I hate you, Paul Kedrosky. Why? Because you've said, more perfectly than I ever could, why venture capitalists love profitless companies like Twitter, which has just raised a financing round from Union Square Ventures, the New York-based venture capital firm run by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham. Companies with real business plans, making real money? It's cheap enough to start a company these days that savvy entrepreneurs don't need venture capital, funding themselves from a few angel investors and reinvested profits. It's only the clueless, the hapless, and the willfully profligate types like Evan Williams of Twitter, who want to fumble around with a fun toy for as long as they can get away with it, on whom VCs can make the tall dollars.

Can we, at last, put to rest any whispers by jealous Sand Hill Road rivals about the strengths of Fred Wilson's portfolio? The New York-based venture capitalist, a partner at Union Square Ventures, has ably spotted the most profitable segments of targeted marketing and online publishing, from social bookmarks (Del.icio.us, sold to Yahoo) to RSS-feed advertising (FeedBurner, sold to Google) and now, behavioral ad-targeting firm Tacoda, sold to AOL for a reported price of more than $200 million. This deal is more than just a financial win for Wilson — it's a vindication of his entire strategy. Here's why.

What to make of Ross Mayfield's open call for an executive to replace him as CEO of Socialtext, the wiki-software startup? When a founder leaves the CEO role, venture capitalist Fred Wilson has argued, we should say that he's "stepping up," not "stepping down," citing the example of LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman. But Mayfield wants to stay on as the company's president, a position of lower rank. It's perhaps a sign of humility that Mayfield would step down to being president. But he'll also stay on as chairman — which would make him simultaneously the new CEO's direct report and boss. It's odd that Mayfield would search openly for a CEO, rather than just announce a replacement once he's identified one. But perhaps Mayfield's murky new role is discouraging candidates. Until he decides whether he's stepping up or stepping down, Socialtext's top spot is one no would would want to step into.

PAUL BOUTIN — Skip the year-end recaps and next week's inevitable Predictions for 2007. Instead, bone up on these four tech/biz insiders whose blogs you don't read, but should say you do. All four are way more successful than you. Each posts faster than you can read. SVUG's party trick: Read 'em today, then trust they'll keep blogging the same topics through March.

Deep into the quest to make actually attending the ETech conference unnecessary, attendees recap everything for the rest of us: