Written for VC-backed entrepreneurs…

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

Oh, the Mistakes You Will Make,
The Money you’ll Waste
Maybe Your are Moving
With much too much haste!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes,
You can Steer yourself
Any Direction you choose

You have clouds in your head.
You have to take care,
Your burn rate’s outrageous!
You are in for a Big Scare

You are on your own
And You know what you know
And YOU are the guy

Who’ll decide where to go

Be Cautious, Be Bold
Lead the Charge up the Hill,
We’ve given you our cash,
Watch out for the ...

Late on December 18, the partners of Findadeal, Leverage & Flippit enjoyed a brandy together after putting the finishing touches on the PPM for their $1 billion-targeted fourth fund. They could already taste the success they would reap, confident that the forthcoming management fees would allow them to support the lifestyles they had built.

The cleaning woman swung open the door as they were downing the last of the celebratory libation. They were startled when she raised her haggard face and said, “Tonight you will have three visitations, pay heed to their messages.� Then she closed the door and moved on. After a moment, their laughter burst out as they each headed back to their offices to wrap up and head out.

Cannon Findadeal was the first to call out his goodbye...

Three years ago, at 4am on the day after Thanksgiving, I rushed my pregnant wife to a Best Buy in Westchester, hunting for a laptop selling far below cost. Expecting to be among the very few crazy enough to shop on Black Friday before sunrise, I was shocked to see a line stretching around the block (including other pregnant women). By the time we were finally allowed into the store, all the best deals had all been snapped up, leaving laggards like us to scavenge through baskets of bargain-priced junk. Determined to have some sort of compensation for our lost hours of sleep, I purchased a deeply discounted DVD— the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Total Recall. Since this event, I have taken to calling the purchase of a good or service to justify one’s effort “Black Friday Syndrome.â€...

A lot has been written in the last week about the scandal at Canopy Financial, a venture-backed, high-flying start-up that attracted $75 million in capital at increasingly higher prices from top-tier firms, only to come crashing down in a dust of rubble and fraud. The VC community suffered a very similar scandal at Seattle-based Entellium last year, but few reporters seem to remember that one, perhaps because it wasn’t located in the heart of Silicon Valley as Canopy was.

Many of the VCs I’ve spoken to are frankly not surprised that these kinds of fraudulent schemes could have occurred. In truth, our industry is built on a trust model. We do our best to conduct due diligence on the team, market, strategy, technology, but at the end of the day many of these investment deci...

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen extremely high activity in new venture investments. Starting in September, we witnessed the return of multiple term sheet deals, short fuse situations, and a renewed urgency to most fund-raisings. I heard last week of a hot late stage deal attracting ten (yes 10) term sheets. It’s a really great company, but just one quarter ago that number would have been much lower. FastCompany’s Q3 Venture Capital Activity Report picks up some of this, with Q3’s activity marking a high for 2009, and growing 14% from Q2. The same report shows Series A internet sector deals totaled 66 in Q3, up from 20 in Q1 of 2009. Our sense is that Q4 will show similarly high numbers.

The same VCs who hunkered down in January were back in the game in September, and ...

* Ten brands that will disappear in 2010.

* New Firm Alert: NorthBridge Capital Partners, formed to do MBOs. (Remember those?)

* To counter that, ten web trends to watch in 2010.

* Looks like some bankers are using holiday parties to blow off steam.

* More than 51% of PE investments in India this year went into the power sector.

*Can “Nice Girls” Negotiate? Whitney Johnson of Ha...

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen extremely high activity in new venture investments. Starting in September, we witnessed the return of multiple term sheet deals, short fuse situations, and a renewed urgency to most fund-raisings. I heard last week of a hot late stage deal attracting ten (yes 10) term sheets. It’s a really great company, but just one quarter ago that number would have been much lower. FastCompany’s Q3 Venture Capital Activity Report picks up some of this, with Q3’s activity marking a high for 2009, and growing 14% from Q2. The same report shows Series A internet sector deals totaled 66 in Q3, up from 20 in Q1 of 2009. Our sense is that Q4 will show similarly high numbers.

The same VCs who hunkered down in January were back in the game in September, and ...

Job Opportunity: Wall Streeters, your dream job has arrived. Steven Land Clothing is looking for a few new faces to represent the brand, and it’s decided to turn to the city’s pool of unemployed Wall Streeters to fill the positions. (Cityfile)

5 tips to make people care about “your stupid little startup.” (Matt Brezina)

Read Up: Best books of 2009, according to the Economist. (Economist)

Turnover: Analysts and lower level hires at Silver Lake and TA Associates might not want to get too comfortable. PE Database provides a picture of the lower level turnover at each of the firms. (PE Database)

The recession is still with us:  Yahoo cancels its Christmas party (and there will be no lapdancers either) (Clusterstock)

Here’s o...

* Fred Destin: The arrogant venture capitalist

* Joshua Brown: The rally apologista’s handbook

* Preqin finds that 60% of private equity firms have either frozen salaries or are considering such a move. Moreover, 14% have cut staffers with another 12% mulling future layoffs.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures signal mixed open, European shares extend losses, the Nikkei rally falls short and both China and Hong Kong shares drop on supply woes.

* Get ready...

* Lauren Silva Laughlin suggests that Carlyle Group is drunk on Booz Allen debt.

* Blackstone Group cares about the students. Or their money, at least. The firm is building the tallest tower in London’s financial district and it’s a dorm.

*  Is Bloomberg Engaging in Bernanke Boosterism?

*Ouch, November hurt. The U.S. employment report for the month should show a loss of 130,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate edging up to 10.3%.

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