|
|
 | |
Back to List
|
| | 04/30/2012
|
| | |
| | Scoop
|
| |
|
| | [Actually 4/11/2012]: The May Report: 4/11/2012: First off, contrast the high level of professionalism exhibited by Florida prosecutor Angela Corey minutes ago with the tone of our own Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference in December 2008 prior to Blago's arrest -- and we wonder why people all over the world still see Chicago as Al Capone's town!; Social Katy, www.socialkaty.com, has been informally (and indirectly) getting funded by Lightbank for some time now since Craig Ulliott's Lightbank funded firm Where I've Been was sold to Trip Advisor (based in Boston), and now it's official: Social Katy has been funded by Lightbank for an undisclosed sum; as of last night they have not added Social Katy to the portfolio list on their site; but this got me looking into recent Lightbank deals and I found two new ones from the last two months: DraftDay, www.draftday.com, got $875K from Lightbank and was started by two 28 year old guys, Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, who were professional poker players and they funded DraftDay with $ from an online poker training site they founded; andwww.beautylish.com, a San Francisco based firm started by three co-founders, including Nils Johnson who's also an angel: "he’s a seed investor in some of today’s hottest early-stage brands, such as Wantful, Everlane, Warby Parker, Orchestra, and Airtime, among others, Johnson keeps a very low profile relative to the celebrity we see all around us"; This deal seems like a Lightbank "me too" investment, somewhat like Beachmint appears to be, given all the luminary angels who have been investing since 2010 -- "infamous SV Angel Ron Conway, Naval Ravikant, the Co-founder of Epinions.com, Max Levchin, the Co-founder of PayPal, Steve Chen, the Co-founder of YouTube, Jeremy Stoppelman the CEO of Yelp, James Hong, the Co-founder of HOT or NOT and one woman- Mariam Naficy, the founder and CEO of Minted"; Drifteyewear.com, www.drifteyewear.com closed on $60K seed funding and the story behind their custom and expensive eyeglasses using rare wood from the Mississippi river down by the bb... called Sinker Cypress,http://www.sinkertreasures.com/about_sinker_cypress.php aka Delta Blues; DriftEyeWear founder Evan Hareras also started isocket.com which did get SV funding; I've been having weird dreams lately, and in one of them Mon. night a kinder, gentler and very quiet David Weinstein returns to the CEC in a low level job, well below Caity Moran -- where's Sigmund Freud when I need him?; Here's proof that Brian Connolly (aka Amanda at Strumpette) is an idiot or just has too much time on his hands: He's suing the 111 East Chestnut condo association board president Tony Milazzo and Draper & Kramer for an expense reimbursement of $690 in small claims court to "teach them a lesson," Craig Nelson told me; they did promise to pay Connolly in an email, but then the board added the condition that they wanted Connolly to sign a general release as a pre-condition which Connolly refused to do because he still thinks he's been defamed; meanwhile Craig Nelson and Connolly have buried the hatchet and Nelson tells me they've always had mutual respect and Nelson says he has no outstanding financial issues -- hey, if Connolly plays his cards right, he can go on Judge Judy; Mike Wallace may have been onto something when he said that there is a fine line between sadism and intellectual curiosity, but when you're hot, you're hot; Funding Feeding Frenzy movers date from May 2nd to June 20th
|
| |
|
| | April 11, 2012
The May Report: 4/11/2012: First off, contrast the high level of professionalism exhibited by Florida prosecutor Angela Corey minutes ago with the tone of our own Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference in December 2008 prior to Blago's arrest -- and we wonder why people all over the world still see Chicago as Al Capone's town!; Social Katy, www.socialkaty.com, has been informally (and indirectly) getting funded by Lightbank for some time now since Craig Ulliott's Lightbank funded firm Where I've Been was sold to Trip Advisor (based in Boston), and now it's official: Social Katy has been funded by Lightbank for an undisclosed sum; as of last night they have not added Social Katy to the portfolio list on their site; but this got me looking into recent Lightbank deals and I found two new ones from the last two months: DraftDay, www.draftday.com, got $875K from Lightbank and was started by two 28 year old guys, Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, who were professional poker players and they funded DraftDay with $ from an online poker training site they founded; andwww.beautylish.com, a San Francisco based firm started by three co-founders, including Nils Johnson who's also an angel: "he’s a seed investor in some of today’s hottest early-stage brands, such as Wantful, Everlane, Warby Parker, Orchestra, and Airtime, among others, Johnson keeps a very low profile relative to the celebrity we see all around us"; This deal seems like a Lightbank "me too" investment, somewhat like Beachmint appears to be, given all the luminary angels who have been investing since 2010 -- "infamous SV Angel Ron Conway, Naval Ravikant, the Co-founder of Epinions.com, Max Levchin, the Co-founder of PayPal, Steve Chen, the Co-founder of YouTube, Jeremy Stoppelman the CEO of Yelp, James Hong, the Co-founder of HOT or NOT and one woman- Mariam Naficy, the founder and CEO of Minted"; Drifteyewear.com, www.drifteyewear.com closed on $60K seed funding and the story behind their custom and expensive eyeglasses using rare wood from the Mississippi river down by the bb... called Sinker Cypress,http://www.sinkertreasures.com/about_sinker_cypress.php aka Delta Blues; DriftEyeWear founder Evan Hareras also started isocket.com which did get SV funding; I've been having weird dreams lately, and in one of them Mon. night a kinder, gentler and very quiet David Weinstein returns to the CEC in a low level job, well below Caity Moran -- where's Sigmund Freud when I need him?; Here's proof that Brian Connolly (aka Amanda at Strumpette) is an idiot or just has too much time on his hands: He's suing the 111 East Chestnut condo association board president Tony Milazzo and Draper & Kramer for an expense reimbursement of $690 in small claims court to "teach them a lesson," Craig Nelson told me; they did promise to pay Connolly in an email, but then the board added the condition that they wanted Connolly to sign a general release as a pre-condition which Connolly refused to do because he still thinks he's been defamed; meanwhile Craig Nelson and Connolly have buried the hatchet and Nelson tells me they've always had mutual respect and Nelson says he has no outstanding financial issues -- hey, if Connolly plays his cards right, he can go on Judge Judy; Mike Wallace may have been onto something when he said that there is a fine line between sadism and intellectual curiosity, but when you're hot, you're hot; Funding Feeding Frenzy movers date from May 2nd to June 20th
Editor and publisher: Ron May, ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com,www.themayreport.com, 773-525-3944.
If you missed an article, go here:
www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
(ALL REPORTS HAVE NOW BEEN POSTED ON THE TMRONLINE.COM SITE AND THANKS TO PROMINIC FOR FIXING THE PROBLEM)
Otherwise, just go to www.themayreport.com where all the articles are archived and the search function on the new site is now working
Louis Brandeis: "Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."
frequently attributed to Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." but the quote and its many variations have been the subject of dispute. See http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke for more.
"Larsen E. Whipsnade": You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939), a comedy film starring and scripted by W. C. Fields
Andre' Gide (1869 - 1951) in his "Les Nourritures Terrestres. Envoi:":
"What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself --- and thus make yourself indispensable."
