Talk:Rothenberg Ventures/Controversies rewrite

Rothenberg Ventures, known briefly as Frontier Technology Venture Capital, is an American venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2012 by Mike Rothenberg, who continues to serve as chief executive officer. It has invested in more than 100 companies, including Bustle, Revel Systems, and SpaceX, and has focused its investments on virtual reality and other "frontier" technologies. Rothenberg Ventures became the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016, and multiple lawsuits have been filed against the firm.

History
Founded in 2012, the firm began with a $5 million seed fund raised by Rothenberg.

On November 4, 2013, data research company Mattermark awarded Rothenberg Ventures' portfolio its highest average ranking.

Frontier Tech Ventures built the world's first virtual-reality startup accelerator, River, and has invested in 30-plus VR companies to date, including AltSpaceVR, Fove, and Matterport.

In May 2014 Frontier Tech Ventures hosted Founder Field Day at AT&T Park. Hundreds of founders were selected, given customized schedules, and attended fireside chats by industry luminaries in Rothenberg Venture's network. The day ended in a Third Eye Blind concert at The Fillmore. The day was free for all attendees. The firm hosts 8-10 curated networking events a month. The event was the subject of a Harvard Business School case. The case study was covered in a TechCrunch article titled "For HBS students, a case study in what not to do."

Portfolio and exits
Frontier Tech Ventures has $20M in assets under management, with more than 60 companies in its portfolio. The firm invested in Revel, Robinhood, Gusto, August Locks, Luxe, Bustle, SOLS, Matterport, Patreon, and SpaceX, among others.

The firm has had three liquidity events to date: Swing by Swing, Propeller, and 1-Page. 1-Page went public on the Australian Stock Exchange and lost more than 96% of its value, slipping to less than 20¢ AUD per share. The Motley Fool described the crash as "what happens when companies spend heavily and can't generate sales."

Controversies
In July 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened an investigation into Rothenberg Ventures' financial management practices, centering on allegations of excessive executive compensation without investors' knowledge. Media reports have cited bank fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, whistleblower retaliation, and wire fraud as possible areas of investigation, which the SEC has not confirmed.

Several executives left the company during July and August 2016, including Fran Hauser, who had served as a venture partner since May 2014. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the company, including one by a former chief of staff alleging Rothenberg Ventures owed payments to 50 employees, and another by a former chief financial officer who claimed he was never paid back for more than $100,000 in business expenses. As of June 2017, no resolution to these suits had been reported.

Mike Rothenberg has been accused of investing $5 million from Rothenberg Ventures' second and third funds in his own startup company, River Studios, a VR production house established in May 2015. River Studios' first contract was with Birchbox, and the company has subsequently created VR content for Björk, Coldplay, the Denver Broncos, and the Sacramento Kings. In defense of these allegations, Mike Rothenberg hired a forensic accounting firm to examine the company's financials. In 2017, Transcend VR sued Mike Rothenberg on allegations of breach of contract, deceptive financial diversions, and fraud.

The company's name was briefly changed to Frontier Tech Ventures, from September 2016 to February 2017. In October 2016, San Francisco's Planning Department received notification that the firm was operating from a building not properly permitted for use as general office space. The property, which was reportedly purchased in 2015 for $4.5 million, also housed co-working space for startup and portfolio companies, including Liquidspace. In late 2016, Rothenberg Ventures was mentioned in year-end stories about corporate crises by Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, and Business Insider.

In November 2016, Mike Rothenberg, along with Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, was listed by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a CEO under 40 having a "rough year." In December 2016, Mike Rothenberg was listed by Forbes on its list of "The 12 Worst Career Crashes Of 2016" and by Business Insider on its list of the "22 biggest tech scandals of 2016." The firm's use of investors' money to finance Mike Rothenberg's side startup, River Studios, was included in Fortune's "The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley" piece. A Wall Street Journal piece states that River Studios' funding prompted limited partners to raise conflict-of-interest questions. River Studios was not listed on the portfolio section of the firm's website until sometime after October 9, 2016. In February 2017, a limited partner stated that Mike told limited partners he had used an outside investment for River Studios rather than use their funds and that "Mike 100 percent did not ever disclose the investment in River." On February 25, 2016, River Studios received a $2 million wire transfer. That same day, Mike Rothenberg wired $1.7 million from River Studios directly to his personal bank account.

On February 8, 2017, Transcend VR filed suit in California civil court against Mike Rothenberg and River Studios, alleging contract breaches and fraud. The lawsuit's seventh cause of action states that in emails to Rothenberg Ventures limited partners in August 2016, Mike Rothenberg stated that "over a two-year period, one or more of Rothenberg's venture funds had invested $5 million in River Studios, such that one or more of those funds held economic rights, i.e. beneficial ownership, in and to the equity interests of River Studios."