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Please post on any other lists to reach LA grads
you know: open all ages all Harvard programs
alumni/ae and their friends & family are invited.
Let’s socialize after work Tues.
at the Library Alehouse.
http://libraryalehouse.com/
RSVP to me please.
Perry
pg@harvardla.com
I’m compiling a list of the top 100 Harvard-related
startups on the planet. I’ll share the results
together with comments and due diligence
report data where available. There will be
categories for profit and non-profit enterprises.
Send me off-line of the list please your
top three with a sentence or two on why.
Regards.
Perry
pg@harvardsf.org
pg@harvardla.com
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Lawrence H. Summers has announced
that he will resign as president of Harvard University
at the end of the 2005-06 academic year, the school
announced on its Web site.
Summers became Harvard's 27th president after Neil L.
Rudenstine announced in May 2001 his resignation after
nearly a decade. Summer's resignation ends the
briefest tenure of any Harvard president since 1862,
when Cornelius Felton died after two years in office.
As Harvard's president, Summers, a former U.S.
Treasury secretary in the Clinton Administration, on
several occasions made comments that drew intense
criticism.
Last year he suggested that innate gender differences
between the sexes that might explain the few women in
science and math.
The talk prompted a 218-185 no confidence vote from
Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences last March.
Faculty votes are symbolic because the seven-member
Harvard Corporation has sole authority to fire the
university's president.
Another no confidence vote was scheduled for Feb. 28.
Derek Bok, Harvard's president from 1971 to 1991, will
serve as interim president of the University from July
1 until the conclusion of the search for a new president.
All Are Invited to Comedy for the Community
Hosted by Perry Gregg, HarvardSF.com!
Click Here for more Info:
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Larkin Street Youth Services
Real Options for City Kids (ROCK)
Sponsored By HarvardSF.com & RaptorHead
Click Here for more Info:
http://raptorhead.com/comedy.html
Please call: SF Comedy Club to make reservation, (415)
398-4129
Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
The SF Comedy Club
@ 50 Mason Lounge
50 Mason Street
(bet. Market & Eddy)
San Francisco
Social Time: 7pm
Showtime: 8pm
Tickets $20
by JAN NORMAN
ocregister.com writer
PREPARING A NEW VENTURE: Luis Villalobos has long been involved in "angel" investing. In addition to starting two successful companies, he's invested in 57 ventures. He also is a founder of Tech Coast Angels.
From the "Working Group on Venture Capital Final Report, October 2005," U.S. Dept. of Commerce "Entrepreneurship and innovation are the two keys to success in economic development providing for wealth creation and a rising standard of living. Furthermore, the commercialization of innovation and the growth of entrepreneurial firms require that risk capital is available, in particular at the early stages of firm growth."
"If the activities of business angels, who are active in seed and early stages, could be better integrated into the mainstream of venture capital, for example through co-investment schemes this could help to overcome the market failure of early-stage funding."
For more information about the Angel-Led Venture Partners LP, contact Luis Villalobos at Luis@angel-led.com .
If you want to know about equity investing in Orange County, Luis Villalobos is your go-to guy. He's had a hand in most efforts since the 1990s to increase funding to local entrepreneurs, especially during the early stages of their ventures. So it's not surprising that Villalobos is now seeking to form a $50 million early-stage investment fund with a couple of other successful entrepreneurs. After tapping the resources of family and friends, startup firms turn to sophisticated investors, called angels, who put money and expertise in promising, young enterprises. Angels are essential to strong local economies. These business leaders are seeding the next generation of high-wage job generators. Rather than compete with these angels, of whom Villalobos is one, the Angel-Led Venture Partners LP would work with them to increase the money available to young companies.
He started working on the concept in 2000 because of the insatiable need for venture money that he saw at Tech Coast Angels, the nation's largest angel club, whose 250 members have made 107 deals since 1997.
"It didn't matter how big we got, we always needed more capital," Villalobos says. The fund proposes to sell limited partnerships for $1 million to $2 million, more than an average angel brings to the table. Then the fund will rely on the hundreds of hours of due diligence of potential investments done by angel clubs and co-invest with the angels so that more deals can be made.
"Luis is proactive in embracing angels," says John Morris, managing director of GKM Ventures in Los Angeles, and chairman of Tech Coast Angels. Such a co-investing fund "will make our deals larger and safer."
Villalobos has long been involved in angel investment. In addition to starting two successful companies, he's invested in 57 ventures, overall doubling his money. He also is a founder of Tech Coast Angels.
His involvement in the formation of the Angel Capital Association, which seeks to be the angel equivalent to the National Venture Capital Association, will give him access to more than 100 angel clubs nationwide.
Not every Villalobos effort to build capital resources for young companies has flourished. He had a hand in ACE-net, a defunct federal effort to coordinate venture investing. And Gazelle Labs, the for-profit business incubator he co-founded in 2000, lasted less than a year.
