founders

Why Has Andreessen Horowitz Raised $2.7B in Three Years?

Ben Horowitz, Co-Founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz in Voices on January 31 at 7:46 am PT

Since Marc and I founded Andreessen Horowitz three years ago, we have raised $2.7 billion. That statement begs a few questions.

Q&A: Bill Gross's UberMedia Goes for a Third Name and Strategy

Liz Gannes in Social on January 24, 2011 at 1:00 am PT

NetworkEffect talks to UberMedia, the perpetually renamed year-old start-up, about the business of buying up independent Twitter clients that compete with Twitter’s own options.

Meet Andreessen Horowitz’s Newest Partner: Mark Cranney

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on January 14, 2011 at 4:01 pm PT

A VC partner whose job isn’t to find new companies to invest in, but to help out the ones already in the portfolio.

Ex-AdMob Crew Lands Cash to Start Rival

Ina Fried in Mobile on December 6, 2010 at 10:35 am PT

The team at MoPub, which includes several former Google and AdMob employees, have scored an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round as they look to take on Google and Apple in the fast-growing mobile ad market. The backers include Accel Partners and Harrison Metal Capital. With the phone giants scooping up many of the big-name mobile ad firms, MoPub CEO Jim Payne said there is an opportunity for another strong independent player.

AngelPad, an Incubator for Entrepreneurs With Credentials

Liz Gannes in Social on November 11, 2010 at 11:12 am PT

AngelPad, the new incubator from former Googlers, held its first end-of-session Demo Day last night at its offices on a dead-end alley in San Francisco’s SOMA district. It was a familiar format for those who have been to Y Combinator and TechStars Demo Days, and indeed just about every one of the hundred or so investors in the room is a frequent presence at those events.

Paul Graham’s Y Combinator Start-Ups Strut Their Stuff and Investors Eat It Up

Peter Kafka in Media on March 25, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

Meet the man who runs Silicon Valley’s most exclusive school: A three-month start-up crash course. You don’t get a diploma, but there’s a good chance you’ll end up with something more valuable.

Silly Skype Soap Opera Finally Canceled

John Paczkowski in News on November 6, 2009 at 7:22 am PT

The fight for Skype has ended. After weeks of nasty legal sparring, the Internet telephony service’s founders agreed to join the investor group purchasing it from EBay and dropped the lawsuit that had threatened to bollocks the deal.

Exclusive: Skype Founders Keep on Punching–File Injunction Against Volpi and Index

Kara Swisher in News on October 14, 2009 at 7:04 am PT

Joost and Joltid filed a motion for preliminary injunction against former Joost CEO Michelangelo Volpi and Index Ventures, where Volpi now works as a partner, asking that he not use knowledge or confidential information he got at the video start-up in current dealings with Skype. The move is yet another legal attack from the founders of Skype, who were on the losing side of the $2 billion deal to buy the Internet telephony giant from eBay.

Happy Chat: Paltalk Buys Back Its Shares From Softbank, at a Premium

Peter Kafka in Media on July 15, 2009 at 3:35 am PT

Here’s a funding story you don’t see often, recession or no: A start-up buying back its shares from its venture capitalist, at a premium. But that’s the transaction that video-chat firm Paltalk and Softbank have completed. Paltalk, which sold off 20 percent of its equity to Softbank for $6 million in 2004, has bought the shares back. No one has spelled out a purchase price, but I’m told the deal will be considered a “single” for Softbank–it gets its capital back, plus a return–which in this economy ought to be a home run.