Gawker: valleywag, roger lee

Web 2.0 living on borrowed money

Jackson West — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:40:00 EDT

The bad news? While a few startup stars like Twitter and Slide can get venture cash on little or no revenue, the expiration date on your "it's [blank] with a social network layer" pitch may be well past. "There is going to be a shake-out here in the next year or two," Battery Ventures partner Roger Lee told the Financial Times. Mitchell Kertzman of Hummer Winblad was a little more succinct: "If you look at some of the valuations, you wonder what fantasy of revenues they're based on." The kinda good news? Google will help subsidize the cost of entry for early-stage online projects with infrastructure — you'll just have to use their Web Apps cloud and their Gears and Android clients developing browse and mobile applications, respectively. (Photo by Edward O'Connor)

How to become a partner at Battery Ventures

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:20:10 EST

Think you need capital to become a venture capitalist? Not at Battery Ventures. There, you just need a working knowledge of how Google works. "Google arguably is at the center of the online advertising ecosystem," Battery Ventures partner Roger Lee told the New York Times. "If you understand how Google works and how associated business models work, it gives you a great lens to understand other advertising companies," Lee said, explaining why he recruited former Google advertising exec Satya Patel to the firm. Sounds good. When does Scoble start?

Guess the mystery paranoid entreprenuer

Chris Mohney — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:00:28 EST

In this Mercury News profile of Battery Ventures' Roger Lee, we get this amusing tidbit:

In a small, windowless conference room in downtown Mountain View later the same day, Lee does his best to introduce a 6-month-old start-up to a Mercury News reporter. But the company's 25-year-old founder, whose mirrored sunglasses sit perched atop his closely cropped hair, only wants to talk about the ground rules for the interview.

"I've given this some thought, and none of this can go on the record," he says. "Not my name, not the name of this company, not the names of potential customers."

Mirrored sunglasses OK though! More after the jump.

"If (the customers) read that we're 13 guys in a cramped office, their perceived risk is much higher," he continues. Plus, he says, lowering his voice, "one of my competitors is keeping very close tabs on me. I don't want him to Google my name and find this story."

Since when did Google searches translate as keeping "close tabs" on someone? Anyway, send us your guesses as to Mr. Paranoia's name and company, and we'll run select choices later.