venture capital

Kleiner Perkins gets its digital groove back on

After taking a long detour into green-tech investments, the storied venture firm is returning to its sweet spot: the Internet.

Just two years ago people (including Fortune) were fretting that venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins -- an early investor in Netscape, Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG) -- had missed the wave on the latest round of hot Internet startups in favor of a slew of risky wagers on "green" energy. (See MORE

The implications of too much VC money and too little startup talent

From mass raises at Google to angels oversubscribing the latest hot startup, Silicon Valley is flush with cash, but short on talent. Believe it or not, that's mostly a good thing.

By JS Cournoyer, contributor

The world of early stage investing is changing in ways that are reminiscent to the tech bubble of 1999. As Fred Wilson points out in "Storm Clouds" that investors are behaving badly, making $5M to $15M MORE

The Age of the Entrepreneur

The way startups raise money is changing, fast. Angels, super angels and VCs have to figure out the new rules, but that's good -- really good -- for founders themselves.

By JS Cournoyer, contributor

I have been reading about the changing landscape of how technology companies get their initial outside funding after friends and family have chipped in. Seed or early stage investing, as it is referred to by entrepreneurs, angels, VCs MORE

John Doerr's quarter-billion dollar bet on the future of social

Kleiner Perkins thinks we're in a third wave of technology. Doerr, Zuckerberg, Bezos and Pincus are throwing a $250 million "party" in order to ride it.

The last time venture capitalist John Doerr opined that a technology wave was about to sweep over the globe it was just before the height of the Internet bubble in the 1990s, when he pronounced that the Internet was under-hyped. Yes, there was Internet startup MORE

The rebirth of VC (really!)

Venture capital isn't mired in a new normal. Instead, it's on the verge of a cyclical upswing.

By Roger Ehrenberg, contributor

To most, the world of venture capital appears to be in the midst of chaos. Poor 10-year returns. Many bloated GPs. The super angel/micro VC "phenomenon" (if it can be called that). Rumors of collusion. A largely closed IPO market. Stock market uncertainty. An uncertain regulatory climate. And on and on. A crazy MORE

The right way to lay people off

By Ben Horowitz, contributor

Cloud computing company Opsware was nobody's darling. Then founders Andreessen and Horowitz put the company through three rounds of layoffs. The unlikely result was a big buyout -- here's how it happened.

"I'm tryin' to right my wrongs / But it's funny them same wrongs helped me write this song" -Kanye West

Shortly after we sold Opsware to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), I had a conversation with the legendary venture MORE

Bill Ford: Venture capitalist

The Ford chairman has a surprising side project: funding ideas that could ease car congestion.

A few years ago the CEO of Ford Motor, Bill Ford, began pushing the company to be more sensitive to the environment. The result: The automaker today produces five different hybrid models that help reduce gas consumption and pollution. Now Ford, currently executive chairman of the car company, has turned his attention to another byproduct of MORE

Elevation Partners hits pause

Last December I wrote that Elevation Partners was beginning to make noise about raising a second fund, an Act 2 for its less-than-successful, $1.9-billion first effort. Elevation is the private-equity firm started by Roger McNamee, Bono and others that was supposed to focus on next-generation media and entertainment deals but drifted instead into consumer electronics (by buying Palm (PALM)), online real estate and tired old media. It recently recruited former MORE

Tony Blair's Next Act

A silent cement factory on the Northern California coast is not where you would expect to find a former British Prime Minister on a Sunday afternoon. But there was no mistaking a blue-blazered Tony Blair hopping down from a black SUV as it rolled to a stop in a cloud of dust in front of a series of construction trailers. The reason for Blair's visit to this windy stretch of MORE

Is K.R. Sridhar's 'magic box' ready for prime time?

The Bloom Energy CEO is finally unveiling his entry in the fuel-cell arena after years of playing it close to the vest.

By Paul Keegan, contributor

K.R. Sridhar looks nervous. The CEO of Bloom Energy, the much-hyped fuel cell start-up, sits in a conference room preparing to show off his magical "Bloom Box" for the first time in public. The 49-year-old scientist-turned entrepreneur has raised $400 million in venture capital for his MORE