No. 5: Draper Fisher
Jurvetson

Number of deals in 2012: 60

Total money invested in 2012: $146,752,300

Total money invested in Bay Area companies in 2012:
$90,483,500

Sample of Bay Area partners: Timothy Draper, founder and
managing director

Julia Cooper
Researcher- San Francisco Business Times

Email

The Bay Area is a hotbed for startups — and the venture capital firms that fund them.

But which VCs are most active in the region?

In today’s issue of the San Francisco Business Times we ranked the top 25 local VC firms that completed the most deals in 2012, with total dollars invested used as a secondary ranking criteria.

Visit Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park and you’ll find offices for four of the Top 5 firms. New Enterprise Associates ranked No. 1 on the List with 105 deals and $739 million invested in 2012, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers came in just behind at No. 2 with 105 deals and $546 million invested.

One hotshot firm — Andreessen Horowitz — crashed into this year’s Top 5 after ranking No. 13 last year. The VC firm founded by partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz landed at No. 3 with 61 deals and $373 million invested.

For a sneak peek at the other firms that made the Top 5, take a look at our slideshow.

Click on the image to start a slideshow of the Most Active VC Firms in the Bay Area.

The San Francisco Business Times publishes industry rankings in each issue of the paper and reprints them at the end of the year for our annual Book of Lists. These lists are authoritative sources of Bay Area business news.

To see the full top 25 list of the Most Active VC Firms in the Bay Area, along with lists of the Largest Private Equity Firms, Largest Investment Banking Firms, Largest Real Estate Developers and Largest East Bay Commercial Brokerages, check out this week’s print edition.

To see our full Lists, subscribe to the San Francisco Business Times in print.

Julia Cooper is an editorial researcher at the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/08/top-5-most-active-vc-firms-in-the-bay.html

The group plans to open a biotech incubator twice the size in South San Francisco, near Genentech’s campus, by the middle of 2013. They’re searching for a third Bay Area property to turn into a 200,000-square-foot space for clean-tech companies next year.

By the time they’re done, the combined incubators will hold space, for startups, greater than seven football fields, or enough to occupy about one-fifth of the Empire State Building. All these offices and labs are meant to house young companies eager to do business in China, and Chinese startups expanding to the U.S.

Hanhai zPark is scouting spaces in Boston and other cities, as well. “There’s a huge demand from cities all over the U.S. that they need investors from China to grow their industries and jobs,” says Victor Wang, president of Hanhai zPark.

The money flowing from China to buy U.S. properties and companies reached a record $6.5 billion last year, up 17 percent from a year earlier, according to Rhodium Group, a research and advisory firm.

Hanhai zPark isn’t the first China-focused incubator to open in Silicon Valley last year: InnoSpring, a Santa Clara space whose backers include Chinese real estate developers, opened a few months earlier.

Why park big new incubators in an area already packed with them? Existing ties between China and the Bay Area make Silicon Valley a natural home to ventures like Hanhai zPark. Many Chinese-born entrepreneurs go to Stanford or work at U.S. tech companies in the valley.

Stanford connection

Wang, himself a native of Harbin, in northern China, went to Stanford business school before starting his own health IT venture. About a year and a half ago, leaders from Hanhai, a privately held operator of five big business incubators in China, and zPark, a state-owned developer of the largest science and tech park in China, approached him about running a space for startups in the U.S. Xi Jinping, China’s incoming president, and Vice President Joe Biden touted the deal during meetings in Los Angeles and Washington last year.

The space available may be growing faster than demand. Hanhai zPark has about 40 tenants so far, but it has room for 100 or 200, depending on the space they need. About a quarter of the tenants are American companies, many founded by Chinese immigrants or Americans of Chinese heritage, Wang says. The rest are Chinese companies exploring the U.S. market.

On top of offering the usual incubator services, such as legal and accounting help, Hanhai zPark will invest directly in some of its tenant companies through a $5 million angel fund. It will also make introductions to people in business and government on the mainland. “We’ll connect (startups’) needs to the Chinese partners in different cities,” Wang says.

Seeking investors

Those connections, along with ample capital, are the main attraction for American companies considering seeking investors from China. “That differentiates them from other venture investors, particularly in sectors where there’s a high political risk, like digital services,” says Thilo Hanemann, research director at Rhodium Group, who tracks Chinese investment flows.

