• By Owen Thomas
    Sep 30, 2008 1:40 PM 0
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    #venturecapital

    Pimped-Out Venture Capitalist Riding High Again

    Silicon Valley's Mass Delusion

    Which Venture Capitalist Is A Closet Pothead?
    read more: #deathwatch, #venturecapital, #jellycloud, #gator, #claria, #usventurepartners, #softbank, #sandhillcapital, #crosslinkcapital, #scottvandevelde, #scott, #valleywag, #eagle, #online, #advertising

    Sneaky ad startup Jellycloud deflates, taking $50 million-plus with it

    The online-ad network market is clogged with startups; most are bound to fail. But no death may be greeted with more joy than Jellycloud, the latest incarnation of Gator, a startup whose software was caught spying on users. A tipster tells us Jellycloud, with 36 employees, went under this weekend, with liquidators repossessing their furniture. A hard death, after a questionable birth.

    Gator had changed its name to Claria, and raised some $40 million to launch a personalized homepage which never caught on. In the sneakiest move of all, it then raised $11.5 million under a new company name, JellyCloud, with the same set of executives as Claria — Scott Vandevelde and Scott Eagle among them. Was Jellycloud just Claria reborn? It's now a moot point, if our tipster's report is accurate. And a painful mistake for US Venture Partners, SoftBank, Sand Hill Capital and Crosslink Capital — who have managed to lose $11.5 million in just five months.


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