And now, the award for Silicon Valley Tool

Mark Suster of Koral is one entrepreneur who won't just take VC abuse. In a post on his blog, he slammed one VC partnership for tardiness, inadequate preparation, and bad Blackberry manners. So satisfying, except the collaboration software company boss said only that the firm was a second-tier operation, which doesn't narrow the field much, and the offshoot of an investment bank, which is pretty much the same thing. So which VC drifted in to the pitch half an hour late, and which spent the meeting fiddling with his Blackberry? Word is that the firm is Granite Ventures, a spin-off from Hambrecht and Quist. Their investments aren't quite as lame as Suster suggests: Granite's investments have included Plumtree Software, Kontiki and Siebel Systems. We're not sure exactly which of the firm's principals were in the meeting, so Valleywag's apologies for tarring them all with the same brush. And I'm sure there are more distracted VCs in the Valley: hell, they all play with their Blackberries, particularly when bored. But, to heck with fairness: step on up, Granite Ventures, congratulations, you're the first winners of the Silicon Valley Tool award.

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