Gawker: valleywag, greylock partners

David Sze's unsubtle dinner companion

Owen Thomas — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:35:29 EDT

Kara Swisher's camera briefly caught departing Yahoo executive Qi Lu Tuesday night smiling next to a laughing David Sze, the Greylock Partners venture capitalist who loves to talk up his seat as a board observer at Facebook. But she now admits she didn't recognize him at the time. What's the significance of Lu sitting down with Sze? Lu might be up for a job as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Greylock, or with one of Sze's portfolio companies. "I may do it again," Sze joked with Swisher, about hiring Lu's colleague as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Was that why Lu was smiling?

Jeff Weiner's new bosses laugh about his funny name

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Want to know how seriously venture capitalists take their entrepreneurs-in-residence, those CEO-wannabes they toss a paycheck at to keep them off the streets? Ask James Slavet and David Sze of Greylock Partners. In this clip, they get a good giggle with BoomTown's Kara Swisher over new hire Jeff Weiner's funny name. (Confused? Pronounced weener, "Weiner" is a homonym for the schoolyard word for penis.) Swisher: "This is the pair that sucked Weiner away from Yahoo. Not that it was hard." Sze: "Hah! It was enjoyable! I may do it again!"

How Jeff Weiner botched the top job at Facebook

Owen Thomas — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Yahoos are still buzzing about Jeff Weiner's departure for the world of venture capital. Before he left, many of his coworkers thought he was a shoo-in for a CEO gig at Facebook. Now that he's an entrepreneur-in-residence jointly at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners — both investors in Facebook — the conspiracy theorists have changed their patter: Weiner's just in a holding pen until Accel and Greylock can boot founder Mark Zuckerberg, install Weiner as CEO, and take the company public. "Zuck is definitely out ... it's just a matter of time. It's clear as day," one tipster writes. Clear as mud, rather. It makes sense that Yahoos, bitter at Facebook's success and eager to have one of their own deliver a comeuppance to Zuckerberg, would be circulating this rumor. But here's what they don't know about Jeff Weiner and Mark Zuckerberg.

Weiner did meet with Zuckerberg over dinner to discuss a top position at Facebook — the COO spot that Sheryl Sandberg now occupies. But Weiner bombed, we're told, ordering a fancy bottle of wine (Zuckerberg's not a big drinker) and generally playing it slick. The two utterly failed to connect.

The notion that Facebook's venture capitalists could install a CEO over Zuckerberg's head is nonsensical. Greylock's David Sze doesn't even have a board seat; Jim Breyer of Accel is on the board, but he's easily overruled by Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur-friendly former PayPal CEO. Zuckerberg has the right to appoint two more board members, and one of the seats is rumored to have gone to Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who strikes me as an extremely unlikely ally for Weiner.

So where does that leave Weiner? Zuckerberg may not like him, but Zuckerberg's VCs do, which leaves him with the consolation prize of an EIR job. And Yahoo's conspiracy theorists in need of something new to talk about. How about Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield's gonzo resignation email?

LinkedIn needs to sex up its pitch if they want a Facebook-sized valuation

Jackson West — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EDT

LinkedIn's $1 billion valuation certainly seems low only when compared to the stratospheric $15 billion Facebook is worth on paper. One reason why is because, frankly, college kids are sexy — as the VCs in the announcement infomercial prove irrefutably, business professional who use LinkedIn are not. So if you're going to announce a new round of venture capital with a video on YouTube, why not make it a music video? The kids love music videos. Hence, Valleywag presents "The Upside" featuring Jeffrey "Sand Hizzy" Glass, David "D-Cup" Sze, David "Dollar Billz" Cowan and Mark "Make Money" Kvamme over beats from EPMD. Recognize.

Jeff Weiner to two-time VCs

Owen Thomas — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:20:00 EDT

As expected, Yahoo content chief Jeff Weiner has left the troubled firm to serve as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" — read: wannabe CEO of an as-yet-undisclosed startup — at Accel Partners and Greylock. Working at two VC firms is unusual, but both have invested together in companies such as Facebook. [Accel Partners]

VC firms offer Weiner a chance to bail on Yahoo

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:40:00 EDT

Venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, both laden with ex-Yahoos, and with plenty of consumer Internet startups in their portfolio, have offered Yahoo's Jeff Weiner a chance to bail on the company. Kara Swisher cites VC sources, who say Weiner could very well turn his extended paternity leave into a departure from Yahoo altogether. Unusually, the firms are said to be offering Weiner a chance to split his time as an entrepreneur-in-residence at both firms.

Last we heard from him, he was explaining how Yahoo planned to turn its morass of personalized properties into a single user profile. You know, just like Friendster! Weiner also ranked high on ex-Yahoo Bradley Horowitz's goodbye thank-you list — a list, we noted, that's filled with ex-Yahoos. (Photo by Yodel Anecdota)

Meet the Harvard professor who seeded venture capitalism

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:40:00 EDT

Between 1970 and 2005, U.S. venture-backed companies created 10 million jobs and produced almost 17 percent of the country's GNP, and according to BusinessWeek editor Spencer Ante, one man is largely responsible for all of that. He is former Harvard Business School professor and "founder of the modern VC industry" Georges Doriot, the subject of Ante's new book Creative Capital. "[Doriot] was the first one to believe there was a future in financing entrepreneurs in an organized way," Lehman Brothers banker Arnold Kroll told Ante. Doriot's disciples went on to found or help run Greylock Partners, Fidelity Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. So now we know whom to blame. Photos from the Creative Capital book launch party held in New York last night, below.

(Photos by Elizabeth Borda)

The moneymen at The Lobby

Megan McCarthy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:33:15 EDT

The venture capitalists spotted at this week's Lobby conference in Hawaii are not, we've noted, the Sand Hill Road dwellers who inflated bubbles past or present. No sign of anyone from Sequoia or Kleiner Perkins. So who is enjoying the tropical sun? Well, conference host and August Capital partner David Hornik, of course. Also photographed on the scene: Greylock's David Sze, SoftTech's Jeff Clavier, Foundation Capital's Mike Brown, Panorama Capital's Mike Jung, and Bay Partner's Eric Chin. Hats off to First Round Capital's Josh Kopelman, who is using his entrepreneurial skills to cash in during the scavenger hunt. (Photo by: bradley23)