Bilal Zuberi is our VC spotlight this week.  He is a co-founder, a VC, a Ph.D, and an avid blogger.  Get to know him below!

Name: Bilal Zuberi

Company: Lux Capital

Blog: www.bilalzuberi.com

Bio: Bilal has a Ph.D from MIT and has had experience in strategy consulting, early stage VC, and was a co-founder of GEO2 technologies.  More about him here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts: In addition to his work at Lux, Bilal is also a co-founder of Boston-based student-run VC fund, Roughdraft.vc.  We are big fans of Roughdraft’s model and really like the idea of students partnering with students.

*Editor’s Note: Published a day later than expected due to travel issues here at C:V. HQ but here it is!

Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet is our VC Spotlight for this week and while he is probably most well-known for leading Spark’s investment in Twitter, he has an even stronger history of successful investments and operating roles at startups.

Name: Bijan Sabet

Company: Spark Capital

Blog: www.bijansabet.com

Bio: Bijan has a B.S. from Boston College (Fulton Hall represent!) and had roles in product and business development at a string of successful startups before joining Spark Capital at its inception in 2005.  Sabet has led many successful investments while at Spark, some of which can be found here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts: Bijan came under some media scrutiny during the release of the Twitter book, Hatching Twitter, due to his alleged involvement in the ousting of then current CEO Jack Dorsey in favor of co-founder Ev Williams. We read the book and feel that Sabet got a bad rap for nothing. Bilton (the author) seemed to over-dramatize the firing of Dorsey to almost Hollywoodesque levels, when in reality management changes like these happen all the time in the startup world.  But, at the end of the day, Bijan helped guide the company along to an extremely impressive return for Spark (and their LPs) which we hope quelled any of the negative media coverage.

Bonus post! (well technically we are making up for last week’s omission, but hey we live in the here and now right?)

Our spotlight is Chris Dixon, current investor at A16Z, co-founder of Founder Collective, and our newest “liked blog” inductee.

Name: Chris Dixon

Company: A16Z

Blog: http://cdixon.org/ (One of our liked blogs!)

Bio: Chris has a BA/MA from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard.  He also founded and exited two companies (SiteAdvisor and Hunch) as well as having two stints at VC firms (Bessemer and A16Z).  Not a bad resume if you ask us!  More info here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts: In addition to his daily role, he is an active angel investor and co-founder of Founder Collective, a seed stage VC fund that is run by former founders.  We are big fans of Founder Collective and their mission of founders helping founders!

*Editor’s Note: This video is a bit old, but you get the idea…

Not a VC in the traditional sense, but we consider him to be a thought leader in the space as well as having quite the successful incubator (Y Combinator) that has garnered millions in VC dollars so we think it is more than fair to include him here.

Name: Paul Graham

Company: Y Combinator

Blog:  http://paulgraham.com/ (One of our liked blogs!)

Bio: Paul is a founder, a visionary, and a powerful voice in the industry.  He founded Viaweb which sold to Yahoo in the late ’90s and has been an active mentor and investor ever since.  He co-founded Y Combinator in 2005 and it has become the preeminent startup accelerator in the world.  More about him here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts: In addition to his role at YC, his essays have been instrumental in many startups’ early lives. They cover many topics from getting funding, to generating ideas, and even how to grow.  We are big fans of YC and his impact on the ecosystem here at C:V.!

As if he needs any introduction, Marc Andreessen is long overdue for our VC Spotlight feature.  The first half of A16Z and a key voice in the innovation economy, Marc is a favorite of ours here at C:V.!

Name: Marc Andreessen

Company: Andreessen Horowitz

Blog: http://blog.pmarca.com/ (One of our liked blogs!)

Bio: Before A16Z Marc was a co-founder of Opsware with Ben Horowitz. Even before that, and what he is most famous for, Marc created the first widely used web browser Mosaic. More on him here and here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts:  Marc recently penned a few tweets about acquisition valuations that we found fantastic as a lot of value can be created when a company is rolled up into a larger more diversified business regardless of the target’s current business.

Rob Stark : King of the North :: Tomasz Tunguz : King of SaaS Blogs?

This week’s VC spotlight goes to our newest “Liked Blog” member, Tomasz Tunguz.  Tomasz is a partner at Redpoint and an avid blogger on SaaS metrics. In addition to his SaaS-focused posts, he is one of the most data driven bloggers we have seen yet.  We are big fans of data driven analysis here at C:V so this selection was a no-brainer!

Name: Tomasz Tunguz

Company: Redpoint Ventures

Blog: ex post facto (One of our liked blogs!)

Bio: Prior to Redpoint, Tomasz was a Product Manager at Google and a co-founder of a billing and document management company for law firms in Chile. He studied at Dartmouth.  Full details can be found here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts:  One of his more recent blog posts was on the BOX S-1 filing and we found his analysis rather informative and intriguing.  We really enjoyed his breakdown of Average Customer Value (ACV) because we here at C:V. still consider BOX to be a consumer/SMB oriented product and while they are making a shift into the enterprise, Tomasz’s analysis proves they still have a lot of ground to gain.

Our most decorated entrepreneur yet, David Skok has been a serial entrepreneur for over 25 years and a VC for over 10.  He has founded four companies and taken 3 of them public.  Oh, and he writes a very influential blog for any aspiring entrepreneurs.  Not too shabby if you ask us…

Name: David Skok

Company: Matrix Partners

Blog:  forEntrepreneurs (One of our liked blogs!)

Bio: David founded his first company in 1977 and went on to found three others before his crossing over to the other side of the table with Matrix in 2001.  More can be found about him here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts: David’s blog is fantastic reading for anyone looking to for advice as an entrepreneur.  He may not post as often as most blogs on our links bar, but when he does it is A) very insightful and B) most likely has something to do with SaaS.  Very cool reading and C:V. recommended!

A serial entrepreneur and investor, Josh Kopelman is our first VC to be featured that resides outside the traditional hotbeds, as he lives in Philly.  While it may not be a VC hotbed, Josh’s track record and background should definitely put it on the map.

Name: Josh Kopelman

Company: First Round Capital

Blog:  Redeye VC (One of our liked blogs!)

Bio: Josh has been a successful founder of many companies over the years (Infonautics, Half.com, etc.) and has been awarded eight patents as well.  He has also been an EIR for Comcast. More about him here!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Facts: Josh’s company, First Round Capital, is one of the cooler VCs out there if you ask us.  They have a strong portfolio and are also purveyors of the Dorm Room Fund, one of the first/only student run VCs in the biz.  Very cool to get students involved at an early stage, check it out here! Bonus interview with Josh about Dorm Room Fund below!

Also, if you do not subscribe to their newsletter, the First Round Review, we highly recommend it as it is C:V. required reading!