Anyway, the take away from all this for venture capital firms is that we’re not really complaining. I mean, technically that’s all I’ve been doing, but I also want you to know that we are definitely honored to be in a position to have VCs that want our attention. We know that’s a rare position to be in and we don’t take it lightly. Which is why we’re actually rooting for you. For that hero associate out there to get a hold of us and maybe knock our socks off with a little insight or even just some good ol’ fashioned genuine enthusiasm. For good reasons, we don’t want our time wasted. And we really do want you to accomplish your goals, which is to be remembered. You don’t have to be our biggest fan. We don’t expect that at this point, but we do think that if you’re asking us to consider handing over a percentage of our soul (a soul that we’ve cultivated with our own blood, sweat and tears) in the hopes of capitalizing on our now apparent successful trajectory, then we’d hope that you’ll at least do us the honor of reading our words and learning our craft.

Particletree » How Not to Pitch to a Startup

Great interest in this concept. Here is the company's pitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTBZ8gKb7RE

Wifi Cat Out of the Bag: Force of Good: a blog by Lance Weatherby

Viacom's net profit plunged 69% last quarter to $173 million as a dismal economy pummeled both the ad market and DVD sales and the company took a hefty charge for restructuring and layoffs announced in December.

Viacom's net profit plunges 69% - Entertainment News, Entertainment Industry & the Economy, Media - Variety

Shotput Ventures invites you to its Open House on Tuesday, March 3rd, from 6PM to 8PM. This open house gives the technology community and prospective entrepreneurs the chance to learn more about the program and meet the Shotput Ventures partners. Light refreshments will be served.

Atlanta now has a Y-Combinator clone. This is their open house. Interested in $5K per founder + $5K per company to launch a startup this summer? Show up for their open house.

Shotput Ventures Open House ... - pingg.com

Angel investing in Atlanta could be down as much as 40 percent, mostly because of a pullback from high-net-worth individuals who are doing fewer deals and taking longer to do so. Angels must also now financially prop up portfolio companies longer, as investors higher up the food chain — the venture capital guys — are short on investable cash or dry powder.

Investing by ‘angels’ down 40 percent - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Welcome to Help a Reporter Out™!

You're reading the "I AM A SOURCE" page. If you're a JOURNALIST who's LOOKING for sources, click here.

This list was originally conceived on Facebook, but since Facebook caps group emails at 1,200 people, this is the next incarnation.

Each day, you'll receive up to three emails, each with anywhere from 15-30 queries per email. They'll all be labeled with [shankman.com] in the subject line, for easy filtering. If you see a query you can answer, go for it! HelpAReporter.com really is that simple.

Peter Shankman's HARO - Help a Reporter Out (TM)

So here it is. Some people will love it, some will hate it. It is what it is.

You must post your business plan here on my blog where I expect other people can and will comment on it. I also expect that other people will steal the idea and use it elsewhere. That is the idea. Call this an open source funding environment.

If its a good idea and worth funding, we want it replicated elsewhere. The idea is not just to help you, but to figure out how to help the economy through hard work and ingenuity. If you come up with the idea and get funding, you have a head start. If you execute better than others, you could possibly make money at it. As you will see from the rules below, these are going to be businesses that are mostly driven by sweat equity.

The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan - Open Source Funding « blog maverick

ATDC is pleased to announce SeedSpace. SeedSpace is approximately 1,200 square feet that ATDC has set aside for early seed stage companies that have both a pressing need for office space and a desire to enter ATDC's incubator program. It's somewhat like coworking, but really startups at work. Think of it as an early stage incubator within an incubator.

We have been working on making SeedSpace a reality since last August. The drivers being to find room for entrepreneurs when they are in the early stages of concept development as well as ventures that are not quite ATDC ready but need space.

As I predicted on my personal blog last year, SeedSpace remains within the mission of ATDC to help Georgia technology entrepreneurs. What we want to do with SeedSpace is better assist technology startups and the entrepreneurs that create them.

So what is SeedSpace?

* Seven individually keyed offices
* Eight workstations
* Use of three third floor conference rooms
* Free Internet access
* 90 day lease terms
* 120 day max time in Seed Space
* 24 hour proximty card access
* Discounted parking

Prices are currently $225 for an office and $150 for a workstation. As this program is designed for entrepreneurs and companies that have a desire to enter ATDC's incubator program the best way to learn more is to complete an inquiry and someone will be in touch with you in short order.

Peach Seedz: SeedSpace

What is a StartupChick?

A StartupChick is a female entrepreneur who is interested in creating, building, growing an innovative business that creates value for its customers, employees, shareholders and ideally, the world-at-large.

StartupChicks - connecting and inspiring entrepreneurial women

Limited partners measure VC firms not only on their cash-on-cash multiple ("ten-baggers" and such) but on their rate of return, measured from the day of the capital call to the day of the ultimate distribution (after a sale, merger, or IPO). Sitting on cash earning 2% would inexorably drag down the eventual IRR for a particular deal, and eventually for the entire fund.

Which is a longwinded explanation of why VC firms don't have any money, and why they practice "just-in-time" capital calls.

Now, firms are getting worried about their institutional investors defaulting on these calls. You can read samples here, here, here, and here.

But I haven't seen anyone mention a critical element of this problem, which is asset allocation.

CCO of GaTech, Stephen Fleming, explains VC Capital Calls and the current economic crisis's impact on VCs.

Academic VC: Capital Calls