_____________________________
****************************************
April 17 - Annual Fair/Pair for Entrepreneurs
Come join us for a mini trade show combined with a mini Taste of Chicago. Our annual Fair/Pair features businesses who support small to medium sized companies paired up with a local food and beverage vendor. Attendees will circulate throughout the various "pairings" to sample great food and drink plus have access to businesses who can support your business all in one night!
Plus you can qualify to win a Kindle!
Current Food/Beverage Vendors Attending:
Finch Beer
Foiled Cupcakes
Scott and Lisa's Gourmet Pretzels
Argo Tea
MJ Catering
Spark of the Heart
Current Business Vendors Attending:
US Voice & Data
IBM
Productive Scheduling Solutions
KnowledgeShift
Adalyze Technologis
Tandem HR
Racom Comomuniations
Venture SHOT/Funding Feeding Frenzy
Heartland Group
BTE Consulting
Open One Solutions
UBS Investments - Jeffery Tear
When: April 17th
Time: 5:30-8:00 pm
Where: IBM Innovation Center 71 S. Wacker 6th Fl
Fee: $10 for members $20 at the door
$35 for non-members $40 at the door
Click here to register
http://www.mitefchicago.org/
*******************************************
_____________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- Evan Hareras, who previously founded isocket.com which was funded by Tim Draper, among other angels, (and which attended the 2008 and the last, Maura O'Hara, venture conf. held in this town), now has a firm, www.drifteyewear.com, which has raised
$60K in seed capital
-- Katy Lynch: SocialKaty snares Lightbank funding
-- Lightbank funds Chicago-based fantasy sports startup DraftDay, Chicago Tribune, April 4, 2012
-- DraftDay Announces Lightbank Investment, by co-founder Taylor Caby
-- Lightbank Invests in Chicago Fantasy Sports Operator, by David Wolinsky, Howard Wolinsky's son -- and Howard, does Dever still owe David $300?
-- Inc. Mag., Groupon Co-founders Invest in Fantasy Sports Start-up
-- DraftDay on Twitter
-- Crunchbase on www.Beautylish.com
-- More evidence that Lightbank is just a "me too" investor in Beautylish: All-star investor backed Beautylish is a social network for the beauty biz
-- It's under 2 minutes in YouTube: “In the Studio,” Beautylish’s Nils Johnson Emerges from the Valley’s Shadows [TCTV]
-- Social Media Innovator Beautylish Names Ning Chao Beauty Director and she's not really hard on the eyes: http://tinyurl.com/bmxxsvu
-- The Lightbank portfolio as of the night of April 10, 2012 and as I wrote in the headline, SocialKaty has not been added to the list yet
-- The Lightbank portfolio page as of 2/13/12
-- Bob Waldron: Innovation to take center stage at Chicago’s Field Museum, Apr 12 - 14
-- Kevin Willer: Answers Ron's question about whether the review committee at 1871 will decide who gets into the six suites (250 sf each for $2K a month which also works out to be $96 a sf) -- and KW, why does your answer not surprise me? :-)
-- Tadros: Touting AMC's The Pitch, and Phil, I've been watching Mad Men the last 3 wks. and I saw the promo for The Pitch, and it looks good
-- Brian Connolly: Answer's Ron's question: Where's the 10x return 4 Lightbank in SocialKaty, a service co. w/FB & Twitter?
-- That Lundin bloke is like a younger brother who just has to have his say, and he was just copied on my email to Connolly but Steve just has to chime in
-- Jason Jacobsohn: Confirms what David Culver told me at the CCEA event Monday night, that the Founder Institute gets mostly people at the idea stage or a bit beyond that, but mostly pre-Excelerate and definitely pre-1871
-- Crunchbase on isocket.com, Evan Hareras' old firm
-- Thursday, April 12: ACG Chicago: Get in the Deal Next Thursday
-- Debra Jacobson: Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award
-- Friday, April 20: Experience Spring 2012 IPRO Day
-- The Lightbank team, including a Chicago Booth grad named Vicki Levine who attended a party in Palo Alto along with Nils Johnson, angel investor and Beautylish.com co-founder
-- We’re Going To This Super Happy Block Party In Palo Alto, And You Should Too -- and get this, in advance of the party, they list 30 VCs and angels who will be there -- we sure don't do that here!; and Matt Moog, you asked me what I want to know at Rockit, so let's start with this: How come I never see your Viewpoints staff at built in Chicago events? -- not entrepreneurial enough with all those guys from Orbitz and Cool Savings?
-- 41% of people believe online banking and shopping is akin to Russian Roulette and CBS News reported recently, in the same report in which they mentioned Uber, that only 12% used a mobile payment system last year
-- Thursday, April 12: You’re invited to check out the big changes that have taken place at Swissôtel Chicago
___________________________
****************************************
Cyber Forensics & Security Conference & Expo
April 19 & 20, 2012
Illinois Institute of Technology - Wheaton, IL (Chicago Area)
Join us for this outstanding Cyber Security & Forensics multi-track, technical conference that attracts 200+ professionals, 50+ speakers, 20+ sponsors, for an intensive one- and a half-days. Sample presentations include:
Keynote - Dan Kaminsky - Securing The Future: Complexity and Simplicity
FBI and Cyber Crime - FBI Regional Computer Forensics Lab and Special Agent FBI Chicago Cyber Squad
Cyber Security: A New Frontier for Cross-Jurisdiction Alliances - Rafael Diaz - Illinois Terrorism Task Force: Chief Cyber Security Advisor, Central Management Services: Chief Information Security Officer
iOS Forensics with Open Source Tools - Katie Strzempka - Senior Forensic Engineer at viaForensics
An IT Professionals' Guide to Using Data Analytics to Prevent and Detect Fraud - Sandra J.H. Rolnicki - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Non-Traditional Intrusion Detection For Non-Traditional Intrusions - Tom Liston - Senior Analyst for InGuardians, Inc.
And, more!
Attend - $200 (Ron May reader rate - $100) Use discount code: MAY
Sponsor/exhibit ($500-1,500)
Participants have included Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, KPMG, Computer Associates, the FBI, Fermilab, Argonne National Lab, Chicago Police Department, CompTIA, Motorola, Sungard and many others.
For more information, please visit www.cpd.iit.edu/forensecure, or contact Scott Pfeiffer at pfeiffer@iit.edu or 630-682-6001.
**************************************
__________________________
The Scoop section:
__________________
Evan Hareras, who previously founded isocket.com which was funded by Tim Draper, among other angels, (and which attended the 2008 and the last, Maura O'Hara, venture conf. held in this town), now has a firm, www.drifteyewear.com, which has raised $60K in seed capital
Subject: Re: Evan, I asked Culver about you Mon. night. Plse.send an update on $ raise...
Date: 4/11/2012 3:18:02 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: evan@drifteyewear.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Some of it was f&f but also had a little outside $.
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 11, 2012, at 2:52 PM, "RONALDMAY@aol.com" <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
Evan, is the $60K Friends and Family $?
In a message dated 4/11/2012 1:43:59 P.M. Central Daylight Time, evan@drifteyewear.com writes:
Hi Ron,
We have just closed our initial seed sound for $60k. On the hunt and looking to raise $250 by the end of June.
