vc

Nobody wants to admit it, but building a personal brand is essential if you want to thrive in a business world dominated by social media. This is especially true for entrepreneurs and even venture capitalists who have only recently stepped out from the shadows and into the spotlight.

I became intrigued by the rising role of personal branding in the VC world by a New York Times article last week that discussed how more VC firms are hiring PR specialists to help brand their firms.

Here's a quick excerpt from that article:

"Now, Sand Hill Road in Silicon … Read more

Pitching your startup idea to investors, journalists, and random people on the street is a rite of passage for all entrepreneurs. You have to convince hundreds (if not millions) of people that you're building something worthwhile and that they should get on board.

Most pitches fall flat though (the best VCs invest in perhaps 1 percent of the startups that pitch them), and it's often because of simple problems that could've been avoided. Nervous entrepreneurs stray from their story, and arrogant entrepreneurs demand unreasonable valuations and then get laughed out of the room by top-tier angels.

Here … Read more

New Enterprise Associates, one of the world's largest venture capital firms, has raised $2.6 billion for NEA 14, its 14th venture capital fund, TechCrunch reported this evening.

TechCrunch figures the new fund may be the largest in venture capital history, beating out a $2.56 billion fund that Oak Investment Partners raised in 2006.

The new fund will have a pretty broad deployment target, New Enterprise Associates partner Tony Florence told TechCrunch.

"From a sector perspective we will continue to be very enterprise-focused, but also very, very active in the consumer Internet space, where there are certainly … Read more

DogVacay, a startup that matches people who need a dog sitter with people who are interested in caring for dogs in their homes, is getting additional first round venture capital funding, the company was set to announce on Thursday.

The site, which reminds me of an Airbnb for boarding dogs, has received an undisclosed amount from Andreessen Horowitz, a VC firm that led a $112 million investment in Airbnb almost a year ago and has also invested in Facebook, Twitter and Zynga. DogVacay raised more than $1 million in a seed round of funding in March from First Round Capital, … Read more

Venture capital firm Index Ventures announced today it has closed a new 350 million euro ($442 million) fund to invest in early-stage technology companies.

The new fund, the firm's sixth that focuses on early-stage technology investments, will concentrate its resources heavily on Europe, while also making investments in Israel and the U.S.

The new fund is very similar to the firm's fifth early-stage fund, which it raised in the summer of 2009, with some small differences.

"One surprise on our last fund was that we did a much higher percentage of deals in the U.S. … Read more

Camera+ gets the bonus of selling its 8 millionth app on the same day as its second birthday. Quite an achievement in the face of other popular apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic, especially when the company has publicly refused VC funding and offers of acquisition.

The company's founder John Casasanta wrote in a blog post today that over the past two years, Camera+ has been approached by several companies looking to buy, including Adobe, Zynga, Google, and Twitter. Camera+ declined every time because of the company's goal to retain its independence. It also turned down its first round … Read more

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has closed its 15th traditional fund at $525 million, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm announced this evening.

Best known for backing companies such as Google and Amazon, Kleiner Perkins said the fund will focus on investing in digital consumer, digital enterprise, green tech, and life sciences startups. The fund, dubbed Fund XV, will be led by 10 of Kleiner Perkins' partners, the company said.

"Portfolio companies in KPCB 15 will benefit from the firm's holistic approach to company building that we pioneered more than a decade ago," Ted Schlein, a partner … Read more

Andreessen Horowitz stands to make about $78 million off an initial investment of $250,000 in Instagram, a partner in the investment firm revealed today in a blog responding to criticism that the investment firm "fumbled" its involvement in the photo-sharing app.

The New York Times ignited controversy earlier this week when it published a story that profiled how the VC firm "fumbled" its investment in Instagram, which was just purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, by investing in rival photo-sharing app PicPlz. The investment in PicPlz "was a calculated bet against Instagram and it … Read more

"Too many single white kids are getting funded," 500 Startups founder Dave McClure says. "We're missing a big f---ing market."

McClure is kicking off the MamaBear Family Tech Conference today in Mountain View, Calif., to attack that market. At the same time, he wants angel investing to open up. It's overrun by men, he says.

"There's no lack of female founders anymore," according to McClure. He says that about 20 percent of his portfolio companies are run by women. Many are addressing family markets, he says. There are also a number … Read more