By Kelly Faircloth 11/27/12 10:31am

Ageism

This is apparently what Valleyites imagine upon seeing a birthday prior to the Iran Hostage Crisis. (Photo: Shermanave.com)

Silicon Valley’s Open Secret: Over 26 Need Not Apply

All the world loves a prodigy, but nowhere more so than Silicon Valley. Investors love to talk about all the exciting ideas flowing forth from the 20-somethings, and it sometimes seems startups are half business, half playroom.

It’s all very exciting if you’re a college kid looking for an alternative to the 9 to 5 grind. But if you’re a technology veteran in his fifth or sixth decade, it looks a lot different. In fact, as Reuters reports, it looks a whole lot like age discrimination run rampant. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 7/10/12 2:05pm

Fresh Capital

Peter Stern

Bitly Raises $15 M. Round from Khosla Ventures After Giving Consumers a Reason to Subscribe

Bitly CEO Peter Stern, who once told Betabeat he’s been in the process of raising funds ever since he joined the company, finally has a milestone to announce. The company has raised a $15 million Series C led by Vinod Khosla at Khosla Ventures.

“[Mr. Kholsa] has been fascinated with the growth of Bitly all along,” Mr. Stern said by phone this afternoon. “Fascinated with this kind of invisible glue that enables people to share in social media and the insight that you can extract from doing that at scale and thinking about what kind of services and products you can offer consumers to grow that set even more.”

Mr. Stern said he has been in contact with Mr. Kholsa for a while. A Series C has been expected since Bitly raised a $1.4 million convertible note in March. Previous investors RRE and OATV also participated in this round. Read More