I'm very pleased to announce the return of VentureCast. As some of you may recall, for a short while there I would carry around a digital audio recorder in my pocket and take the opportunity on occasion to record a truly stream of consciousness podcast as I drove up and down the Bay Area hightways. There were about a half dozen podcasts in total before my audio recorder ran out of batteries or got replaced by some other gadget in my pocket. And, as these things go, VentureCast was put on hold until the next bit of inspiration or a smack on the head.

I got that smack on the head a short while ago from a friend named Craig Syverson. Craig has a fantastic video podcast called VideoGrunt that is well worth checking out. He and I were chatting and he asked me what ever happened to VentureCast. I claimed laryngitis or some such thing, but he wasn't buying it. By the time we were done chatting, we decided to reboot VentureCast as a conversation between the two of us. We're planning on getting together every other week to talk about the world of technology, entrepreneurship and venture capital (and I'm sure we'll chat about a whole bunch of other extraneous crap as well).

The first episode of the New VentureCast (dare I say VentureCast 2.0?) is now available for download. Here's the link (or you can go the VentureCast FeedBurner page). Better yet, not only is it now available for subscription on iTunes, but it is also one of today's Featured Podcast on iTunes (according to the AskANinja guys, they got their first big boost of viewership as a result of being the featured podcasts on iTunes — I'm not expecting quite the same impact). Check it out and let us know what you think. We'd love to get your feedback on things you'd like to hear us talk about, things you liked, things you didn't, etc.

And speaking of feedback, here's your first chance to have an impact. When I first started VentureCast, I discovered that someone had already bought the VentureCast domain. Given that I had been blogging at VentureBlog for going on three years at the time, it really annoyed me but I didn't do anything to force the issue. Now not only are there a couple of podcasts using the VentureCast name in some form or other but a separate company is using VentureCast for its services. So here is the question? Should I continue to call the podcast VentureCast? Or should I change the name to something new. How do you like VCcast? Or VentureRant? I'd love your feedback.

Craig and I will be recording the next episode of VentureCast tomorrow. It will be great to do it on a regular basis and I want to give a huge thanks to Craig for motivating me to do it.