Allegis Capital conducted its annual Limited Partners meeting May 12 and 13th in Half Moon Bay, Calif. We do this every year to allow our investors a chance to meet and greet our CEOs and see how their companies are progressing. We also want our CEOs to have a chance to network with the people […]
Private equity funds considering exit alternatives for their portfolio companies may want to take a close look at the structure of 57th Street General Acquisition Corp., a new special purpose acquisition company that went public at the end of May. This new SPAC includes a number of changes to the traditional SPAC structure designed to address concerns expressed by potential sellers of companies or assets to SPACs. As a result, it may offer a desirable exit strategy for PE funds and other sellers.
Almost one year ago I wrote a wildly popular Idiot CEOs article that highlighted my affection for the crucial role of visionary CEOs at early stage companies, and how instead they are foolishly made/forced to believe that the directives from the company’s board (mostly VCs) will guide them to success. That article was meant to […]
If you sell your company, you’d assume the lawyers who helped you with the deal would still be able to assist you with any issues that might come up after closing, right? Not so fast. The reality may surprise you. In most mergers, the law firm technically represents the target company rather than the selling stockholders. […]
I swore I would go offline for much of Memorial Day Weekend. But I cheated and peeked at my email late Saturday afternoon and discovered an email from a friend saying, "I'm surprised to see you take such a public stance on the capital gains tax rates," with a link to a New York Times article on the topic. I read the article in The New York Times on the carried interest debate and was shocked to see my name and a reference to me that read:
"As the Senate Democrats sent signs that they were open to a tax increase, investors and their lobbyists mobilized quickly, warning that the proposal could stifle investments that create jobs. A group of 80 venture capitalists traveled to Boston to urge Senator John Kerry and Representative Barney Frank, Democrats of Massachusetts, to exclude their business from the tax change, according to Jeffrey Bussgang, a partner at the Boston venture capital firm Flybridge Capital Partners."
Um...here's the problem. I never spoke to the reporter, David Kocieniewski, who wrote the article (although I later found a voice mail from him). Other than the fact that my name and firm name are accurate, nothing else in that sentence is correct.
Ok, so we’re all doing social TV now. Geolocation is so 2009. Haven’t you heard? Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. I can be frustrating […]
No, this post isn’t about winning an NBA playoff series. It’s about a historical anomaly in start-up compensation that I’m struggling with. Although I know this risks being an unpopular post with entrepreneurs, I confess that I no longer get why we have four year vesting schedules for stock option grants at start-ups. Let me explain. […]
In the tech world there was of course Sergey and that little pet project of his (and Larry’s) at Stanford we came to know as Google. Then there was Max and his partners- unfurling the behemoth of PayPal and then Slide. In the fight game Andrei Arlovski appeared suddenly out of nowhere, shaking-up the heavyweight […]
Washington is talking again about increasing taxes on private equity firms, including VC firms, and this could easily be a catastrophe in the making. Such a policy may be OK for hedge funds, but not for VC funds, which are already struggling and which, more importantly, might close shop if they had to fork over […]
Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt read about the debate in Congress going on regarding carried interests for venture capitalists. Many in Congress, in order to continue to fund their agenda, are looking to change the tax classification of VC profits from capital gains to ordinary income. It looks like […]