With roots in the ultra-conservative old-boys bastion that is Bechtel Corp., it's no surprise that DAG Ventures  would be on the safe side. But this is ridiculous.

Of 11 deals the firm, a unit of Duff Ackerman & Goodrich LLC, has done in the last year, 10 were follow-on rounds in companies originally backed by Silicon Valley blue-bloods Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital or Accel Partners. Come to think of it, the last five had the imprimatur of Kleiner Perkins, the ultimate Sand Hill Road venture firm.

Companies in deals including DAG seldom, if ever, disclose valuations, but one would reasonably assume that later-stage rounds of companies so universally tied to big names don't come particularly cheap. But it doesn't necessarily follow that those firms' cachet carries over into the public markets or in trade sales, so it will be interesting to see how DAG's strategy plays out.

Of course, just because DAG's deal sourcing is a little on the conservative side doesn't mean it necessarily shrinks from more controversial affiliations. The firm's latest investment is a $23 million, Sequoia-sourced deal for online advertising network AdBrite Inc., which was founded by Philip Kaplan,  founder of Internet bubble chronicler FuckedCompany.com. - Clifford Carlsen

See Nov. 29 post from TechCrunch
See 2005 story from The Deal newsweekly