At the end of a two-day conference celebrating all that is venture capital, a quartet of limited partners offered some pointed criticism on what the industry – and the bulk of its practitioners – are doing wrong.

Apollo Global Management LP has begun marketing its latest credit fund, with a $750 million target, according to a regulatory filing, sister magazine Buyouts reported.

The University of Texas Management Company is among the largest investors in Roger Ehrenberg’s second fund, with a 30% stake of his new IA Ventures Strategies Fund II, according to a recent UTIMCO portfolio report.

You just love to look at yourself, don’t you? Photos of our recent San Francisco Shindig were by far the most popular post on peHUB this week, judging by pageviews from our regular readers. Other top posts included Connecticut’s biggest hits and misses with PE and VC investments, Ben Smith’s take on entrepreneurship and Halsey Minor’s reflections on Steve Jobs.

ONE: Shindig Photos: Lookin’ Good, San Francisco! – by Lawrence Aragon
TWO: Connecticut’s Biggest PE/VC Hits and Misses (slideshow) – by David Toll
THREE: Ben Smith: There’s More to the Startup Game than a Post-Exit Payday. It’s Called Fishing – by Ben Smith
FOUR: SLIDESHOW: Ivy League Endowments – Who Did Best In FY2011? (subscribers only) – by Gregory Roth
FIVE: Ex-Houlihan Bankers Launch Firm to Target Technology & Services Companies in D.C. – by Luisa Beltran
SIX: Woof! Woof! The 10 Biggest Dogs in UTIMCO’s Portfolio (slideshow) (subscribers only) – by Lawrence Aragon
SEVEN: Halsey Minor: What Steve Jobs Taught Me – by Halsey Minor
EIGHT: Lynn Tilton Didn’t Get Her Reality Show But Will Be on 20/20 This Week – by Luisa Beltran
NINE: Q3 VC Deals Surge in NY, Texas and Northwest, But Falter in New England, LA and Midwest (slideshow) – by Mark Boslet
TEN: RockPort Feels Pain from Betting Big on Solyndra, Going ‘All In’ on Cleantech – by Nichola Groom and Sarah McBride, Reuters

What was hot on peHUB last week? The 10 stories that garnered the most pageviews from regular readers from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21 included posts about the biggest “dogs” in UTIMCO’s portfolio, the best-performing Ivy League Endowments and Carlyle’s next generation of leaders.

ONE: Woof! Woof! The 10 Biggest Dogs in UTIMCO’s Portfolio (slideshow) – by Lawrence Aragon
TWO: SLIDESHOW: Ivy League Endowments – Who Did Best In FY2011? – by Gregory Roth
THREE: SLIDESHOW: A Look At Carlyle’s Next Generation – by Bernard Vaughan
FOUR: Colorado PERA’s 10 Biggest Venture Capital Bets: Slideshow – by Mark Boslet
FIVE: How Rotten Behavior by One Buyout Shop Spoiled an Opportunity for All Other PE Firms – by Luisa Beltran
SIX: SLIDESHOW: Top 10 European Buyout Funds Investing in U.S. 2010-Now – by Angela Sormani
SEVEN: Top 10 Deals in Q3 MoneyTree Raised $1B Combined–Slideshow – by Alastair Goldfisher
EIGHT: CrunchFund Wasn’t the Only Newbie Fund Raised in Q3; Here Are 18 Others (slideshow) (subscribers only) – by Lawrence Aragon
NINE: Purchase Price Multiples Grew In Q3: Report – by Steve Bills
TEN: Infographic: LP Temptation To Cross To the Dark Side – by David Toll

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 …

After bringing you two slideshows that focused on the best-performing funds backed by the University of Texas Management Co., it’s time to “keep it real” by sharing the biggest losers.

(PeHUB subscribers can see our two previous slideshows here: UTIMCO in 17 Active Funds with IRRs > 25%, Union Square, Other Early Stage Tech VCs Kick Ass for UTIMCO.)

We took a look at returns for all of UTIMCO’s active funds and found 10 that were at least a decade old and had negative internal rates of return as of May 31. The university pension fund invested a total of $176.2 million in those vehicles. In return, UTIMCO has received cash distributions of just $55.7 million (or less than one-third of what it put in). And it has no hope …

Happy Monday! If you want to catch up on news you may have missed last week, here are peHUB’s top 10 posts, as judged by the pageviews of our regular readers. Hot topics included Q3 fundraising, performance data from Colorado PERA, UTIMCO and New York pension funds, and a growing number of restaurant bankruptcies.

ONE: Slideshow: 15 Largest U.S.-based Venture Funds Raised in Q3 – by Lawrence Aragon
TWO: CrunchFund Wasn’t the Only Newbie Fund Raised in Q3; Here Are 18 Others (slideshow) – by Lawrence Aragon
THREE: Slideshow: Top-Performing PE/VC Funds Of 3 Big-Apple Pensions – by David Toll
FOUR: Top Ten Performing Funds From The Colorado PERA Venture Portfolio (slideshow) – by Mark Boslet
FIVE: Qwikster and 7 Other Terrible, Short-Lived Ideas (slideshow) – by Connie Loizos
SIX: Slideshow: Riverside’s Lessons from the Loo – by Buyouts magazine
SEVEN: Slideshow: Restaurant Bankruptcies Make PE Queasy – by Bernard Vaughan
EIGHT: Slideshow: UTIMCO in 17 Active Funds with IRRs > 25% (subscribers only) – by Lawrence Aragon
NINE: Gores Group Turns More Industry-Focused (subscribers only) – by Bernard Vaughan
TEN: Welsh Carson To Buy Triple Point Tech from ABRY – by Luisa Beltran

Time to catch up on your reading. Here are the 10 most popular posts among peHUB’s regular readers for Oct. 3 to Oct. 7.

One: Slideshow: UTIMCO in 17 Active Funds with IRRs > 25% – by Lawrence Aragon
Two: Union Square, Other Early Stage Tech VCs Kick Ass for UTIMCO (slideshow) – by Lawrence Aragon
Three: Slideshow: European Fund-of-Funds Build Up U.S. Offices – by Angela Sormani
Four: Slideshow: PE-Backed M&A Jumps in Q3 and Here’s the Top 5 Deals – by Luisa Beltran
Five: Slideshow: More LBO Targets in the CRO Market – by Bernard Vaughan
Six: Promising Portfolios: Asset Values Top Contributed Capital In Recent Cal Regents Venture Funds (Slideshow) – by Mark Boslet
Seven: Infographic: PE vs. VC in Battle of Compensation – by David Toll
Eight: How Will You Remember Steve Jobs? – by Lawrence Aragon
Nine: Comvest Group Lands $580M Fund – by staff
Ten: A Pension Fund Does Away with the Middleman: the VC – by Connie Loizos

Judging by UTIMCO’s latest performance numbers, producing an internal rate of return above 25% is quite a feat. Of the 216 funds the University of Texas Management Co. lists as “active relationships,” just 17 (or 7.8%) can boast the distinction of such a large IRR. Some quick observations about the before we get to the [...]