The Five-Mile Rule

To simplify the search [for the next great companies], I suggest you look within a five-mile radius of Stanford.

– Stanford graduate Peter Thiel, in conversation with Reid Hoffman

Yammer Lands $85 Million Funding Round From Draper Fisher Jurvetson

The rumors are true. But, boy, were they ever off on the numbers.
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Zuckerberg Is the Billion-Share Man: Who Owns What, Who Makes What in the Facebook IPO

Lots of investor funds, venture capitalists and individuals have a piece of the Facebook action. Here’s a rundown.
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Sarah Lacy Debuts New Tech Site, PandoDaily — $2M+ in Funding and Guess Who’s Working for Her? (Video)

Here’s the brave woman who will be the new boss of Michael Arrington, M.G. Siegler and Paul Carr. (You read that right.)
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Get Your Zombie-Eaten Brain Ready for Some Big-Think Tech Books

Time for some reading beyond 140 characters!
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Salesforce Gets Into the HR Cloud With Rypple Acquisition

Marking the third acquisition of a cloud software firm since October, Salesforce grabs Rypple and says it will rename it Successforce. Sound familiar? It should.
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QOTD: Peter Thiel Invests in Silver Linings

There is a very cathartic crisis that’s gone on, and it’s not clear where it’s going to go. But at least everyone knows things are rotten. We’re in a much better place than when things were rotten and everyone thought things were great.

Facebook investor and futurist Peter Thiel, profiled in the New Yorker (article only available online to subscribers)

News Byte

Knewton Raises $33M for Remixing Online Learning

Knewton, the educational content “remixer” that adapts its courses to each student (you could say it learns about the learner), has raised $33 million led by Founders Fund and Pearson. The three-year-old company’s new funding is particularly notable for its large size and because Founders Fund Managing Partner Peter Thiel is an outspoken critic of traditional higher education.

Email: Chamath Palihapitiya Decries Airbnb’s Recent $112M Funding for Founder Control and Cash-Out

Here’s some electric weekend reading for those interested in the push-and-pull between venture investors and start-ups in the frothy Web 2.0 environment.
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Terror-Fighting Start-Up Palantir Technologies Just Raised $68 Million — But From Whom?

An SEC filing shows the secretive data analytics firm has been busy raising money. Again.
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