That can help startups crack a market where even multinationals such as Google have stumbled. Still, companies face risks doing business on the mainland, where the legal protections taken for granted in the U.S. and Europe don’t exist. In China, “there’s no rule of law that protects individuals and companies against the government,” Hanemann says.

Expect the pace of Chinese investment in the U.S. to accelerate. Hanemann notes that while the growth in cross-border investment gets a lot of attention, China is really playing catch up. “If you think about China as the world’s second-largest economy, the right question to ask is why have they not been more active?” he says.

Part of the reason is that the government has only recently made it easier for wealth to move beyond China’s borders. “There’s a lot of channels through which Chinese corporations and funds can shovel money into the U.S. now,” Hanemann says.

John Tozzi is a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter. E-mail: jtozzi@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Chinese-incubators-growing-in-Bay-Area-4343918.php

Jim Gardner
Managing Editor- San Francisco Business Times

Email
 | Twitter
 | Google+
 | LinkedIn

Some real estate developers collect yachts. Others dabble in winemaking, heli-skiing or competitive cycling.

Jesse Herzog sells hot dogs.

A vice president of development for Avant Housing and AGI Capital, Herzog is also the proprietor of Zog’s Dogs, a gourmet hot dog stand at 646 Market St.

Real estate development was dead in the water back in 2009 when Herzog (nicknamed Zog) was looking for a revenue-generating opportunity and stumbled across a classified advertising a hot dog stand for sale in downtown San Francisco. He had always wanted to own a hot dog stand, so he bought it.

“My family came here in 1850 — they were wholesale butchers downtown and had a corral where they kept cattle in the Dogpatch,” said Herzog. “Six generations later, I’m entitling a property in the Dogpatch and selling meat downtown. So the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

Zog’s sells an average of about 125 hot dogs on a decent weekday. Best sellers include the Moral Conundrum (a veggie dog wrapped in bacon), the Prop 8 Dog (two dogs in one bun), and the Bobo Dog (for the Bourgeois Bohemian).

Indeed, Herzog has turned his hot dog stand into an expression of his interest in art. He offers what is certainly the world’s only Hot Dog Stand Artistic Fellowship (deadline March 1) where artists are encouraged to make hot dog-themed art. Winners include a group who made a video about the launch of the first hot dog into outer space, a woman who painted ketchup and mustard portraits of customers (including Avant Housing executive Eric Tao, who ended up looking like Michael Jackson), and a performance piece on “love and loss in the context of hot dogs.”

“It’s been interesting to me to understand what the San Francisco consumer wants, which can be very complicated,” said Herzog. “San Franciscans have a lot of opinions, whether it’s about hot dogs or real estate entitlement.”

Jim Gardner oversees print and online news coverage of the vibrant Bay Area economy.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/02/san-francisco-real-estate-developer.html

Since 1971, WWD honors an international treaty to protect a group of waterways, and it reached a new level of poignancy this year for the Bay Area when the San Francisco Bay estuary and several associated wetlands in Marin were officially added to the list.

On Saturday, those Bay Area locales officially became the country’s 35th “wetland of importance” under the treaty known as the Ramsar Convention, putting it in the company of protected wetlands in 163 countries. The treaty seeks to limit development along ecologically important waterways and hopefully increase conservation and restoration efforts. Take that, hungry real estate developers.

Of course, we can’t get ahead of ourselves and say the Bay Area shorelines and waterways are safe from any urban encroachment.

Legally speaking, the designation doesn’t signify new protections for habitat and wildlife in the bay, but it symbolically elevates the importance of the wetlands at a time when funding for restoration and wildlife rehabilitation is sorely needed. Furthermore, it shows that the country is actively committed to not promoting projects that alter designated ecosystems.

So while it’s not technically illegal, pretty much anyone looking to threaten these now internationally recognized treasures with development plans is going to come across as seriously jaded and calloused.

Besides, who wouldn’t be inspired to ramp up their efforts to protect the San Francisco Bay Estuary? At about 400,000 acres, it’s the largest on the Pacific Coast and is widely recognized as one of the country’s most ecologically valuable estuaries. It makes up 77 percent of California’s wetlands, is home to a diverse range of plants and animals, and provides a host of ecological services such as flood protection.