Let me know if you need more.
-Evan
Evan Hareras
DRIFT
P: 312.462.4081
E: evan@drifteyewear.com
WWW.DRIFTEYEWEAR.COM
On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 8:56 PM, <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
_______________________________
Katy Lynch: SocialKaty snares Lightbank funding
SocialKaty snares Lightbank funding
Inbox
x
Katy Lynch katy@socialkaty.com
11:00 AM (9 hours ago)
to me
from: Katy Lynch katy@socialkaty.com
to: ron@themayreport.com
date: Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM
subject: SocialKaty snares Lightbank funding
: Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.
Ron,
Thought you'd be interested to hear....
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120410/BLOGS06/120419991/socialkaty-snares-lightbank-funding
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120410/BLOGS06/120419991/socialkaty-snares-lightbank-funding
Ann DwyerOn Entrepreneurs
SocialKaty snares Lightbank funding
April 10, 2012
Print | Email | 0 comments
SocialKaty Inc., a Chicago-based social-media marketing company, announced today it has secured Series A funding from Lightbank, the Chicago tech investment firm founded by the original backers of Groupon Inc.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
Launched in 2010, SocialKaty has created social-media campaigns for clients including Southwest Airlines, Paramount Pictures, American Greetings and Lufthansa.
SocialKaty co-founders Craig Ulliott and Katy Lynch created the concept after working together at Where I've Been – a company Mr. Ulliott started in 2007. The startup was funded by Lightbank and later acquired by TripAdvisor.
At SocialKaty, the Lightbank investment "allows our team to accelerate growth into new markets in need of scalable online marketing solutions," Mr. Ulliot says in a press release announcing the funding. “Our typical package is about half the cost of hiring a full-time community manager, and with actual measurable results it's a no-brainer for our clients.”
Ms. Lynch says the company is eyeing expansion outside Chicago, "with clients on both coasts and even internationally."
Follow Ann on Twitter at @AnnDwyer_Crains.
Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120410/BLOGS06/120419991/socialkaty-snares-lightbank-funding#ixzz1rh2cbn3p
Stay on top of Chicago business with our free daily e-newsletters
__________________________
Lightbank funds Chicago-based fantasy sports startup DraftDay, Chicago Tribune, April 4, 2012
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-04/business/chi-lightbank-funds-chicago-fantasy-sports-startup-draftday-20120403_1_online-poker-lightbank-fantasy-leagues
Lightbank funds Chicago-based fantasy sports startup DraftDay
April 04, 2012|By Wailin Wong | Tribune reporter
DraftDay, a Chicago-based startup that makes an online platform for daily fantasy sports games, has raised just under $1 million from local investment firm Lightbank.
The funding represents the first outside investment for the six-month-old company, whose website operates fantasy competitions for the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. Unlike fantasy leagues that run for an entire season, DraftDay competitions last just one day.
Ads by Google
Due Diligence Data RoomHelp Venture Capital Due Diligence Download the Free Best Practice Now www.DataSiteDeal.com/DueDiligence
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-04/business/chi-lightbank-funds-chicago-fantasy-sports-startup-draftday-20120403_1_online-poker-lightbank-fantasy-leagues
Before raising the venture capital from Lightbank, company co-founders Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins funded DraftDay using proceeds from online poker training sites they previously founded. They also raised money from friends and family. Caby and Wiggins were working on DraftDay before the federal government's 2011 crackdown of online poker sites, a move that also hurt traffic to their poker-related businesses. They now focus their full-time energies on DraftDay, which has nine employees.
Paul Lee, a partner at Lightbank, said the firm expects "substantial long-term growth" for the company. DraftDay was introduced to Lightbank via an analyst at the investment firm whose brother is friendly with the company's co-founders and tried out the site.
"DraftDay's management brings to the table prior experience in founding and growing companies, as well as a deep understanding of fantasy sports," Lee said in a statement.
DraftDay has more than 10,000 sign-ups on its site and has paid out $2 million in prize money to players. Members can play for free or pay for real money, with entry fees ranging between $1 to $500. The company makes money by taking a 6- to 10-percent cut of the entry fees. Fantasy sports playing is exempted from a 2006 federal law that curtailed online gambling.
Caby said the site is attracting a mix of serious fantasy sports players that play multiple games in one day and casual participants.
"We're hoping that long-term, we can really pull in more of the real casual sports fans," he said.
Caby said DraftDay plans to put its new funding toward product development, marketing and advertising.
wawong@tribune.com | Twitter @VelocityWong
____________________________
DraftDay Announces Lightbank Investment, by co-founder Taylor Caby
http://www.draftday.com/blogs/2012/04/draftday-announces-lightbank-investment/
DraftDay Announces Lightbank Investment
April 4, 2012 By Taylor Leave a Comment
Andrew and I are proud to announce that we’re working with Lightbank, a Chicago-based venture capital company. They’ve made an investment in our company, which we will use for two things. First, we need to improve our product. We think it’s great, but it can and will be better. We’ll also use some of the money to help spread the word about DraftDay. It’s exciting for us to work with a Chicago based VC, we’ve built all of our companies in Chicago and we feel a strong personal connection to the city.
While Andrew and I have been in business together since 2005 when we founded CardRunners, this is the first time we’ve worked with professional investors and our first major project outside of the poker industry. We’ve had some great times in the poker industry, but I can honestly say we’ve never been more energized about one of our businesses than we are about DraftDay. We have a fantastic team, a cool concept, and we love coming into work everyday. We’ve been able to grow past 10,000 users mostly because people that like the site have told their friends about it. That means everything to us, thank you to everyone for your support.
We do realize that this is just the beginning. There’s not much else to say besides we’ve got our work cut out for us. We think we know where the fantasy sports industry is headed and we’re going to try to get DraftDay there as fast as possible.
Here’s an article from the Chicago Tribune about our funding.
Taylor Caby
Taylor Caby is the co-founder of DraftDay. He’s an entrepreneur with businesses in several online niches. Prior to DraftDay, Taylor was a professional poker player and co-founded CardRunners, the most recognized poker training website.
_________________________
Lightbank Invests in Chicago Fantasy Sports Operator, by David Wolinsky, Howard Wolinsky's son -- and Howard, does Dever still owe David $300?
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/inc-well/Lightbank-Invests-in-Chicago-Fantasy-Sports-Operator-146123495.html
A how-to blog for Chicago business
Lightbank Invests in Chicago Fantasy Sports Operator
By David Wolinsky
| Thursday, Apr 5, 2012 | Updated 2:40 PM CDT
Getty Images
Yahoo wants the NFL
There's a lot of money in fantasy sports. Or at least, that's what Lightbank is banking on: The investment fund backed by the co-founders of Groupon announced Wednesday it is investing in DraftDay, a Chicago-based fantasy-sports website operator.
According to Crain's, Lightbank invested $875,000 in the company, which was formed in September 2011. The site offers fantasy competitions on the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.
In a press release, Lightbank Partner Paul Lee said:
"We are very pleased to invest in DraftDay and foresee substantial long-term growth for the company's unique daily fantasy model. DraftDay's management brings to the table prior experience in founding and growing companies as well as a deep understanding of fantasy sports. They have the knowledge and tools in place to meet the needs of this passionate fantasy audience.”
