The other day, a team of entrepreneurs came to pitch their high-tech startup for funding. This motivated group of guys wanted to raise around $10 million for their new, super duper, unique, revolutionary, paradigm-shifting, outside the box, knock your socks off, we’re all gonna retire young, give me your money now technology. After the customary small talk and by the time they were about to start their presentation, I almost wanted to hand the “CEO” the shirt off my back.
Why is it that someone will always show up to an …

Waking up at 4am this morning was a trying ordeal despite my excitement for opening day. But it was all worth it when I tuned into ESPN2 (DIS) and found my boys from Beantown duking it out against the Oakland Athletics in a seesaw battle. In the end, the Red Sox won a tight 6-5 match and started the defense of their championship title positively.
Manny Ramirez, usually a slow starter, drove in four ribbies. Ramirez is jockeying for a contract extension so I expect him to get off to an …

I get up very early in the morning to prepare for the markets’ open. The usual routine involves checking my inbox for important emails from friends or respected professionals, quickly poring over all the news, running through my RSS feeds, tracking my investment ideas through Google (GOOG) Alerts and some proprietary software that automatically populate my database of companies to investigate further. I find that having a discipline or process helps me to keep my mind focused, sharp, and ready to generate new ideas.
Early tomorrow morning, I’m changing my routine …

Life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Thomas Hobbes might say the same about life in the stock market for hedge fund managers. The mortality rate found in the hedge fund world is extremely high; it is an ecosystem that is filled with predators and would-be predators. By mid-2007, an estimated 9,700 hedge funds controlled approximately $1.7 trillion in assets. According to Hedge Fund Research, 1,518 launched in 2006 and nearly as many called it quits. The battle for investment survival mirrors Hobbes’ State of Nature found in his …

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has a very informative piece on the credit crisis and its effect on startups. Apparently, many startups are putting their venture cash in Auction Rate Securities, financial instruments that are normally very liquid and provide better yields than typical bank savings/checkings accounts. Unfortunately, the perfect storm of the current credit crisis has put a freeze on the ARS market and startups are finding a difficult time to access their cash.
What really surprised me from the article was that many startups were putting their cash in …

A few days ago, I remarked how precariously positioned the investment banks had become. Today, we witnessed something spectacular as these once proud institutions accelerated their fall. Bear Stearns (BSC) will be taken over in a fire sale for approximately $2 per share by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) with backing from the Federal Reserve. Lehman Brothers (LEH), which has a similar business model to Bear, saw its stock take a dive on fear that it too faces liquidity problems.
Yesterday, Fed chair Ben Bernanke took the unusual step of lowering …

Bear Stearns plunges amid trade risk worries – Bear Stearns (BSC) was a pathfinder in the securitization of mortgages, but its over-reliance on mortgage-backed securities led to big losses in a couple of its hedge funds. Now external hedge funds, clients of its prime brokerage, are fleeing in droves for fear the bank lacks sufficient cash or liquidity. Oh how our mighty investment banks have fallen. Funny how the top in these stocks coincided with record numbers of MBAs coming out of our business schools to join the likes of …

Robert Ricks, a marketing maven and not too shabby graphic designer, writes a good piece about the commoditization of Web widgets. Robert’s resumé includes working at some of the early trend-setting dotcoms during the boom, creating his own trading card game (Magic for the ghetto), and even patrolling the halls as a security guard at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) where he learned his craft in digital media. Yes, he started there as a nightstick-wielding muscle man but took the initiative to learn some marketable skills from the environment around him. …

ESCO receives order for 88,000 meter readers – Radio Frequency (RF) utility meters are coming to your neighborhood soon. Yes, everything is going to get networked, even your gas, electric, and water meters. ESCO Technologies (ESE) just sold a bunch to PG&E Corporation (PCG) and if you don’t live in California, expect your utility to follow suit.
Perdigao Reports Increase in Net Income of 174% in 2007 – Food prices keep rising – an issue I’ve mentioned here before. Brazilian pork and poultry producer Perdigao S.A. (PDA) has been a big …

Tight US immigration forces outsourcing: Bill Gates – Microsoft (MSFT) chairman, and no longer the wealthiest guy in the world, makes some interesting points about our immigration policy regarding skilled workers. At SocialOptimize, we’ve been outsourcing some of our work to Guatemala and the Philippines.
Google could be superseded, says web inventor – Tim Berners-Lee shares some wisdom about the semantic web. He talks about how a new company in the future could exceed everything Google (GOOG) has done up to this point. Wouldn’t Google just buy that company?
Japanese government investigates …