Additionally, numerous waterways and wetlands in Marin are part of the designation, including Richardson Bay, Angel Island and China Camp, which all have their own points of pride.

While pressures to facilitate economic growth and a swelling population may persist, this designation can serve as a reminder that conservation, responsibility and restoration will keep our wetlands worth celebrating.

Article source: http://sfbay.ca/2013/02/04/bay-area-wetlands-now-even-more-special/

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — City National Bank today announced that real estate veterans Charlie McGann and Deven Mays have joined the real estate team in the Bay Area.

McGann is a senior vice president and regional manager of Northern California real estate for the bank, focusing on lending to developers and investors in the region. McGann will work closely with the bank’s commercial real estate clients, including home builders and commercial real estate developers, providing them with construction, bridge and permanent financings. McGann will report to Mark Forbes, executive vice president and manager of the Real Estate Division at City National.

“We are pleased to have such veteran real estate bankers join our team in the Bay Area,” said Forbes, who noted that for the third quarter, City National’s average balances for commercial real estate loans were up 27 percent from the previous year. “We are seeing much opportunity in many sectors of the real estate market, and the Bay Area is clearly leading the industry’s recovery in California.”

With more than 15 years of industry experience, Deven Mays is a senior vice president for real estate in the Bay Area and he reports to McGann. He was a senior vice president and team leader of real estate with Wells Fargo’s real estate division and formerly with Greater Bay Bancorp., which was acquired by Wells. Mays received his bachelor’s degree from California State University at San Jose and attended graduate school at the University of Southern California. Mays is active in his local community having served as traffic coordinator for the City of Orinda and as a youth soccer coach.

Prior to joining City National, McGann has spent nearly two decades involved in the real estate industry. He most recently served as regional manager of real estate for Union Bank and before that was with Carr Capital Corp., in Washington, D.C., and with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. McGann earned his bachelor’s degree from Trinity College and his master’s degree in finance from the University of California at Berkeley.

(For an image of McGann: https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Charlie-McGann.jpg)

(For an image of Mays: https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Deven-Mays.jpg)

About City National

City National Bank is the wholly owned subsidiary of City National Corporation (NYSE:CYN). It is backed by $26.3 billion in total assets, and provides banking, investment and trust services through 78 offices, including 16 full-service regional centers, in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nevada, New York City, Nashville and Atlanta. The company and its investment affiliates manage or administer $56.7 billion in client investment assets, including $38.0 billion under direct management.

The City National Bank logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3143

CONTACT: Media Contact:
         Debora Vrana, City National Bank, 213.673.7631
         Debora.Vrana@cnb.com

Source: City National Bank

Article source: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/city-national-bank-hires-charlie-mcgann-and-deven-mays-as-senior-vice-presidents-of-real-estate-in--20121107-01131

Vern Padgett added, “We look forward to having Lisa on the Presidio Bank team. She is intelligent, organized, and her limitless dedication to customers and the community at large aligns perfectly with our corporate culture.”

About Presidio Bank

Presidio Bank provides business banking services to small and mid-size businesses, including professional service firms, real estate developers and investors, and not-for-profit organizations, and to their owners who desire personalized, responsive service with access to local decision makers. Presidio Bank offers clients the resources of a large bank combined with the personalized services of a neighborhood bank. Presidio Bank is headquartered in San Francisco, California and currently operates four banking offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, San Rafael and Palo Alto. More information is available at www.presidiobank.com. Presidio Bank is a member of FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. These statements are identifiable by use of the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “estimate,” “project,” or similar expressions. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development, growth projections and results of Presidio Bank’s business include, but are not limited to, the growth of the economy, interest rate movements, timely development by Presidio Bank of technology enhancements for its products and operating systems, the impact of competitive products, services and pricing, client-based requirements, Congressional legislation, changes in regulatory or generally accepted accounting principles and similar matters. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which are subject to influence by the named risk factors and unanticipated future events. Actual results, accordingly, may differ materially from management expectations.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50091261lang=en

Article source: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/12/01/3692996/experienced-community-banker-joins.html

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Presidio Bank (OTCBB: PDOB), a Bay Area business bank, today announced
that it has hired long-time Palo Alto banker, Katie Seedman, as Senior
Vice President/Relationship Manager in the Mid-Peninsula Regional Office.

