Mark this one down as a major PR stunt, but they certainly have our attention: The founder (or more likely, founders) of venture capital gossip site TheFunded, who have been keeping their names anonymous since March when the site launched, will spill the beans tonight and announce themselves.
Staying anonymous was probably smart, since more than a few VC’s have been miffed at all the negative feedback they’ve received from startups who’ve pitched them.
But tonight the group says they’ll be announcing themselves at an event at Stanford. The exact time of the announcement? 6:45 pm.
Clearly Jason Calacanis and Philip Kaplan are either part of it or know who is. Both are now at Stanford, and neither will take my calls.
Both Calacanis and Kaplan are currently at Sequoia-backed startups, by the way. Calacanis at Mahalo, Kapan at Adbrite.
As it’s announced, we’ll update.
Update: The man, “Ted”, behind “The Funded” is Adeo Ressi. Ressi founded and sold casual gaming site Game Trust to RealNetworks this September for around $20 million. He also serves on the board of the X Prize Foundation, best known by their cash prize for civilian space exploration. He was apparently screwed by a number of VCs in the past, which gave him the idea for the site.
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Update 2: Apparently Wired was pre-briefed, has a picture and lots of background.