Read more at Crain's, and while you're at it, check out an interview Crain's had back in January with DraftDay.
Also worth a read is a piece I filed back in September about how fantasy sports actually make employees more productive. Who knew?
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a columnist for EGM. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/inc-well/Lightbank-Invests-in-Chicago-Fantasy-Sports-Operator-146123495.html#ixzz1rkxmnwrj
__________________________
Inc. Mag., Groupon Co-founders Invest in Fantasy Sports Start-up
http://wire.inc.com/2012/04/04/groupon-co-founders-invest-in-fantasy-sports-start-up/
SportsPosted on April 4, 2012
Groupon Co-founders Invest in Fantasy Sports Start-up
DraftDay, a daily fantasy sports website, received $875,000 from investment fund Lightbank.
Just in time for baseball season, a fantasy sports website has picked up some high-profile backers.
DraftDay, a Chicago-based website that lets users compete in daily fantasy sports competitions, received $875,000 from investment fund Lightbank, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. Lightbank is backed by co-founders of daily-deals giant Groupon, also based out of Chicago.
Unlike traditional fantasy services that let users compete over the length of a season, DraftDay lets users (or, ahem, “managers”) play against one another in daily action. Draft Day currently features teams in the four major professional sports leagues: Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and the National Hockey League, the article says. –John McDermott
Photo via DraftDay.
__________________________
DraftDay on Twitter
Twitter / @lightbank/employees
twitter.com/lightbank/lists/employees
Get updates via SMS by texting follow lightbank to 40404 in the United States ... “@eligratz: Funding for loyalty-card start-up Belly hits $2.8M - chicagotribune.com trib.in/Hf6zZx ... @bellycard and @draftday announced and it's only the 4th day.
Lightbank (@lightbank) on Twitter
twitter.com/#!/lightbank
Sign up for Twitter to follow Lightbank (@lightbank). ... team over @draftday. chicagotribune.com/business/break… cc: @taylorcaby and @AndrewWiggins about ...
Twitter Trackbacks for Lightbank funds Chicago-based fantasy ...
topsy.com/.../chi-lightbank-funds-chicago-fantasy-sports-startup-draf...
Apr 3, 2012 – DraftDay, a Chicago-based startup that makes an online platform for daily fantasy sports games, has raised just under $1 million from local ...
_______________________
Crunchbase on www.Beautylish.com
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/beautylish
edit
General Information
edit
Website
beautylish.com
Category
eCommerce
Employees
Founded
2/10
Description
On-line Beauty Network
Offices
edit
San Francisco, USA
660 4th street
#300
San Francisco, CA, 94107
USA
People
edit
Nils Johnson
Co-founder
Funding
edit
TOTAL
$1M
VENTURE FUNDING TOTAL
$1M
Angel, 11/10 1
Philip Kaplan
$1M
Angel, 9/11 2
David Wu
Tags
edit
Beautylish
edit
Beautylish Inc., a social commerce website for the cosmetics industry.
Milestones
edit
Beautylish added Nils Johnson as Co-founder.
Posted 3/29/12 at 12:08pm
Beautylish received in Angel funding. (9/1/11)
Posted 9/15/11 at 9:19pm
Beautylish received $1M in Angel funding. (11/16/10)
Posted 11/17/10 at 2:42am via dowjones.com
Videos
Screenshots
edit
Sources
1.Beauty Commerce Site Beautylish Struts With $1M From Angels (fis.dowjones.com) [edit]
2. Citation Needed [add]
____________________________
More evidence that Lightbank is just a "me too" investor in Beautylish: All-star investor backed Beautylish is a social network for the beauty biz
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/03/21/all-star-investor-backed-beautylish-is-a-social-network-for-the-beauty-biz/
All-star investor backed Beautylish is a social network for the beauty biz
21st March 2011 by Courtney Boyd Myers
Billions of women spend billions of dollars every year on beauty. It’s an obsession for some, a daily practice for most and one of those industries that even the most tech savvy nerds can’t ignore.
Funded by one million dollars from an army of all-star investors, Vu Nguyen co-founded Beautylish, a social network for the beauty space, with entrepreneurs Nils Johnson and Sameer Iyengar. Investors include infamous SV Angel Ron Conway, Naval Ravikant, the Co-founder of Epinions.com, Max Levchin, the Co-founder of PayPal, Steve Chen, the Co-founder of YouTube, Jeremy Stoppelman the CEO of Yelp, James Hong, the Co-founder of HOT or NOT and one woman- Mariam Naficy, the founder and CEO of Minted.
Thanks to the web browsing habits of a former girlfriend, Nguyen noticed a lack of quality in beauty sites, and thought, “Let’s build something with rich content, a great UI and make it social. We saw these girls with millions of YouTube views and recognized that they needed a better outlet for this.” Beautylish has attracted a number of beauty advice giving YouTube stars because it gives them a community and targeted audience on a sleek platform.
Since its launch last October 2010, the site has amassed over 50,000 Twitter followers and 10,000 user-generated videos on topics like how to create different types of looks and how to use different types of products. While Nguyen won’t comment on the exact number of users, he says the site has 1,000 superb video content creators and that its users are generally females between the age of 14-24.
We’re at the beginning of what you can actually build and do with the beauty industry. Right now it’s like a virtual makeup counter driven by your friends. You can share information with other people who are similar to you either in attributes, style or taste. There’s a discovery element on the site that is missing from YouTube. Beauty is a niche vertical, one that needs its own platform.
CEO Vu Nguyen
Ning Chao, Beautylish’s Beauty Director, was most recently the Senior Beauty Editor at Marie Claire and is the face of Beautylish, adding a professional appeal to the site. “While our content is community created, we wanted an editorial voice to help us guide and curate the information out there. Chao is helping us fill in the gap where traditional media hasn’t been tough enough to move towards the Internet,” says Nguyen.
The site requires a Facebook login, which Nguyen says provides Beautylish with a positive and genuine community. Users can personalize their profiles, choose custom URLs and Like favorite brands and products. Users are driven purely by passion; there are no incentives such as discounted beauty products in exchange for giving advice. Beautylish is currently pre-revenue but may incorporate non-traditional advertising in the future.
So just like Yelp changed the way that people find and discover local businesses, Beautylish wants to tap crowdsourced information to change the way we discovery and learn about beauty.
Bottom line: The site’s aim is simple- take an industry that hasn’t been brought online yet in a successful way. Make it social. Make it beautiful. Beautylish is packed with terrific information aimed at young teens and is a great outlet for young men and women who want to launch their careers in the beauty business. Now, if only Beautylish could turn my screensaver into a mirror, that would be awesome.
Join TNW Apps on:OR rss
About the Author
Courtney Boyd Myers is the Features Editor of The Next Web, based in New York City and London. She began her career writing about robots. She loves magnets + reading on a Kindle. You can follow her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter @CBM.
Discussion
2 Comments & Pingbacks
Comments are closed.
1.
