Photograph by Michael Grecco/Getty ImagesActor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. with his Bradley electric car in 1989. Still wondering who killed the electric car? How about some of the country’s most powerful venture capitalists. OK, so they didn’t really kill the electric car, to reference Chris Paine’s 2006 documentary about the silent and systematic destruction of thousands of electric vehicles. But during a panel discussion at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley last night, the VCs did overwhelmingly dismiss the notion that within five years, there’s going to be a radical shift away from gas-powered automobiles in the U.S. The occasion was the 14th annual Top 10 Tech Trends dinner held at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, Calif. Five investors were each asked ... Continue reading →

Sunrun Inc. has a message for homeowners who are contemplating going solar: It’s cheaper and easier than you think. The provider of residential solar-power systems said today that it raised $60 million in funding, led by Madrone Capital Partners LP, to invest in software development that can make projects more efficient and less costly. Sunrun buys solar panels, configures them for residential use and then leases the system to consumers for 20-year terms. The company requires no down payment and charges users a monthly fee that’s less than the typical electricity bill. Solar is gaining popularity as an alternative to fossil fuels, following a 53 percent drop in prices since the end of 2010. “People still don’t know that solar for zero down is an ... Continue reading →

alevy84 1 photo · 13 followers “Umm battle of the band names winner?” Continue reading →

Facebook 11% Drop Means Morgan Stanley Gets Blame for Flop: Tech By Serena Saitto, Lee Spears and Joseph Ciolli - 2012-05-22T02:23:56Z May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Paul Kedrosky, author of the Infectious Greed blog and a Bloomberg contributing editor, and Max Wolff, an analyst at Greencrest Capital Management, talk about trading in shares of Facebook Inc. Facebook fell below its $38 offer price in the second day of trading. Kedrosky and Wolff speak with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg) May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Darren Chervitz, research director for Jacob Funds, talks about Facebook Inc.'s stock price performance and the outlook for the social network firm. Facebook, the social networking site that raised $16 billion in an initial public offering, fell below its ... Continue reading →

Editor’s note: Dan Scholnick is a General Partner at Trinity Ventures where he invests in early stage cloud computing and consumerized IT companies such as New Relic, dotCloud, StackMob, Cloudscaling, and Loggly. You can read more about Dan at the Trinity Ventures website or follow him on Twitter @dschol. He is not an investor in Facebook, though he wishes he were. Judging by many of the headlines on Friday, you might think that Facebook’s IPO was a miserable failure. The Wall Street Journal declared, “Facebook’s IPO Sputters,” and our very own TechCrunch declared that bankers were “struggling” to keep the share price up. Nevermind that it was the highest ever IPO valuation and one of the largest sums of money ever raised by a U.S. ... Continue reading →

Enlarge image Facebook IPO Spawns New Wave Social-Media Angel Investors Zef Nikolla/Facebook via Bloomberg Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., center, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, center left, and Robert Greifeld, chief executive officer of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., center right, applaud after remotely ring the opening bell for trading at the Nasdaq MarketSite from the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., center, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, center left, and Robert Greifeld, chief executive officer of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., center right, applaud after remotely ring the opening bell for trading at the Nasdaq MarketSite from the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California. Photographer: Zef Nikolla/Facebook via Bloomberg May 18 ... Continue reading →