Brad Feld at Mobius Venture Capital weighs in here on the value of investment agents to entrepreneurs, and how investment pros regard the value agents provide to start-ups or even later stage ventures.
Excerpt:
In the early stages, the entrepreneur is by far the best fundraiser for his company and there is a knee jerk negative reaction by [...]

Boston-based VC Scott Maxwell (Insight Venture Partners) has a Top 10 list for emerging growth companies and their leadership, via Brad Feld out in Boulder. Number 5 is a good one:
Service Focus- Sit with your customer service staff answering incoming customer service requests for a half day each week for 4 weeks. Use the knowledge [...]

Metapoint Partners acquired upstate NY’s Knowlton Nonwovens in this deal:
Metapoint Partners is pleased to announce the formation of Northeastern Nonwovens Inc. (“NNI”) and its acquisition of the assets and businesses of Knowlton Nonwovens Troy, LLC and Knowlton Nonwovens Utica, Inc. of Utica, NY.  The company is a leading manufacturer of industrial nonwovens used primarily for liquid and [...]

Grant Thornton has obviously got its eye on the shopping habits of young urban males, with this announcement of an advisory role in the sale and also an investment in Levtran Enterprises, Inc., the owner of 47 stores under the “Downtown Locker Room” and “DTLR” brands in the Baltimore, Washington D.C., Richmond, Va., Norfolk, Va., [...]

Mirus Capital Advisors has sent out its latest market brief, and it’s got some interesting stats on what’s happening with corporate VC money: 
[Over] the last 12 months, 13% of private placements had one or more corporate venture capital backers. Corporate venture investment stabilized in 2005 after plummeting from the lofty peak it reached in 2000.  Now, with [...]

Around the ‘Net:
The excellent Paul Kedrosky has this to say about building a company with the sole goal of flipping it:
If you are building a startup solely with the intent of flipping it to one of the majors then you are playing Russian roulette using a gun with five full cylinders, and one cylinder containing [...]

Answer: pretty much anywhere they want to be, now that this deal has closed:
Castanea Partners and Boston Ventures Limited Partnership VI today announced the acquisition of Medley Global Advisors (MGA), in partnership with existing management. MGA is the premier provider of policy information on monetary, fiscal, regulatory and political developments to many of the world’s [...]

A NYC corporate fraud investigation firm has rolled out a new "ethics hotline" to serve investors, among others, who might not otherwise be alerted to some kinds of malfeasance before/during due diligence or placing an investment.
The hotline allows current employees – typically the whistleblowers for corporate fraud – to make an anonymous call to report issues such [...]

2005 continues its red-hot media investment trend with this tidbit from Dan Primack’s excellent PE Week Wire email:
VNU NV, a Dutch media company, may receive buyout bids from a pair of private equity consortia, according to The Wall Street Journal. Bids likely would be well in excess of $8 billion, with one group made up [...]

Waltham’s Polaris Venture Partners continues its investment in nanotechnology. This announcement describes Palo Alto-based Nanosys raising $40 million:
This financing was led by El Dorado Ventures and includes new investors Masters Capital, Medtronic, Inc., Wasatch Advisors, and others. In addition, there was strong participation from existing investors including Alexandria Equities, ARCH Venture Partners, CDIB BioScience Ventures, CW Group, [...]