By now, much of the connected universe, and certainly all of technolphilia, is aware of Facebook’s IPO, which seeks to raise up to $5 billion (and perhaps eventually $10 billion) when its shares go public this spring. The net effect is a valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion for the 8-year-old social network.
Mining the …

Local isn’t easy, or even worthwhile. Chris Devore, Seattle-based co-ounder of Judy’s Book, wants to remind entrepreneurs to stay away. In a new blog post, Devore gives three top reasons NOT to do a local + online start-up:
1- There’s no money in it.
2- It doesn’t scale.
3- It’s too obvious.
“Combine expensive, high-touch selling, small budgets and high churn …

Source: Washington Post. Case, Leonsis and partner Donn Davis
Universities stimulate major business zones in various cities. So do airports. Hence the Dulles tech corridor in D.C. So does the success of major companies.
People leave with their stock options and develop their own companies. Witness Wang in Boston, Microsoft in Seattle, AOL in D.C., …

Yelp’s S-1, which was issued last week as a run-up to a $100 million IPO, reveals a lot of new data about the reviews leader. The big question about Yelp has been whether it can grow against increased pressure from Google, and also begin to take market share away from traditional media players such as …

In the wake of Groupon’s successful IPO, Angie’s List is apparently set to issue its own IPO on Thursday. The offering would raise up to $113 million for the Indianapolis-based company, which provides members-only reviews of services and medical providers. For us, the big question is whether consumers will continue to be willing …

With Groupon going public, the promotions space is getting tremendously revved up. Hoping to get in on the action are promotional relatives of the deals space, including providers of grocery “cents off” coupons, retail weekly sales (circulars), retail rewards and Buy One Get One Free. While most of these don’t do much with local advertisers, …

Facebook Head of Groups Justin Shaffer told attendees at Where 2.0 that one of Facebook’s goals is to develop the largest database of “interesting” places. The collection of places has “really been the focus” of his division for the past four to six months, he said. At the same time, the database of places is …

As it turns out, the daily deals landscape is more sophisticated than many first thought. New contours are emerging, each replete with opportunity and threat. Bluntly branding the space as “the next big thing” or a “can’t-miss opportunity” lacks the necessary strategic discernment in an industry replete with competitors and fortressed with high barriers to …

 
With several recent tech valuations raising eyebrows — Quora at $86 million, Twitter at nearly $8 billion to name just two — a word that’s been tossed around Silicon Valley a lot these days is “froth.” Sean Moriarty, entrepreneur in residence at Mayfield Fund, told the ILM East audience, however, that not all froth is …

Among the most challenging but potentially lucrative verticals is “Legal.” Long dominated by legal listings leaders such as Martindale Hubbell and Reuters Thomson, legal has opened up a little with the rise of social media and social media driven review sites such as Avvo.
Taking another approach is Chicago-based Total Attorneys. The company, founded in 2002, …

Angie’s List, the premium ratings and review service for home and medical services, has announced that it has raised $22.5 Million from institutional investors as it prepares for an IPO within 18 months. Investors in this round include some public funds managers, including Wasatch Funds.   The company previously raised $48 million, making for a grand …

With 200+ deal-a-day sites and vendors, the only way to carve out a niche is to find dramatically different takes on group buying (i.e., focusing on verticals or integrating with other content). How about making your buys visible to your entire social network, and going deeper on the game mechanisms?
That’s the approach being taken …

G5 Search Marketing is poised to further leverage its growth in several high-yield verticals after announcing a $15 million investment from Volition Capital to close out its first round of financing.
CEO Dan Hobin told BIA/Kelsey that the company plans to use the proceeds to “enhance the current content management system and search products” in its …

Redbeacon, the six-person San Francisco-based service referral company, announced today that it has raised a heady $7.4 million in Series A financing from Mayfield Fund and Venrock. CEO and Cofounder Ethan Anderson tells us that the company needed such a huge round to quickly ramp up the staff, including engineers, designers and marketing people; aggressively …

Truvo USA, the holding company that owns the European directory publisher Truvo, has filed for bankruptcy protection, with plans to hand over the company to its senior creditors. Truvo’s European-based operating companies did not file for bankruptcy protection.
Truvo operates in Belgium, Ireland and Portugal, and it recently divested its small Romanian operation. These markets are …

Thumbtack, one of the new breed of service lead companies such as Alikelist, Redbeacon and HelpHive seeking to push aside leaders like ServiceMagic and Angie’s List (and the Yellow Pages), announced today it has raised $1.2 million, and now has raised a war chest of $1.7 million altogether. The new angel round includes 11 angels, …

ReachLocal went public today, raising $54.6 million on the Nasdaq from the sale of 4.167 million shares at $13 each. The share price had been sharply cut from earlier hopes of $17 to $19 given pessimistic market conditions. But the offering closed at $14.98 a share, up 15 percent in a sharply down day for …

ReachLocal says it is going ahead with its IPO. A new filing with the SEC noted that it will price 4.8 million shares between $17 and $19, allowing it to raise between $81.6 million and $91.2 million — below the $100 million it originally wanted to raise. If the IPO is successful, it may be …

Avvo, the free legal ratings and review site that has taken on the giant legal publishers that have long dominated the business, announced that it has raised $10 million in Series C funding. The new round adds to $13 million previously raised. The round was led by DAG Ventures, which joins existing investors Benchmark Capital …

The “Flash e-commerce” space got hotter today, as Washington, D.C.-based LivingSocial announced a new $30 million round led by U.S. Venture Partners. Grotech Ventures and Revolution (Steve Case’s company) are also participating.
The funding will be used to launch deal-a-day coupon sites in Chicago, Denver/Boulder, Raleigh-Durham and San Diego. These cities are actually live today, along …