“We look forward to having Katie on the Presidio Bank
team. Her professionalism and dedication to exceptional customer service
aligns perfectly with our corporate culture.”

Most recently, Katie Seedman worked as Senior Vice President and Private
Banker for Borel Private Bank and Trust Company. Prior to that, while at
Greater Bay Bank she worked with Steve Heitel, Presidio Bank’s President
CEO, and Clay Jones, Presidio Bank’s Mid-Peninsula Market President.
In addition, she has experience at University Bank Trust Company and
Bank of America.

“Katie is well-known for her warm and engaging personality. She goes
above and beyond to serve her clients, making their banking experience
easy,” Clay Jones stated.

In addition to over 30 years of banking experience, Katie Seedman is a
well-rounded individual with roots in the local community. She earned a
B.A. in Political Science from San Jose State University and raised her
family in the Palo Alto area. She is an avid athlete who enjoys running,
playing soccer, and bicycling. Recently, she placed second in the US
Masters Track Field event for the 100M Dash. Katie is also committed
to the community and an active board member of the Rotary Club of Palo
Alto.

Clay Jones added, “We look forward to having Katie on the Presidio Bank
team. Her professionalism and dedication to exceptional customer service
aligns perfectly with our corporate culture.”

About Presidio Bank

Presidio Bank provides business banking services to small and mid-size
businesses, including professional service firms, real estate developers
and investors, and not-for-profit organizations, and to their owners who
desire personalized, responsive service with access to local decision
makers. Presidio Bank offers clients the resources of a large bank
combined with the personalized services of a neighborhood bank. Presidio
Bank is headquartered in San Francisco, California and currently
operates four banking offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, San Rafael
and Palo Alto. More information is available at www.presidiobank.com.
Presidio Bank is a member of FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that
involve risk and uncertainties. These statements are identifiable by use
of the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “plan,”
“estimate,” “project,” or similar expressions. The risks and
uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development,
growth projections and results of Presidio Bank’s business include, but
are not limited to, the growth of the economy, interest rate movements,
timely development by Presidio Bank of technology enhancements for its
products and operating systems, the impact of competitive products,
services and pricing, client-based requirements, Congressional
legislation, changes in regulatory or generally accepted accounting
principles and similar matters. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements which are subject to influence by
the named risk factors and unanticipated future events. Actual results,
accordingly, may differ materially from management expectations.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6813194lang=en

Article source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110729006201/en/Dedicated-Experienced-Banker-Joins-Presidio-Bank

But his ideas, in their way, are remarkably relevant now.

George proposed a simple taxation system in which land, but not the value of any buildings or improvements, would be taxed at a rate so high that it would satisfy all of government’s revenue needs. No complicated income tax code. No dog’s breakfast of special fees and gimmicks to balance government budgets. Just a confiscatory tax on land. “Georgism,” as its single-tax principle is known, would be devastating for real estate speculators and large landowners, but proponents say it would be painless for most everyone else.

Here in California, a state that has bled itself dry by radically reducing property taxes, it’s easy to forget that just a few decades ago Georgism had an avid following. None less than Willie L. Brown Jr., the former San Francisco mayor and State Assembly speaker, championed Georgist policies, sometimes with the support of John Burton, the longtime Democratic power broker.

Mr. Brown twice introduced state legislation to create a Georgist land-tax regime. “I was badly defeated with that legislation both times,” he wrote a fellow Georgist in 1973. “But I am still convinced that land-value taxation should be given a try.”

A few years later, voters opted instead to slash property taxes via Proposition 13. Mr. Brown moved on, first to an enormously successful (and centrist) political career, and then to his current gig as a high-powered lawyer who counts major real estate developers and corporate landowners among his clients.

But Mr. Brown was certainly in good company as a Georgist. Devotees over the years have included Leo Tolstoy, Winston Churchill, Sun Yat-Sen, and the inventor of the board game that would become Monopoly.

