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Source:CenterNetworks

Rodney at FaceReviews is reporting that the Facebook application count has passed 20,000 today. Rodney notes, "The big trend to take note of here is that applications are becoming better (less annoying). They are adding more functionality and moving into more complex ground." He goes on to say that there is still plenty of room for new apps to launch and prosper.

How many of the 20,000 are poke, super poke, ultimate poke, super dooper poke, reverse poke, top down poke, retro poke, 80s poke, city poke, farmer poke, you get the point. Is there a breakdown of the 20,000 available that displays the apps by category?

While there was a good bit of discussion late last year of Facebook taking over as the business networking tool over LinkedIn, it appears that this chatter has died out. I still see LinkedIn as the business networking tool and Facebook as the personal networking tool.

Check out the printer we used for our business cards:

Source:CenterNetworks

Editor’s note: NYC Venture Capitalist Mark Davis is authoring a four-part series on how a VC is funded. Davis notes the four methods are: diverse limited partners, family office, government or public markets. Today, Davis looks at the public markets.

In my post, How A VC Is Funded, I listed four ways that VCs obtain capital to invest in startups. Each of these four sources of capital has slightly different implications for entrepreneurs. In this post, I will discuss the implications of a public funded VC.

Capital Constraints
Similar to family office funded VCs public funded VCs raised a relatively fixed pool of capital from the public markets, which they continue to recycle from exits to new investments. Entrepreneurs should be sure to ask any fund that relies on recycled capital for future investments about their reserves to ensure that capital will be available in the future. While in theory the fund can always tap the public markets, that may not be the reality.

The Public Eye
Public companies have to make public disclosures. As a result, more about your company and its operations may be easily accessible to third-parties if you have a public investor. If your company requires substantial privacy because your strategy relies on being the first mover or otherwise then you should ask these VCs about the disclosures that they will make.

Bureaucracy
Too many entrepreneurs bureaucracy is the anti-Christ. If this is the case beware of the additional administrative burdens that might be required if you accept money from a public fund.

These funds are regulated by the SEC and have substantial reporting requirements. Be prepared to answer questions and provide lots of data as necessary.

This column was provided by Mark Davis, the author of Get Venture, a column designed to help entrepreneurs raise venture capital. In addition to his column, Mark is active in the venture community as an entrepreneur, advisor and venture capitalist. He currently works at DFJ Gotham Ventures, a leading early-stage IT venture capital fund based in NYC. Mark is pursuing his MBA at Columbia Business School.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 12:03 am and is filed under venture capital, Insights, Mark Davis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.