Justina Lacrozesaid on March 23, 2011:
Reply
This blog post is actually really interesting… I never would have thought to take the beauty industry as a foundation and use it as a basis for a social network .. I use to always go on to youtube to look for tips on how to do make up a certain way , but now that Beautylish has pretty much become a virtual community were people can post up new tips , hot trends , and post tutorials I am going to most definitely become a member.
Now that there is so much free information online about beauty products and a whole community built around the industry ,I wonder how such Social networks are going to effect magazines such as Allure whose main purpose is to write about beauty trends and share makeup tips? Especially now that Beautylish has opened up an opportunity for businesses in the industry to hear feedback from customers about their products and become more apart of their lives .
2.
Justina Lacrozesaid on March 24, 2011:
Reply
Now that there is so much free information online about beauty products and a whole virtual community built around the industry, I wonder how such Social Networks are going to effect magazines such as Allure whose main purpose is to write about beauty trends and share makeup tips?
This issue reminds me of Technological Determinism a theory by Marshall McLuhan, which states that inventions in technology invariably cause cultural change. McLuhan introduces certain ages throughout history the Tribal age, the Literate age, Print age, and he declares that we have now shifted into the electronic age. It is evident that creating an open social network within the industry where people can share tips and information, as well as opening new social outlets between businesses in the industry and their consumers will inevitably change much of the traditional culture of the beauty industry of one way messaging advertisements, focus groups, as well as consumers shopping for new products. “ We Shape our tools and they in turn shape us”. Beautylish is most definitely going to cause some shift in many consumer behaviors.
___________________________
It's under 2 minutes in YouTube: “In the Studio,” Beautylish’s Nils Johnson Emerges from the Valley’s Shadows [TCTV]
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/29/tctv-in-the-studio-beautylishs-nils-johnson-emerges-from-the-valleys-shadows/
“In the Studio,” Beautylish’s Nils Johnson Emerges from the Valley’s Shadows [TCTV]
Semil Shah
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
11 Comments
Editor’s Note: TechCrunch columnist Semil Shah currently works at Votizen and is based in Palo Alto. You can follow him on Twitter @semil
“In the Studio” approaches springtime by welcoming a city college dropout who went on to found and sell a mobile network startup, began investing that windfall in some of today’s hottest e-commerce companies, and after a stint in fashion for Bergdorf Goodman in New York City, has now co-founded a new web startup focused on building a community around beauty.
Nils Johnson is a hard guy to hunt down. While he’s a seed investor in some of today’s hottest early-stage brands, such as Wantful, Everlane, Warby Parker, Orchestra, and Airtime, among others, Johnson keeps a very low profile relative to the celebrity we see all around us. He’s rarely out at industry events, he doesn’t blog (though he should), and barely uses Twitter. Despite this, nearly every e-commerce founder angles to score a meeting with him in the hopes of landing a seed check with his name on it.
This began to change last week, however, after Britney Spears was spotted at Johnson’s new startup, Beautylish. Over the past 18 months, there’s been an increasing incidence of web entrepreneurs heading down to Tinsel Town, and of Hollywood celebrities making their way to Silicon Valley and New York City to invest in, promote, and scout hot new startups. Whether it’s Shoedazzle, Mobli, or something related to another celebrity with a big social media footprint, new consumer technologies and applications provide attractive, direct-to-consumer branding and distribution opportunities too ripe for the savviest celebrity markers to miss.
In this conversation, Johnson discusses these trends with the precision of someone who has been following the space from within for years. We talk about the connection between e-commerce, the Valley, New York, and Hollywood, as well as external pressures on physical retail and how that is forcing entrepreneurs online to experiment with new business models. Johnson also discusses the challenges and opportunities about creating entirely new brands online, how to nail customer acquisition, the importance of branding, and trends around holding inventory versus manufacturing supply in a vertically-integrated manner.
If you’re an e-commerce founder, thinking of starting a new company in the space, or investing in e-commerce at the later stages, Johnson’s insights on this topic are not to be missed. E-commerce is certainly a hot category, but when you spend time with Johnson, you start to understand how long he’s been thinking about these trends, markets, and opportunities. And while he’s certainly enjoyed success on the investment side, Beautylish could present Johnson with his breakout hit as CEO.
_________________________
Social Media Innovator Beautylish Names Ning Chao Beauty Director, and she's not really hard on the eyes: http://tinyurl.com/bmxxsvu
February 09, 2011 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Social Media Innovator Beautylish Names Ning Chao Beauty Director
Former Editor at Marie Claire and In Style Will Oversee Content; Helping to Connect Beauty Brands and Consumers
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Beautylish (http://www.beautylish.com/) today announced that Ning Chao, former Senior Beauty Editor at Marie Claire, has been named Beauty Director of the rapidly expanding beauty networking and social commerce site. Chao will begin her new role by traveling to New York for Fashion Week to check out the new beauty trends for Fall 2011.
“I’m thrilled to join Beautylish. After spending many years in print, I’m excited to be part of the future of the way women will consume beauty information”
.
Beautylish is a new concept poised to change the way women interact with and consume beauty products and tips. Site founders and Silicon Valley gurus Nils Johnson and Vu Nguyen recognize that women want to learn, discover and share information about beauty products and techniques through tutorials, forums and reviews. Community has become a powerful driver for how women receive beauty information and Beautylish is capturing this all on one site.
According to Johnson, “Ning offers an opportunity for us to have a point of view on beauty information. We know that brands are coveting a connection to our community and have recognized the importance of Beautylish as a way to reach their target customer. We’re excited to have Ning join the team and recognize that this is the future of the way that consumers will find their beauty information.”
The appointment of Chao as Beauty Director enhances the site with unprecedented editorial credibility by bringing a top print editor online. Chao will oversee all content as well as the look and feel of the site. In addition to her recent post at Marie Claire, she was Beauty Editor of In Style and has held positions at Elle, Vogue and Glamour.
“I’m thrilled to join Beautylish. After spending many years in print, I’m excited to be part of the future of the way women will consume beauty information,” said Chao.
With Chao at the helm, Beautylish is poised to be the source of beauty information and an important player in connecting beauty enthusiasts through community.
About Beautylish
Beautylish is THE online destination bringing together women, brands, vloggers and bloggers to converge on the hottest trends and products on the beauty market today. Through user curated video tutorials and candid product reviews, Beautylish gives women the best and most relevant beauty-related content on the web. At the same time, Beautylish helps vloggers and bloggers increase their visibility and following by delivering their content to a passionate and growing community of women interested in all things beauty. Through this community, brands can effectively engage and influence women, bloggers and vloggers in a single place. For more information on Beautylish check us out at www.beautylish.com or on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/beautylish and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/beautylish
Contacts
Beautylish
Marisa Lam, 415-729-5474
Marisa@beautylish.com
____________________________
The Lightbank portfolio as of the night of April 10, 2012 and as I wrote in the headline, SocialKaty has not been added to the list yet
The Lightbank portfolio as of the night of April 10, 2012
http://lightbank.com/portfolio
the things we’ve done
we invest money, but we do it our way
It’s really an investment vehicle. we’re just putting a formal name behind what we’ve been doing for years now — predominately investing our own money in companies that we start or behind people who have ideas that we’ve actively helped to realize. It’s not a traditional fund. We’re just doing what we do best, helping kick-ass companies that change industries.
