As an investor in Yelp, I was delighted to discover this blog post by Peggy Wynne Borgman, the owner of Saratoga Spa. In it, she admits to ranting about the dark side of user generated content for months before recently changing her tune and "falling in love" with Yelp. Initially, I wondered: why the sudden change of heart? Had a savvy business person at Yelp managed to bribe Peggy into becoming

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we must have been dead on in our list of the Top Five Venture Capital Firm Web Pages. In a very bizarre case documented by Dan Primack of peHUB, Sequoia Capital is suing ComVentures for copyright infringement of its website:

Michael Copeland’s latest Business2.0 article predicts a "tidal shift" towards the emergence of tech IPOs in the next couple months. While his language is perhaps excessively strong, I think that his sentiments will likely prove to be correct. There are a number of real growth technology-based businesses which weathered the storm earlier this decade that have emerged commanding both healthy top lines and bottom ones. And some of these even have “.com” in their names. It’s inevitable that the climate will change towards realizing the merit these businesses posses for going public is real.

It’s been interesting to hear similar thoughts in private conversations as the inklings have been written in the press, but it seems as though many are treating this story of impending IPOs like a jack in the box – winding and winding, waiting and waiting for the fun to emerge at one instant. I suspect the acceptance of offerings by public investors will increase steadily and markedly in the next year or so, but those waiting for an overwhelming stampede will be disappointed.

Last Saturday, Venture Voice show producer Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell dropped in on the Community Next: The Present and Future of Online Communities conference held at Stanford University. Here are some of his musings on day:

Ever listen to Venture Voice and wish you could say something back to our guests? You can. Pop onto our site and leave a message in the comments -- most of the guests read them. Our most recent guest, Fred Seibert, just highlighted a provocative comment from a Venture Voice listener in his blog. One blogger mischaracterized some data Guy Kawasaki shared with us, and Guy corrected him in a comment on his blog.

If you feel text can't do justice to the passion in your comment, remember you can leave a message on our listener line, just dial (212) 461-4850 or skype "venturevoice".

If there are any other ideas out there to further enhance the Venture Voice community, let us know!

When: February 10, 2007
Where: Stanford University
What: Venture Voice producer Kosh Mayer-Blackwell will be at Community Next looking for social network entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs who use social networks. The conference is organized by the always-entertaining Noah Kagan and features some past Venture Voice guests as speakers including Premal Shah and Guy Kawasaki.