VC Chamath Palihapitiya Says He Has Cracked the Code for Making Startups Grow

And visions of hockey sticks danced in their heads.
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In a Big Mobile Move, Pivotal Buys Xtreme Labs for $65 Million in Cash

You need to be mobile in the enterprise, says the cloud-based joint venture of EMC and VMware.

Chamath Palihapitiya Personally Buys Majority Stake in Mobile Development Shop Xtreme Labs

Xtreme Labs has built apps for Microsoft, Groupon, IAC, GroupMe, Rypple and more.

Checking In With the Natty VCs of Social+Capital (Video)

What has the dashing-in-Silicon-Valley-at-least Chamath Palihapitiya been up to since he founded his antithetical venture firm?

Getting Gamers off the Couch: Red Robot Tests the Limits of Location-Based Gaming

Red Robot Labs is at PAX in Seattle this weekend to show off its new location-based game, Life is Magic.

Exclusive: FiveStars Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

The Mountain View, Calif., company is trying to eliminate the need for loyalty punch cards in a very low-tech way — in other words, no fancy iPads or mobile applications.

Yammer Lands $85 Million Funding Round From Draper Fisher Jurvetson

The rumors are true. But, boy, were they ever off on the numbers.

News Byte

Glooko Raises $3.5M for Diabetes Logs

Mobile diabetes-management company Glooko has raised $3.5 million more in a Series A round from its impressive list of investors, which include Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social+Capital Partnership, Bill Campbell, Vint Cerf, Judy Estrin and Andy Hertzfeld. The Palo Alto, Calif., company sells a $39.95 cord that connects to blood glucose meters and feeds data to a free iPhone app. The promise of the company is to elevate the geek hobby of quantifying oneself to the next level — health care.

News Byte

Academic Social Network Raises Cash From Former Facebook Exec and Others

New York-based Coursekit, a social network for instructors to manage courses and interact with students, has raised $5 million in a first round. The round was led by Social+Capital Partnership, a firm started by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. Existing investor IA Ventures and new angel investors also participated. Coursekit, which became available in November, was founded by Joseph Cohen, 20, and two other undergraduate students at University of Pennsylvania.

Yammer Poaches Another VP From Salesforce.com

Once is a fluke, but two in as many months begins to look like a pattern.

Attack of the Vice Presidents at Facebook