Our managing partners have built these companies:
Groupon
Echo
MediaBank
InnerWorkings
60mo
BabbaCo
BeachMint
Beautylish This is new since Feb. 13, 2012
Belly
BenchPrep
Benzinga
Betterfly
Body Shop Bids
Cloudbot
Contently
Crowdrise
DealsGoRound
Double Dutch
DraftDay This is new, in fact, just in the last 6 days
E la Carte
Fooda
gtrot
Hipster
Lightswitch
Needle
oBaz
OnSwipe
OpenChime
Pawngo
Poggled
Qwiki
Sprout Social
Udemy
WhosHere
Zaarly
_____________________________
The Lightbank portfolio page as of 2/13/12
The Lightbank portfolio page as of 2/13/12: Is Where I've been run by Craig Ulliott (Katy Lynch's www.socialkaty.comboyfriend) and sold to Boston-based TripAdvisor in 2011 the only exit out of the roughly 30 investments thus far?
http://lightbank.com/portfolio
we invest money, but we do it our way
It’s really an investment vehicle. we’re just putting a formal name behind what we’ve been doing for years now — predominately investing our own money in companies that we start or behind people who have ideas that we’ve actively helped to realize. It’s not a traditional fund. We’re just doing what we do best, helping kick-ass companies that change industries.
Groupon
Groupon was started to make it easier for people to enjoy the great things in their community. Each day, Groupon features something cool to do at an unbeatable price. It offers these daily deals through the power of collective buying. The deals are localized by city---there's a different Groupon site in different major markets around the country. They do everything they can to offer a "too good to be true" experience from the moment you buy a Groupon to the day you use it.
Echo
Echo Global Logistics is a leading provider of technology-enabled business process outsourcing, serving the transportation and logistics needs of its clients. Echo's proprietary web-based technology, dedicated service teams and robust procurement power enables its clients to see significant transportation savings while receiving best-in-class service.
MediaBank
MediaBank was founded on a single principle – data should be easy to use. Valuable information was once locked in a complex system only able to be extracted through hours of laborious manual input, but MediaBank knows there must be a better way to buy and understand advertising. MediaBank is an industry leader committed to combining the latest technologies and media applications for enhanced functionality. MediaBank has been and remains at the forefront of the move to electronic media procurement and management, offering leading-edge industry tools that streamline purchasing and allow for advanced analytics.
InnerWorkings
InnerWorkings is a leading global provider of managed print and promotional solutions. With proprietary technology, an extensive supplier network and domain expertise, InnerWorkings procures, manages and delivers print and promotional products to companies across a wide range of industries. The more than 8,000 suppliers in InnerWorkings' network have been selected among thousands more potential suppliers worldwide – based on their ability to effectively serve InnerWorkings' clients on the criteria of price, service and overall quality. Drawing on the expertise of this certified supplier network makes InnerWorkings' solutions far more effective than traditional methods and enables them to fulfill up to 100% of the print and promotional procurement needs of their clients.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The start-ups in the Lightbank portfolio as of Feb. 13, 2012
60mo
60mo is a simple and flexible tool for tracking and forecasting a business's finances, managing HR, organizing corporate finance and shareholder data, and analyzing income and expenses. 60mo allows companies to import financials from a number of accounting software programs including QuickBooks and FreshBooks, as well as directly from financial institutions, including Bank of America, Chase and American Express. The Company asks new users a set of questions regarding their industry, business model, office location(s), staff, shareholders, and accounting system and will then create an optimal account structure with built in projection trends, reports, and more for each company.
BabbaCo
BabbaCo, Inc. is a premier baby products company that creates innovative parenting solutions that are “simple, functional, and super cute.” Founded by a mother of two and serial entrepreneur, Jessica Kim, BabbaCo represents the latest know-how, trends, and innovation. The company has received national and regional notoriety on The TODAY show, ABC, Fox Business News, The Rachael Ray Show, Babble’s Top 50 Mompreneur, and People’s baby blog. BabbaCo’s latest product, the BabbaBox, was created to address the overwhelming demand for new products by existing customers. BabbaBox is a monthly subscription box that combines all the physical materials with the know-how content to really engage kids. It helps parents create, explore, story-tell and teach in an interactive and enriching way.
BeachMint
BeachMint, Inc. is a celebrity-curated social commerce company located in Santa Monica, CA. Through different vertical websites, BeachMint recommends items for customers based on a personal style profile quiz. After their initial purchase, customers are enrolled in a monthly subscription where they receive one item each month. BeachMint was founded in June 2010 and launched its first vertical, JewelMint, in October 2010. JewelMint offers unique jewelry pieces designed by Kate Bosworth and Cher Coulter. In July 2011, BeachMint launched StyleMint, an apparel site, with designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. StyleMint offers its customers a monthly selection of tee shirts ranging in color, fabric, and style.
Belly
Belly is a customizable loyalty platform for small and medium sized business. Customers simply present their Belly Rewards card or mobile app at participating businesses and earn points, redeem rewards, or win prizes instantly. Belly provides all of the necessary tools for businesses to easily scan loyalty cards, collect customer data, and promote special offers.
BenchPrep
BenchPrep was launched in January of 2009 to offer study preparations tools for the GMAT and has since expanded to nine titles. BenchPrep apps are now available for subject areas ranging from K-12 to test prep to professional certifications and focus on social learning, data analytics, and cross-device synchronization to make the overall learning experience convenient, engaging and fun. The Company works with best-in-class education publishers including McGraw Hill Professional, Law School Admission Council and American Council on Education. The Company is in the process of building the world's first cross-platform educational apps publishing platform that focuses on the social and analytical aspects of learning. Watermelon’s content-agnostic solution delivers interactive apps on smart phones (iPhone, Android), tablets (iPad, Kindle), desktop (Windows, Mac) and the Web.
Benzinga
Benzinga is a news and analysis service that focuses on global markets. Benzinga provides original, accurate and timely global financial content every day. The service features content from industry experts and experienced analysts while also covering the news of the day.
Betterfly
Launched in May 2010, Betterfly is a website that matches people who want to learn, look and feel better with the people, not companies, who offer these services. To make it easier to find those tutors, coaches, stylists, trainers, etc., called Betterists, Betterfly is the website of its kind to exclude companies, and focus on people instead. In addition to its search features, the Company provides a robust platform for Betterists to create a highly-customizable profile page, which promotes their qualifications, services, special offers and payment policies, provides real-time availability, offers online appointment booking, and allows them to upload multimedia files, such as instructional videos and lesson plans.
Body Shop Bids
Body Shop Bids is an online and mobile platform that connects consumers who need auto body repair with body shops. The Company’s proprietary technology allows users to upload photos of their damaged vehicle and receive custom quotes from local body shops, all for free.
Cloudbot
Cloudbot is a mobile and web app that pulls each user's online presence into one simple user interface. Cloudbot helps manage the profiles, contacts and activities users maintain across multiple applications by bringing all of their social activity together into a single hub. Cloudbot eliminates the scattered, segmented data silos that naturally form as apps explode in popularity. In addition, Cloudbot's universal address book and integrated social connections make it easy to call, email, send a Facebook or LinkedIn message, post a tweet, share a document via DropBox or GoogleDocs, schedule a meeting, and more.
