Wired on TheFunded — the 100-word version
If you're like most people, you have no idea what TheFunded.com is. Nor do you care about the secret identity of Ted, the site's founding member. Why should you? Because an anonymous website has turned the tables on the all-powerful, often misbehaved venture capitalists who fund the cool tech innovations you love. The December Wired spells it out, but the tale stretches 45 times the length of this paragraph. I've extracted a PDA version for you.
TheFunded.com, a community site for startups to anonymously review and rank venture capital firms, has given entrepreneurs a peek into the secretive VC industry and a chance to dish about some of the unseemly behavior they've witnessed there. "We have seen distinctive pieces of our business plan end up in marketing materials of a competitor," reads one testimony. Another: "He had his feet up on the table the whole time he was telling us how bad our business is."
The site has 3,150 members. Neither Ted nor TheFunded is beloved by the venture capital community, which is more accustomed to CEOs kissing its butt than kicking its ass. "VCs are taken aback," says one former VC. "The peasants have revolted against them."