From the article in Businessworld:The young and the restless view it as a “cool” place to hang out. Poovili Manan, a commerce graduate from Chennai, says it “allows us to experience different brands (of foods) each time”. You can take your pick of the fare on offer — Chinese, Italian, south or north Indian or blends such as Arabic and Continental. Or hang out at “brands” — McDonald’s, or a KFC.

Group buying, local search engines and education are the new mantras of success on the Web, says a Businessworld article.Group buying sites offer deals at heavy discounts, getting mass volume for them. Though it is new to India, group buying has been growing in the US for some time. For instance, US website GroupOn started by offering 50-90 per cent discount. Some of the prominent group-buying

We are delighted to announce a stellar list of speakers for APEX '11, the annual conclave of the Indian Private Equity / Venture Capital industry, scheduled for February 9-10 at Mumbai. Apex'11 Awards (evening of Feb.9)Special Guest: Gurcharan Das, Noted Author and Former-CEO of P&G India P.R. Srinivasan, CEO, Exponentia CapitalA.K.Purwar, Chairman, IndiaVentureVinod Dham, Managing Director,

Last summer, I along with my partners announced that we were forming a new micro venture capital firm.  At that point, Rob Go, Lee Hower, and I possessed a shared vision and a newly minted name, but were still in the process of forming our approach.  Now six months later, we’re ready to lift the covers on what we’re doing (although there have been a few previews).  Today we are officially launching our firm, NextView Ventures, announcing our first nine portfolio company investments, and recognizing the additional people who are working with us.

All of the above is articulated on our new website at www.nextviewventures.com.  There we describe not just the “who” and “what” of what we’re doing, but also “why” and “how.”  First and foremost, we are dedicated seed-stage investors focused on investments in internet-enabled startups.   The three of us are looking to work with entrepreneurs to build industry-changing transformative businesses.  And given dynamics in the digital media space, we think that (especially along the Boston to New York corridor) there is a market need for a funding source like ours for early stage entrepreneurs.  We’ve clearly articulated our motivations for starting the firm on a dedicated page.

But Rob, Lee, and I wanted to not just start a new firm, but also start a different one.  As part of that goal from the outset, one of our trusted advisors recommended that we delibrately articulate the principles which guide us, from being transparent in our communications to striving towards ambitious and improbable goals.  Personally, one of the most important is what we’re calling our dedication to the “tribe.”  We think it’s incumbent on venture capitalists to truly be a part of the entrepreneurial community…  and by that we mean not that we’re participants in it, but rather that we’re genuine contributors to it.  For me individually, I’ve strived to fully foster the local Boston community through my independent organization of the Web Innovators Group, as a member of the Board of Directors at the MIT Enterprise Forum, as a TechStars mentor, among many other activities.  This aspect is just one of the many qualities that help define us as a firm.  And all of the entrepreneurs who we’ve invested together with in their business have shared these principles, which very much excites us.

Lee Hower’s blog offers a more detailed introductory post about our launch, but the three of us over the coming weeks will continue in articulating our approach.  I’d encourage you to follow both his blog and my partner Rob’s as we share our story.

You know how obsessed we are with billboards here at TechCrunch Aol, so imagine my joy this morning when I drove into work this morning (at 8am as always) and saw this awesome piece of artillery right in front of my office.

Yeah, our officemate Yammer has decided to wedge a billboard-sized nail in the coffin of old media (i.e. “one way communication”) which conspicuously includes print magazines, newspapers and eh hem, billboards. Says Yammer marketing designer Aria Shen, “Simply put, we wanted to make a statement about the new paradigm of how people and organizations communicate, and figured what better way to do that than to use the oldest mode of paid media.”

Yammer, a Twitter for enterprise, says it bought the 6K per month/3 month billboard run because they’re hiring and wanted to attract engineers. Good call: The infamous area around our 410 Townsend office is like startup Mecca. Soon to be neighbor Zynga has also gone the billboard route, with its 101 brand presence we’ve heard is in 30K a month range.

As to the pricey billboard’s ultimate recruiting effectiveness in the age of infinite two-way Internet distractions? Well it caught my eye didn’t it? Maybe old media has some staying power yet?

It’s been less than two years since Facebook moved into its 150,000 square foot office space at 1601 South California Ave in Palo Alto, but the rapidly growing company is already itching for a new home. Now we’re hearing from multiple sources that Facebook has chosen the site for its new headquarters: the former Sun Microsystems/Oracle campus in Menlo Park CA, just off the Bayfront Expressway at 1601 Willow Road (map). The campus is around six miles from Facebook’s current home, and is bordered by Menlo Park and East Palo Alto.

The move doesn’t come as a surprise. Facebook had practically outgrown its current offices on S. California Ave before it even moved in, and it’s already subleased additional space at 1050 Page Mill Road, just down the street from its current location (employees can take shuttles between the two buildings, but it’s not very convenient). With over 2,000 employees and no signs of slowing, the company needs a lot more leg room.

Facebook says it isn’t a done deal quite yet (actually, they wouldn’t even confirm the location they’re looking at):

“We are exploring options for a long-term location to fit our growing business needs. We are in the due diligence phase on one potential site, but it would be premature to offer any specifics. We hope to have more to share in the near future once things have been finalized.”

Prior to moving to its current home on S. California Ave, Facebook occupied a handful of buildings that littered downtown Palo Alto near University Avenue.  It’s unclear if this new location would become Facebook’s long-term home, or if Facebook intends to move once again in a few years. Back in 2003 Google had similar rapid growing pains and began subleasing SGI’s office space in Mountain View — it later purchased this land and expanded after its IPO.

Image via Dianiel Rosenthal’s Sun blog