Contently
Contently is an open marketplace for writers and publishers. Contently provides a platform where real journalists can manage their freelance careers and where brands-turned-publishers can create and manage editorial operations. We like to think of ourselves as the "anti-content-farm."
Crowdrise
Crowdrise is a crowd-sourcing community of volunteers and fundraisers that are answering the call to service and online fundraising for charity. Charities can use Crowdrise to raise money in new ways by turning their grassroots supporters into grassroots fundraisers.
DealsGoRound
Launched in March 2010 in Chicago, DealsGoRound was the first secondary marketplace in the world to allow consumers to re-sell and buy past daily deals from companies like Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and the like. The company currently operates in 128 cities across the United States and Canada.
Double Dutch
Double Dutch helps companies connect their employees and customers via mobile, geosocial applications. From events, to field teams, to local communities of interest, DoubleDutch is the only geolocation platform built from the ground up for the enterprise. DoubleDutch launched its social business tools in March, 2010 at the SXSW Interactive Festival.Some of the Company’s clients include Cisco, HP, GQ, TED, Universal Music Group, and Arizona State University.
E la Carte
E la Carte deploys Prestos, custom touchscreen tablets, on restaurant tables so guests can order food, play games, and pay. Now you can scroll through mouth-watering pictures of every dish, customize your meal, order another round of drinks, and split the bill easily among friends - all at the touch of a button and without having to wait. With offices in Chicago, Boston, New York, and Silicon Valley, E la Carte is revolutionizing the restaurant experience across the nation. Coming soon to a restaurant table near you!
Fooda
Chicago-based Fooda is America's premier provider of services to captive audiences. Fooda has a large network of top local businesses and provides its services to groups such as schools, corporations, organizations, and residential communities. Fooda provides its services via on-site locations as well as mobile and web-based technology.
gtrot
gtrot makes travel more social by helping users share travel plans and experiences with friends. Users can see where friends are going for the holidays, who's been to a destination they're visiting, and which friends will be nearby. We also make it easy for travelers to discover things to do based on recommendations gathered in real-time from friends and daily deals available in their destination.
Hipster
Hipster is a location-based question and answer service. It uncovers information about real world locations that is not yet available online by asking “experts” who are knowledgeable about that particular location, based on social media check-ins.
Lightswitch
Lightswitch is a web video production company that specializes in the creation of affordable content for small and medium-sized businesses. Lightswitch is the easiest way for a business to improve its online marketing through video; its objective is to increase customer engagement, web traffic and conversion rates without breaking the budget. The production professionals at Lightswitch will shoot, edit and deliver a low-cost, state-of-the-art, High Definition video that innovatively showcases your business and captivates your online audience.
Needle
Needle, Inc. is a sales chat platform for web, social, and mobile commerce powered by crowd-sourced product experts and brand advocates. Needle manages a cloud-based sales force of part-time individuals who are passionate about the products they support. Through live chat with brand experts, Needle gives companies an opportunity to give their online customers an an in-store shopping experience.
oBaz
oBaz, short for online bazaar, connects buyers and sellers through an intent based social platform where users can create and join groups for things they want to buy. Once a group reaches a certain size (~25 people), oBaz's hagglers negotiate awesome deals for the group. Groups are completely free to join and users are given social tools and incentives to help build the group; as the group grows, everyone benefits.
OnSwipe
OnSwipe is a platform that makes it insanely easy for publishers of all sizes to make their content and advertising a beautiful experience on touch-enabled devices via Web browser.
OpenChime
OpenChime, Inc. OpenChime is a consumer-facing platform that hunts down unlisted prices and custom quotes from top local businesses on any service anywhere. OpenChime finds local businesses relevant to users’ requests, sends user requests to businesses, appends their replies with rating data, and delivers the results back to users’ email. OpenChime’s seamless integration into small and medium businesses’ existing customer acquisition processes has allowed it to procure quotes for nearly every user request, no matter the vertical.
Pawngo
Pawngo offers loans online to customers secured against valuables. It is the first established, dedicated, on-line pawn lender in the United States.
Poggled
Poggled is a hyperlocal ecommerce platform for nightlife marketing. Poggled works with leading nightlife venues and beverage brands to market discount offers to their customers via email, web, social media and mobile platforms. Poggled's flagship iPhone application allows users to browse, purchase and redeem vouchers while on the go (including at the local bar).
Qwiki
Qwiki co-founded by entrepreneur Doug Imbruce and Internet industry pioneer Dr. Louis Monier (founder of AltaVista). The company’s technology transforms data into interactive, rich media narratives, delivering an "information experience.” Qwiki debuted in September 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, where it won the TechCrunch Disrupt Cup.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social allows businesses to efficiently and effectively manage & grow their social presence across multiple channels and turn social connections into loyal customers. The web application integrates with Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gowalla and other networks where consumers are engaging with businesses and brands. In addition to communication tools, Sprout Social offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation, reporting, analytics and more – all in a package that's intuitive and easy to use.
Udemy
Udemy is a website that empowers anyone to teach and learn online. On Udemy, there are thousands of online courses from the best instructors in the world. Furthermore, if you're an expert you can share your knowledge by creating an online course on Udemy. Udemy's platform makes it easy for experts to build an online course. Instructors can use video, PowerPoint, PDFs, audio, zip files and live classes to quickly build a course and share their expertise with anyone in the world.
WhosHere
WhosHere is the world’s only mobile meet-up application with “total freedom,” a cost-free, worry-free, label-free approach to location-based dating and networking. It’s fast to join, easy to use, and free to send texts, pictures, or VOIP calls without disclosing your phone number or email address. Founded in 2008, WhosHere has over 4 million users.
Zaarly
Zaarly is a proximity based, real-time buyer powered market. Buyers make an offer for an immediate need and sellers cash in on an infinite marketplace for items and services they never knew were for sale.
__________________________
Bob Waldron: Innovation to take center stage at Chicago’s Field Museum, Apr 12 - 14
Innovation to take center stage at Chicago’s Field Museum, Apr 12 - 14
Inbox
x
from: Bob Waldron bwaldron@gmail.com
to: dhmn-discussion@googlegroups.com
bcc: ron@themayreport.com
date: Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 4:57 PM
subject: Innovation to take center stage at Chicago’s Field Museum, Apr 12 - 14
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com
: Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.
Bob Waldron bwaldron@gmail.com
4:57 PM (3 hours ago)
to dhmn-discussion, bcc: me
For those interested in a good dose of Chicago-area innovation, consider checking out the Entertainment Gathering, April 12 - 14.
http://www.suntimes.com/business/11821203-420/innovation-to-take-center-stage-at-chicagos-field-museum.html
http://eg.fieldmuseum.org/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.suntimes.com/business/11821203-420/innovation-to-take-center-stage-at-chicagos-field-museum.html
Innovation to take center stage at Chicago’s Field Museum
BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter April 10, 2012 1:26PM
Reprints
A poster announces the EG Conference, a three-day event called the most inspired gathering of innovators, artists, musicians and other big-idea creators, is being simulcast at the Field Museum April 12-14 so Chicagoans can take advantage of hearing the speakers.
