty has kept many limited partners and venture capital firms on the fundraising sidelines in 2010 and this hesitation is likely to continue for the remainder of the year,” NVCA President Mark Heesen said in a statement.

Certainly looks that way. Consider the chart below (click to enlarge).

Quite the downward trend, yeah? What is it that Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz often says? “The best time to invest is when people are cowering under their desks.” Hmm. Something like that…

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus