One of our seed investors for Appfirst, First Round Capital, provided value-add through an eco-system of relationships and interactions.

FORBES: The ABCs Of VC Funding And Building Your Board

It appears that First Round Capital, Mayfield Fund and Foundation Capital are willing to invest money to determine if that target can be captured.

FORBES: Startup Leverages Facebook For New Social March Madness Bracket

First Round Capital is known to do much more, such as a website to connect startups with journalists and a database that rates the service providers whom the startups might tap to run their businesses.

FORBES: Focus On Design: A New Venture Investment Strategy

First Round Capital, the early stage venture firm that has invested in companies such as ExactTarget, Fab.com and Path, has named entrepreneur and investor Bill Trenchard as a new partner in San Francisco.

FORBES: First Round Names Bill Trenchard New Partner, Increases Fund Size

When I set out to raise my own first round of venture capital, I discovered that only 4% of venture money in the U.S. gets invested in women-run companies (and 7% in women-run tech start ups).

FORBES: Note to Sandberg: Women Entrepreneurs "March In"

The various services that First Round offers are part of a growing trend of venture capital firms offering value-added services and staff to help their portfolio companies in order to compete for top entrepreneurs.

FORBES: First Round Names Bill Trenchard New Partner, Increases Fund Size

The conference in the Maryland capital starts Tuesday and is expected to launch the first round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in seven years, which the United States hopes will result in the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of President Bush's second term in January 2009.

NPR: Expert Looks at Topics on Tap for Mideast Meeting