“Henry George was called the Prophet of San Francisco,” said Joshua Vincent, a Georgist and the executive director of the Center for the Study of Economics in Philadelphia. “He led a mass movement, a pre-socialist labor movement.”

George later moved to New York City and was a candidate for mayor when he died of a stroke four days before the 1897 election.

It’s easy to see why George’s theories and his most-famous book, “Progress and Poverty,” published in 1879, appealed to the young Mr. Brown. The grandson of slaves, Mr. Brown grew up poor in segregated Mineola, Tex., and came to San Francisco in 1951 as a teenager with little education and less money. He is an entirely self-made man.

“Willie Brown was one of the few who had the courage to speak up for this reform and actually introduce land-value tax legislation,” said Cathy Orloff, who in the 1970s ran the Henry George School in San Francisco, which offered classes in Georgism to hundreds of students. “People in the school greatly admired him for that.”

Mr. Brown did not respond to inquiries about his Georgist past, and he’s clearly not preparing to take up the flag again.

But Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University economist, is stepping into the breach. In December, Mr. Stiglitz called for the adoption of “Henry George Principles” as part of his prescription to resuscitate the American economy. “Land does not disappear when it is taxed,” Mr. Stiglitz wrote in “Principles and Guidelines for Deficit Reduction,” a working paper for the progressive Roosevelt Institute. “Henry George, a great progressive of the late nineteenth century, argued, partly on this basis, for a land tax.”

Would California have fared better if Mr. Brown’s Georgist land-value tax had won widespread adoption? It’s almost impossible to contemplate, given how the economic structure of the state has been determined by private land development. Instituting land-value taxation in one fell swoop would cause the value of real estate to plummet, an outcome few would applaud.

But governments at every level are being forced to get creative as they seek new ways to finance basic public services, and if anything good is to come of the current catfight in Washington, it may be a renewed openness to all manner of budget-cutting, tax-reforming ideas.

The Prophet of San Francisco could yet have his day.

estevens@baycitizen.org

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31bcstevens.html

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Presidio Bank (OTCBB:PDOB), a Bay Area business bank, today announced
that it has hired Richard Cerf as Senior Vice President/Relationship
Manager in the San Francisco Regional Office.

“Richard’s banking expertise combined with his market knowledge make him
a great fit for Presidio Bank. We are thrilled that he has joined our
team as we continue to grow the bank.”

Richard brings with him 25 years of banking experience providing
businesses with financing and treasury management solutions. He joins
the Presidio Bank team from City National Bank where he was a
relationship manager for companies in the San Francisco area.
Previously, he was with Silicon Valley Bank.

Richard lives in Marin County with his wife and two daughters and serves
as the Board Treasurer for The Ritter Center, a San Rafael
not-for-profit organization. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley.

Steve Heitel, Presidio Bank President Chief Executive Officer stated,
“Richard’s banking expertise combined with his market knowledge make him
a great fit for Presidio Bank. We are thrilled that he has joined our
team as we continue to grow the bank.”

About Presidio Bank

Presidio Bank provides business banking services to small and mid-size
businesses, including professional service firms, real estate developers
and investors, and not-for-profit organizations, and to their owners who
desire personalized, responsive service with access to local decision
makers. Presidio Bank offers clients the resources of a large bank
combined with the personalized services of a neighborhood bank. Presidio
Bank is headquartered in San Francisco, California and currently
operates four banking offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, San Rafael
and Palo Alto. More information is available at www.presidiobank.com.
Presidio Bank is a member of FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that
involve risk and uncertainties. These statements are identifiable by use
of the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “plan,”
“estimate,” “project,” or similar expressions. The risks and
uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development,
growth projections and results of Presidio Bank’s business include, but
are not limited to, the growth of the economy, interest rate movements,
timely development by Presidio Bank of technology enhancements for its
products and operating systems, the impact of competitive products,
services and pricing, client-based requirements, Congressional
legislation, changes in regulatory or generally accepted accounting
principles and similar matters. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements which are subject to influence by
the named risk factors and unanticipated future events. Actual results,
accordingly, may differ materially from management expectations.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6783803lang=en

Article source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110706005522/en/Presidio-Bank-Adds-Client-Expertise