Here’s an embarrassing disclosure: about a year ago, my annual bonus became tied in part to Klout. Why am I embarrassed about this objective?Because four years after its founding and despite $40 million in funding, it’s just not apparent that Klout works very well.

Well, it’s time again for our semi-annual “overrated” list, a completely subjective analysis of things that we (I) could have stood to read a little less about in 2011 — not because the persons or companies included did too much in the way of self-promotion as received an inordinate amount of attention. I’m guessing I’ll [...]

New York is getting awfully crowded these days. Accel has opened an office in the Big Apple this year. So has Canaan Partners, Matrix Partners, and, now, New Enterprise Associates, which already has a handful of investments in local startups and wants to demonstrate its “continued commitment to the area,” as NEA partner Tony Florence [...]

David Teten, founder of one company that mines social networks for deal leads, another that mines social networks for recruitment leads, another that connects hedge fund managers with industry executives, and another one (alas, now defunct) that provided investment banking services to buyers and sellers of domain names, has landed a gig as a venture capitalist.

Teten has become the second partner at New York-based ff Venture Capital since its inception in 1999. The firm holds stakes in such notable companies as Klout Inc. (mine is 50, thank you very much) and Hashable Inc., a company that stands at the crossroads of CRM and, yes, hash tags. Having known Teten for nearly a decade, and admired his mastery of the social networking scene, I thought I’d catch up with him with five questions to find out more about his new firm.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers was tied for the most active U.S. VC in the first quarter, according to peHUB’s analysis of data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of this blog). Overall, the storied Sand Hill Road firm backed 30 companies, up from 19 in the same period a year earlier, but down slightly from 35 [...]

Lou Kerner has dabbled in real estate, worked as a cable and satellite analyst at Goldman Sachs, and headed numerous companies, including two domain companies: the now defunct Tuvalu domain registrar dot.tv and WildSites. Yet Kerner has seemingly found the role he was born to play as the self-described “first social media analyst on Wall Street.”

He’s attracted quite an audience. Kerner has been quoted as an expert on social media valuations in the mainstream press, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the L.A. Times, no fewer than 120 times so far this year. He’s also cited regularly in online properties such as Business Insider and has appeared on television numerous times. In fact, Bloomberg may give him his own weekly show.

“I’m building the Lou Kerner brand,” Kerner told me

Right now, the online “influence” measurement startup Klout is enjoying the kind of attention that many startups can only dream about. People with high “influence” ratings–largely achieved by attracting other “influential” people to follow them on Twitter–can’t stop talking about Klout (mostly on Twitter). Brands hoping to stay relevant to younger generations seem equally obsessed [...]

Joe Fernandez has a lot to celebrate.  His online influence measurement startup, Klout, is enjoying both explosive growth and the kind of attention that many startups can only dream about. It’s no wonder that last month, San Francisco-based Klout was handed $8.5 million in financing led by none other than Kleiner Perkins. The round, which [...]

Klout, a provider of social web influencer analytics, has raised $1.5 million in Series A funding. Backers include ff Asset Management, Allan Morgan, Zelkova Ventures and Nova Spivak.