How VCs Identify Billion-Dollar Successes

When Zynga hits the markets Friday, it will mark the end of a big year for social IPOs. Some of the notable deals include Pandora (NYSE:P), Groupon (Nasdaq:GRPN), Angie's List (Nasdaq:ANGI), LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) and (Nasdaq:Z). But as should be expected, some upstarts want to get a piece of the action. One is Identified, which leverages ...

By Patrick Fong:The days of the IPO bubble appear to be returning as new tech companies sporting tremendous revenue growth but little to no profits continue to garner huge valuations. This time around, things are different and it appears that investors are more cognizant and wary of these companies—well at least to a certain extent.

Erick Schonfeld submits: Recently I sat down with a well-connected Silicon Valley CEO who just raised a ton of money, and who knew of other startups raising even more. There is a new startup club of younger companies raising money right now at $1 billion valuations. I already knew a couple of them, but I started asking a few venture capitalists and now I have a pretty good list of who is in that club and who is trying to get in (see below).

NakedValue submits:Tiger Global Management just disclosed a 5.88% stake in HomeAway, Inc. (AWAY), which operates an online vacation rental business with listings from 145 countries. In 2010, the company had $167.88 million in sales, a sharp increase from $82.24 million in 2008.

Renaissance Capital IPO Research submits: HomeAway, Inc., (AWAY) which operates the world's largest online marketplace for vacation rentals, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $230 million in an initial public offering.

By Kofi Bofah:As a music aficionado, I love Pandora (P) and its Internet Radio. At any moment, I can bypass terrestrial radio, with its boring news, annoying celebrity gossip, superficial sports reporting, and dial right in to my core mission of rocking out to great music. Obviously, Pandora's management team is staffed with fellow music lovers, who have worked tirelessly to deliver the perfect toy for hours upon hours of audio entertainment.

Investment U submits: By Justin Dove With more than 90 million registered users in the United States, chances are you or someone you know uses Pandora (NYSE: P) as a music service or smartphone application.

Dan Pritch submits: 'Tis the season for web-based IPOs. After LinkedIn's (LNKD) volatile launch and the much-maligned Groupon (GRPN) IPO filing, Pandora is readying their IPO as well.