Weekend Read – Bijan Sabet: Why We’re Picking Up Our Own Tab Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2013 Before becoming a venture capitalist, I was part of the early teams at startups in Silicon Valley and Boston. I ran product and business development and also helped these companies raise many rounds of venture capital. 

The first time I raised venture capital I was a bit taken aback when I realized our startup would incur the expense of the VC firm’s legal fees. The firm had just agreed to invest in the company to get started, and it expected us to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their legal fees to close the deal. More Hollywood Film Sees Big Results From New Tablet Ads Adweek, May 30, 2013 Digital publishing platform Onswipe today is announcing a pair of ad products called The Glossy and Promoted Content, which are aimed to improve the effectiveness of tablet-based promos. The Glossy is designed to look and feel like full-page magazine ads while providing a video option, and Promoted Content is meant to combine traditional advertorial plays with the currently hot native ads concept.

FilmDistrict, the movie's distributor, recently tested The Glossy to push the action flick, Olympus Has Fallen, on men's lifestyle and business news tablet apps like the Art of Manliness, Vibe and Kiplinger. Thirty percent of the viewers interacted with the ad unit, and 79 percent stated they recalled seeing the ad, per OnSwipe. The New York-based company said it partnered with comScore to produce the ad stats. More A Tumblr Guide for Newbies USA Today, May 21, 2013 Tumblr is an aesthetic pleasure, like entering a modern art museum for the first time More Eight Companies Spark Capital Has Backed in Boston Boston Business Journal, May 21, 2013 Boston-based Spark Capital may be best known for making investments outside its home city, such as Tumblr and Twitter.

But Spark also ranks among the VC firms which frequently back Boston-area startups: Spark invested $25 million into Massachusetts-based firms in 2012, across nine deals, according to figures provided by the firm. More Early Tumblr Investor Saw ‘Raw Talent,’ Capital Efficiency Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2013 One of Tumblr’s biggest fans is a venture capitalist who helped steer the blogging service from its earliest days to a deal to be acquired by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in cash.

Bijan Sabet, a general partner at Spark Capital who is best known for leading the Boston firm’s investment in Twitter, said he first started using Tumblr when it was just one of several Web applications that founder and Chief Executive David Karp had developed while running a Web More