Silicon Valley Nation: It's 'cougar night' for VCs

MENLO PARK, Calif.--If you're having trouble finding a venture capitalist for your idea (or your venture backers for your startup), head to the Rosewood Hotel on Sand Hill Road Thursday night (Sept. 13).

That night has become notorious at the hotel's restaurant and lounge as "cougar night." (For the uninitiated, cougars are 50-something women prowling after younger men). That was all well and good until one obscure website reported that undercover police descended on the hook-up haven recently and busted noted VCs for soliciting.

If true, it would have brought a whole new meaning to the term "angel funding." But Peter Delevett, writing in the Mercury News, debunked it. (It wasn't too hard: The originating site reports that Larry Ellison's starting a whale-hunting business). 
Even so, Google "Sand Hill Road" and "hookers," and the Rosewood Hotel pops up #2! Keep at your search, and you'll also inevitably come across posts referencing aggressive Eastern European women literally mauling men in the Rosewood's bar. 

Delevett writes:

"Eyewitnesses swear they've seen bevies of beauties streaming into the Rosewood parking lot on foot, fueling widespread rumors of Russian escorts bussed in from the East Bay. And the veteran VC told this newspaper about chatting with suspiciously out-of-place Eastern European women during prior trips to (the hotel's restaurant and lounge), though another regular customer said the women weren't prostitutes."

So if you can't raise your venture capitalist on the phone, by text or on LinkedIn, head to the Rosewood. Bring your business plan, your smile and a some extra dough, because the sea bass will set you back $37.

And if you still can't get his attention, slip on some pumps.