Maybe it's his math degree from MIT that causes Villalobos to keep detailed statistics about equity investments. His annual updates for the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County draw standing-room-only crowds.
Ask him how much venture capital Orange County companies have received, and he'll e-mail a chart going back to 1990 broken down by seed, startup and later-stage investments with comparisons to Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
All that data mining helps him prove that angel investors fill a gap in the professional investment world.
In the 1960s, venture capitalists were wealthy businessmen who liked to put their money and skill into young, growing companies. As the venture capital industry grew into greater professionalism, investors avoided riskier deals. They also moved toward larger deals. During the dot-com craze, a typical venture capital deal was $15 million; more recently it's $2 million to $3 million, mostly to firms far enough along to have products and revenues.
Today's angels are like the early venture capitalists, putting in small amounts of money early in a firm's life.
Tech Coast Angels, for example, each promise to invest $50,000 a year, and several pool their money for a single deal, Chairman Morris says. While TCA has some venture capital members and has done cooperative investments with some regional funds, many VCs don't like such small deals.
Angel-Led Venture Partners would do only such deals. But it is far from a done deal itself. Villalobos and his co-managers will have to persuade big-money guys that the untested model can make money. And although the managers have individual investment success, they haven't worked together yet.
While the fund depends on angels to investigate the viability of potential investments, it has no signed agreements with any angel clubs.
Villalobos is confident even small angel groups can adopt TCA's proven due diligence process. Still, he anticipates that most of Angel-Led Venture Partners' co-investing will be with the largest clubs on both coasts.
He hopes to raise at least $20 million within three months so that the fund can start co-investing.
"Once we make our first closing, we're committed," he says, "but the (return on investment) doesn't work out well for partners at $20 million. The numbers are better at $50 million."
Feb. 11, 2006
URBANA, Ill. - The third-ranked Fighting Illini shut out their fourth opponent of the season dominating No. 51 Harvard on Saturday night at the Atkins Tennis Center. Illinois defeated the Crimson 7-0 to improve to 6-0 and have now won 12 straight at home including putting together a 50-1 home record since March 30, 2002.
"I am very proud of the boys to come out and maintain focus on a double day," Coach Dancer said. "I really think they did a great job overall."
Illinois struck early and often to sweep the doubles competition and earn the point. Ryan Rowe (Moline, Ill.) returned to the doubles lineup to team with Kevin Anderson (Johannesburg, South Africa) and continue their domination at the No. 1 spot. The duo took down the 15th-ranked tandem of Ashwin Kumar and Sasha Ermakov 8-2. Pramod Dabir (Saratoga, Calif.) and GD Jones (Auckland, New Zealand) won their match in convincing fashion with an 8-3 dismantling of Dan Nguyen and Brian Wan on court three to seal the doubles point. Ryler DeHeart (Tampa, Fla.) and Ruben Gonzales (Terre Haute, Ind.) have yet to be defeated in the dual season after they notched their sixth victory with an 8-5 win over Brandon Chiu and Scott Deneberg. Seventh-ranked DeHeart quickly put the Illini ahead 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Brian Wan at No. 1 and soon after 37th-ranked Anderson put Illinois one point away from the win with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Kumar at No. 3. Jones clinched the Illini victory with his 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Ermakov at court two. On court six, Dabir took the first set 6-4, but was down 2-4 in the second. The senior rebounded with four straight games to take the match 6-4, 6-4 over Denenberg. Marc Spicijaric (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) stunned Brandon Chiu at No. 5. The Illini rookie split the first two sets and found himself down 4-1 in the third, but the freshman fought back to take the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Gonzales finished off the Crimson with a 7-5, 7-6(3) win over Christopher Clayton.
"Ruben and Ryler were exceptional all day," Dancer said. "They were the leaders on Tuesday and it was great to see those guys come out here and get it done again."
The Illini will have a week to prepare for the USTA/ITA National Men's Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle. Sixteen of the nation's top tennis programs will compete for the prestigious championship, Feb. 17-20. The Orange and Blue open the first round against No. 14 seed and 45th-ranked Arkansas at 5:30 p.m. Arkansas earned a berth in the tournament by winning the ITA Central Region Indoor Championships. Illinois won its second straight USTA/ITA title the last time the event was held in Seattle in 2004.
Saturday's Results
No. 3 ILLINOIS 7, No. 51 Harvard 0
Doubles:
1. Anderson/Rowe (ILL) def. No. 15 Kumar/Ermakov (HU); 8-2
2. DeHeart/Gonzales (ILL) def. Chiu/Deneberg (HU); 8-5
3. Jones/Dabir (ILL) def. Nguyen/Wan (HU); 8-3
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2