It’s no surprise to anyone who follows the industry that founders are often elbowed aside. Sometimes, they’re ousted because a startup isn’t performing. Sometimes, investors think a new CEO could do better. Lesser known is that CEOs are sometimes shown the door because a startup’s senior managers threaten to hightail it otherwise.

The hot new scheme to avoid corporate taxes, a foiled terror plot in Canada, the latest from Fred Wilson, Reese Witherspoon is super sorry, Anthony Weiner is tweeting again, and why you need to fact check press releases.

(Reuters) – Foursquare has raised $41 million in debt financing from Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley wrote in a blog.

In recent years, buttoned-down New York City has become an epicenter of open-collared consumer Web startups, with one hot brand after another drawing in users and venture capital in tandem. But the city that doesn’t sleep may have to work through the night reinventing itself if investors’ growing infatuation with all things enterprise goes unabated.

Thanks to astute deal-making, a strong point of view, and a long and savvy relationship with social media, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures [USV] is widely recognized as one of the most influential venture capitalists in the country.

His influence is about to be tested.

Just goes to show you: there really is some value in the comments section of a blog. Fred Wilson found it….

Union Square Ventures has closed on more than half of a new, $200 million early stage fund, raising $116.5 million of fresh capital, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rumors of the close began to spread last week, with two sources close to the company confirming the commitments. The SEC filing says another $83.5 million of the firm’s third early stage fund remains to be spoken for, though one source said it too has been sold. Sources say Union Square drew its capital from existing LPs with few if any new investors invited.

The apparent ease of the fundraising isn’t surprising given the success of Union Square’s first two early stage funds. Those funds invested in a number of notable Internet companies, including Twitter …

(Reuters) – Two of Twitter’s earliest investors have left the company’s board of directors, the latest change to the fast-growing social media company’s leadership.

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital are no longer on Twitter’s board, the company said on Friday.

The departures were first reported on the technology blog AllThingsD.com.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the change.

Twitter does not plan to appoint new directors to replace Wilson and Sabet, a source familiar with the matter said.

Think what you will about Mike Arrington; one thing is certain. The blogging entrepreneur and investor never shrinks from an opportunity to flame someone or something when the mood strikes him. And why would he? While he sometimes makes himself look like a tin pot dictator, his sharply worded diatribes are almost always widely read [...]

Six months ago, economist Paul Kedrosky found himself in a curious situation. After being introduced to a new service, along with several other potential investors, the founder of the service announced that as part of any seed-stage deal, he expected immediate liquidity for up to 25 percent of his shares. Kedrosky, a seed investor in [...]