VC Roundup: The bad government edition

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

MUST READS

Peter Key writes about the pretty unanimous consensus that cuts to Ben Franklin Technology Partners are a bad thing. Each BFTP branch has seen its funding drop to $4 million, down from $6.9 million. BFTP estimates that it will give $1.7 less in funding in 2010 than last year.
Speaking of government screwing up the creation of new companies, the feds want to change the way carried interest is taxed. According to the Wall Street Journal, carried interest is typically 20 percent of the profits for VC firms, so the National Venture Capital Association ain’t happy. They’ve asked their members to sign a letter to congress.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

FanGamb‘s Robert Shedd writes a detailed breakdown of DreamIt‘s kickoff weekend (which was last week). Shedd pays particular attention to Packlate.com founder Steve Barsh’s talk, something Technically Philly was unable to attend when we wrote about the kickoff weekend in last week’s VC Roundup.
Federal Reseve chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at the Naval Shipyard last week, praising the site’s turnaround to a thriving business center. The chairman was hosted by BFTP.
GIVE A GLANCE

First Round Capital has reupped its investment in SimpleGeo.
DreamIt’s Steve Welch is interviewed about his new book “We all are all born entrepreneurs.”
Agile Therputics has raised $1 million, including Novitas Capital. The company develops women’s health products and is headquartered in Princeton.