TheFunded.com founder Adeo Ressi has always said his mission was to bring balance to the skewed power relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Best known for shrouding his rate-the-VC site in mystery during its early days, Ressi is set to add a new feature to the site: TheFunded Connect, a sort of virtual placement agent tool that helps entrepreneurs connect with investors via a network of trusted CEOs.Rather than trying to create an application that introduces investors to entrepreneurs in a new way, Ressi created TheFunded Connect to mimic the way most deals are currently sourced. Entrepreneurs can post pitches on the site, then use the recommendations of other CEOs to gain introductions to potential investors.
As with startup evaluation engine YouNoodle Inc., backed by key Valley angels Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, startups are often judged first by their management teams and second by their business plans.
"VCs are a closed network -- the only way to get in is by knowing someone," Ressi says. "There is an exponential difference between being introduced to a VC and cold-calling one. Clicking to submit a business plan or mailing one in is probably going to get you no reply or a form-letter rejection. We use CEOs as a filter -- there are 8,000 CEOs on our site, and 78% of them have already been funded."
The types of deals may skew toward industries that require less confidentiality, although Ressi points out that most business plans sent to professional investors eventually wind up in the hands of competitors. Most pitches will likely come from early-stage companies, since those with some funding already in place typically tap into their investors' own networks for later rounds. Ressi says TheFunded has a partnership with document-sharing site Scribd Inc. for CEOs to share documents, including term sheets and other paperwork for other members of TheFunded to review.
Like the original TheFunded.com service, TheFunded Connect is free for both entrepreneurs and VCs, although Ressi says he may charge VCs for access to generic term sheets hosted on the site in the future. TheFunded.com is already profitable from advertising revenues, and Ressi says he has no intention of raising capital from outside investors. He's also looking into adding other premium services for VC funds, as well as a recommendation service for lawyers and other professionals in the dealmaking community. -- Paul Bonanos
See November 15 and November 16 posts about TheFunded from Tech Confidential
See Feb. 19 about YouNoodle from Tech Confidential
While some of the biggest technology companies today were famously founded by youngsters messing around in their dorm rooms or garages, that image of Silicon Valley is more legend than reality. According to a new study from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard universities, twice as many U.S. entrepreneurs start technology companies in their fifties as do twenty-something entrepreneurs.
The operator of hip-hop social network Urbmob.com confirms that it has raised $1.5 million in funding from venture investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Grosvenor Funds and New Atlantic Ventures (formerly Draper Atlantic). MBeat Media Inc., the company behind Urbmob and a related record label, is already raising a Series B round worth $4 million to $5 million, general manager Robert Delamar says. The news about its A round was first reported in The Washington Post.
Angel-backed music widget provider Sonific LLC will shutter its service on May 1 after it failed to reach workable licensing agreements with major industry labels. Founding CEO Gerd Leonhard posted a lengthy explanation on the company's site, claiming that the labels' demands for cash advances, streaming royalties, equity and usage restrictions were too high for Sonific to handle. The service allows users to stream music on any Web site and maintains a key partnership with indie music seller CD Baby.
Stable Media hopes to generate revenues via carefully planned, unobtrusive advertising that's integrated into the user experience, as well as premium services and sales of virtual goods. It will also market itself as a white-label service for events, Stein says. The company hasn't announced any agreements with music labels or artists yet, but it will surely need them to compete with the well-funded vSide, which has several partnerships in place and has hosted virtual concerts by the likes of Maroon 5. Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Trident Capital, Draper Richards, KPG Ventures and ComVentures have invested $25 million in vSide to date, most recently in an $11-million round announced in August 2007.
Will Smith's production company has invested in PluggedIn Media Corp., a new streaming video site for music clips that launched late Tuesday. PluggedIn, which might be described as the Hulu Inc. of music videos, has raised roughly $2 million from its founders and Overbrook Entertainment, the production and management company co-founded by the former Fresh Prince.
While much of the same content is still available on YouTube and other sites, PluggedIn aims to provide a superior viewing experience. Chief executive Jeff Somers says PluggedIn built its own video player, which helps its high-quality videos load faster and with less buffering than those found on YouTube. The player does require a brief installation, which I found relatively painless. As with NBC and Fox-backed TV and movie clip site Hulu, the video quality was impressive, although I did find one video filed under the wrong name among my first couple of searches.
It seems Obvious that microblogging service Twitter Inc. is planning to sell targeted advertising eventually, but an unannounced rollout of new features tonight gives a hint to its future plans. If you're already a user, you're now invited to "share your story," which includes age, gender, occupation, location and a few words about why you're using the service. In addition, the site has added a search function, and it has made its "badge" enabling users to add a Twitter feed to a blog or other Web site a more prominent feature.
Unnamed angels have injected $550,000 in fresh capital in one-year-old startup mTraks Inc. of San Diego, a seller of downloadable music from independent artists. 
"If you look at the music business, the real hit rate is even worse than it is for VCs--it's one in 20, one in 30," says OurStage Inc. founder and chief executive Ben Campbell. 