72 of the most expensive startup flameouts in history. Mobile gaming VC financing goes global.

Startup Failure

We've been diving into failure a lot recently. From our 51 startup failure post-mortems to our R.I.P Report with startup mortality data to acqui-hire data, we've been busy understanding what are drivers of failure. Today, we dive into 72 of the biggest, costliest and perhaps most infamous startup failures of all time.

Venture capital to mobile gaming goes global

International playa'. The market is abuzz with Zynga's latest acquisition of UK-based NaturalMotion. And based on CB Insights data, VCs are also increasingly looking abroad with half of all mobile gaming deals in 2013 going to companies based outside the U.S. See the full brief detailing financing trends in the global mobile gaming market, including the big funding jump in Q4.

Facebook Paper is coming - A look at VC-backed news readers

What does the iTunes data say? Facebook today announced its curated visual reader 'Paper'. What does that mean for the venture-backed startups including Flipboard, Circa and Reverb in the crowded mobile news reader space? See which startups are trending up - and down - in the iTunes App Store rankings as of today. We'll see how Paper impacts them in the coming weeks.

CB Insider Posts

The following research is only available to paid subscribers with CB Insider access:

72 of the biggest, costliest startup failures of all time

Cautionary tales. From financial fraud to just running out of money, we scanned our database to identify 72 of the most expensive startup flameouts in history. From Solyndra to Pets.com, check out the full list of well-funded startups failures.

Show me yours, I'll show you mine

From the baddest team in data. Check out a couple things our team worked on which are cool, educational and awesome.

Are NFL teams relying on one player too much? A D3.js visualization of the top NFL running backs and wide receivers by share of their team's rushing and receiving yards by @atestu.
Introduction to R: An example-driven and practical guide to getting started with the R programming language by @farhannow

P.S. We're hiring

Record seed funding year raises new Series A concerns

With 2013 notching record seed VC financing levels, there appears to be a bigger backlog of startups forming at the Series A funding window. See the Silicon Valley Business Journal story on the seed uptick and our cited research brief on seed investing.

6 causes of startup failure every healthcare entrepreneur should read

Never assume, always validate. MedCity News dives into our compilation of 51 startup failure-post mortems to highlight the six most relevant reasons why healthcare startups fail. A quick, essential read for entrepreneurs - and venture investors - hoping to disrupt the healthcare industry.

The Chart of the Day

Every day, we share a chart or visualization on Twitter. Here's a few of the most popular from the last week:

Angel round sizes are shrinking, hit $520K in Q3 2013
The top 10 most active corporate venture arms in healthcare
20 companies nobody calls clean tech (but probably should)

Insights on Startups

Interesting articles by or about startups and starting up.

The traits of an ideal startup employee - Assorted thoughts on what it takes to be a successful, effective startup team member.

So you want to manage a product? What no one tells you about becoming a successful tech product manager (@rohinivibha)

Customer service isn't a department - For startups, customer service isn't an essential business function, it's the essential business function. (@jaltma)

Instincts are made, not born - Google Ventures' Braden Kowitz (@kowitz) tackles the question of whether designers should trust their instincts - or the data.

Anatomy of Seed - Greylock's @brendanbaker analyzes 500+ emails from Appmakr's seed round to chart how the investor networks and fundraising process of the seed VC ecosystem is changing.