Livebookings, the largest restaurant reservation service in Europe, has received $16 million in their latest round of funding. The company, which has employees and partners in a total of 19 countries, received its funding mostly from Wellington Partners, a venture capital firm.
With the latest round of funding, Livebooking will look to expand and strengthen its position as the industry leader in Europe.
“Livebookings has grown aggressively since day one and we’re now at a point where we see a fantastic opportunity for further managed but rapid growth supported with further investment,” said Niklas Eklund, Livebookings’ CEO. “Despite the recession, recent figures …read more

While venture capitalist investments are down compared to recent years, there was good news in the second quarter. According to a report from the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, there was a 15% increase in the amount of money invested by venture capitalists.
Mark Heesen, the president of the National Venture Capital Association, pointed out the good and the bad.
Said Heesen: “Halfway through 2009 we are seeing more positive signs than at the beginning of the year, including an overall increase in investment levels and an ongoing interest in seed and early stage funding. However, until we see notable upticks …read more

With the financial crisis surrounding us, it’s a bit hard to imagine what it will all mean for startups, entrepreneurs and small business owners in the US.
But there are a few things that will definitely be in the future:
1) It’s going to be harder than ever to raise capital for businesses. Loans will be few and far between. Most VCs are losing money too, so they will be conservative in their giving. Plus, I am quite sure the terms of loans and VC agreements will be tougher.
2) Potential customers will take longer to pull the trigger. People are going to …read more

A new story in the Mercury News is saying that the recession is thwarting the growth of new startups in the Silicon Valley.
Since venture capitalist need to focus on putting money back in their portfolios, they have less to invest.  The result: less IPOs and other startups.
According to the article, there have been just four venture-backed IPOs nationwide in 2008, much less than expected.
So what does this mean to you?  Will you be affected by a lack of VC?
(Photo courtesy of Shannon Cherry of Be Heard Solutions.com)

Wendy Piersall has a great post titled 8 Ways to Get Venture Capital Attention from Guy Kawasaki.
These are things she learned after attending Elite Retreat in San Francisco, California, where a bunch of top-notch bloggers and business folk get into a room with 20 or so people and spend 2 days breaking their knee caps.
Actually, it looks more like your brain explodes after folks like Guy Kawasaki, Kris Jones, Lee Dodd, Aaron Wall, Darren Rowse spend some time telling you what they’ve learned about making money online.
Having participated in a Guy Kawasaki event some time ago I can …read more

Tackling big markets is great. Nobody wants to start a company in a market worth $5. Creating new markets is great too, but most startups are built in existing markets – and often they tout the enormity of those markets as a great reason to get into them.
“The mobile industry will be worth $50 billion in 5 years!”
“Advertising online is going to be worth $100 trillion by 2010!”
You can get this sort of data all over the place. Analysts put out reports all the time expounding the growing size of various markets.
The result is that many startups take this approach:
“If …read more

Yesterday I mentioned the Pitch 4 Profit video contest, where you can submit a video elevator pitch to get a chance at some VC money.
Today on TechCrunch I read about another way of getting some initial seed financing — a startup called TechStars.
TechStars is running a contest right now and accepting online applications. They’re looking for people who have an idea but zero money. 30 of the winning entrepreneurs will be sent to Boulder, Colorado for the summer to work on their ideas. Each of them will get $15,000 for 5% of their business.
It sounds like a small deal – …read more

Sean Wise, who I previously interviewed about venture capital, startup companies and his consulting business pointed me to a new Canadian site called Pitch 4 Profit.

It’s a contest where you submit a video elevator pitch, which a panel of judges reviews.
For people looking to raise over $1,000,000 you could win a chance to pitch a bunch of investors at the 2007 Canadian Venture Forum. If you’re looking for under $1,000,000, you could win a chance to pitch the Dragons on the CBC television show, The Dragons’ Den.
The contest is only available to Canadian residents (excluding people from Quebec), so …read more

I’m declaring 2007 the Year of the Entrepreneur.
Here’s why:

It’s becoming less and less expensive to start a viable businesses (primarily in the technology/Web world mind you.)
We’re not in a bubble just yet. 2007 could be a boom year.
Entrepreneurs are becoming more socially conscious than ever.
Many of us learned valuable lessons through the Web 1.0 bubble bursting.
Entrepreneurs (and small business owners) continue to drive the economy.

There are plenty of people raising flags about Web 2.0 and the bubble bursting again. And without a doubt there are many plain old stupid businesses out there. And I’m not taking away from the people …read more

Sean Wise is a prominent expert on venture capital. As a partner with Wise Mentor Capital, Sean gets a chance to work with a number of companies looking for funding. He also acts as an advisor for several seed funds and most recently was involved with CBC’s tv show Dragon’s Den which brought together investors and entrepreneurs. It was an entertaining show to say the least, and a second season is planned.
I decided it would be interesting to learn a little bit about what Sean does and get some insight into the venture capital world. Lots of startups go out …read more