Updated: April 10, 2012 8:23PM
The Entertainment Gathering — a meet-up of innovators in art, music, media, science, technology, education and entertainment — will host its first high-def simulcast at the Field Museum with dozens of local presentations and discussions.
“EG is focused on the inspirational spark that gets creative people up in the morning and marks a return to a more direct and intimate connection between thinkers and doers,” said EG Director Michael Hawley, a pioneer of digital systems at “Star Wars” filmmaker Lucasfilm Ltd. He also is a former technology innovator at the MIT’s Media Lab and winner of the 2002 Van Cliburn international piano competition. His 6-foot-tall photography book on the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan — the largest book ever published — is on exhibit at the Field Museum.
The gathering in Monterey, Calif., will be simulcast at the Field Museum’s James Simpson Theatre from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday; 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. The conference is called EG6 to recognize the sixth yearly event.
Tickets are free to Field Museum members. For non-members, tickets cost $29 for adults, $20 for children ages 3-11 and $24 for seniors and students who show ID. Tickets allow access to the entire museum, including the EG conference and refreshments.
Hawley aims for EG6 attendees to be inspired, entertained, enlightened and transformed by hearing from people who’ve made startling differences in the world, whether it’s opera singer Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick returning to the stage after a double lung transplant or Roz Savage, an author, environmentalist and the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
“The conference has geniuses from every field, and it’s jaw-dropping to see the incredibly beautiful things that people do,” Hawley said. “In this day and age, it’s refreshing.”
The event in California will feature a sit-down discussion with former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, as well as appearances by “Mythbusters” TV star Adam Savage and speculative fiction writer Neal Stephenson.
Those attending the Field Museum simulcast will get to hear from a total of 56 presenters and talk with innovators during simulcast breaks, including restaurateur-turned-marathoner-turned-mountain climber Gabe Viti; businessman Nate Shapiro, founder of SF Investments Inc. and a board member of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews; and author Kevin Coval, artistic director of Young Chicago Authors and co-founder of “Louder than a Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival.” The Bucket Boys, a duo who bang on pots, pans and trash cans to create hip-hop and funky dance beats, will perform.
Other local presenters include Howard Tullman, serial entrepreneur and president and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy in the Loop; Field Museum conservator JP Brown, who runs a “Serious Legos” site for Legos designers who incorporate robotics into their creations, and Steve Schapiro, a documentary photographer who has published books about the 1960s civil rights era and iconic figures such as Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Viti recalled working 18-hour days as a chef at his Highwood restaurant, Gabriel’s, and taking off only four Saturday nights in 11 years. He changed his life after reading the book, “Into Thin Air,” about the death of eight climbers on Mount Everest and has since raised money for charitable causes while doing Ironman competitions and climbing Mount Everest and the Seven Summits — the highest peaks on each continent.
“I didn’t realize I’d be so taken by the climbing and the mountains,” said Viti, who is celebrating his 49th birthday this summer by climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro.
For his 51st birthday in 2014, Viti is training to swim the English Channel.
The Chicago Sun-Times is the local event’s media sponsor.
For more details, go to eg.fieldmuseum.org.
____________________________
Kevin Willer: Answers Ron's question about whether the review committee at 1871 will decide who gets into the six suites (250 sf each for $2K a month which also works out to be $96 a sf) -- and KW, why does your answer not surprise me? :-)
Subject: Re: Kevin, you never answered my question: Is review comm. used for the 6 suites?
Date: 4/10/2012 11:59:45 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: kevin@chicagolandec.org
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
The review committee is used for applications from startups. As the suites will not be used by startups, the organizations renting them do not go through the review committee. Once we've announced the organizations in the suites, it will be clear why they do not need to be reviewed.
On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 11:47 AM, <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
http://www.1871.com/2012/03/the-1871-application-review-process/
Mar 14, 2012 | Post by: kevin No Comments
The 1871 Application Review Process
Earlier today, we notified the first companies whose 1871 membership applications have been accepted. More than 300 companies have applied to 1871 since the application process was opened in mid-January. An independent panel has been reviewing this pool of applicants to identify the most promising digital startups who have demonstrated the potential to succeed in executing their vision. We are very excited to welcome our first tenants to 1871 as soon as we open our doors.
The independent panel reviewing the applications consists of nine members who were selected by the board of directors of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. They are entrepreneurs and developers and have each, in their own way, had considerable experience working with a large number of startups through their careers. The original five members were: John Bracken, Brian Fitzpatrick, Amanda Lannert, Dan Lyne and Neal Sales-Griffin. We now have a total of nine, including Adrian Holovaty, Harper Reed, Shawn Riegsecker and Genevieve Thiers. We are pleased to have this great group of people reviewing the applications and helping to make the decisions that will shape the 1871 community.
By the way, if you are reading this post and have applied for membership but have not heard, that means that your application is still being considered.
________________________
Kevin Willer
President & CEO
CEC
1871
@kwiller
____________________________
Tadros: Touting AMC's The Pitch, and Phil, I've been watching Mad Men the last 3 wks. and I saw the promo for The Pitch, and it looks good
The Pitch – AMC
Inbox
x
Philip Tadros phil@doejo.com
8:23 AM (4 hours ago)
to me
http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-pitch
_______________________________
Brian Connolly: Answer's Ron's question: Where's the 10x return 4 Lightbank in SocialKaty, a service co. w/FB & Twitter?
Subject: RE: Where's the 10x return 4 Lightbank in SocialKaty, a service co. w/FB & Twitter?
Date: 4/11/2012 3:09:00 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: bconnolly@furthermore.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
CC: slundin@bigfrontier.com, tfigel@lake-effect.com
TechnicaIly, I think a venture investment in a young digital PR buzz firm does raize a few eyebrows. However, that said… they've got a staff of almost 20 who've totally embraced this ninja theme. Hell, they even call themselves "assassins" ! And you know as well as anyone, people like Gary Slack have never killed anybody.
Bottom line: It's obvious that SocialKaty is just way cooler than your standard Shafran Moltz Group by a factor of a least 10.
From: RONALDMAY@aol.com [mailto:RONALDMAY@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 1:58 PM
To: bconnolly@furthermore.com
Cc: slundin@bigfrontier.com; tfigel@lake-effect.com; ronaldmay@aol.com
Subject: Where's the 10x return 4 Lightbank in SocialKaty, a service co. w/FB & Twitter?
On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 1:43 PM, <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
__________________________
That Lundin bloke is like a younger brother who just has to have his say, and he was just copied on my email to Connolly but Steve just has to chime in
Subject: Re: Where's the 10x return 4 Lightbank in SocialKaty, a service co. w/FB & Twitter?
Date: 4/11/2012 3:14:18 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: slundin@bigfrontier.org
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Only strategy is to hope that an edelman would buy it but they are already brewi
Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
-----Original message-----
From: RONALDMAY@aol.com
To: bconnolly@furthermore.com
Cc: slundin@bigfrontier.com, tfigel@lake-effect.com, ronaldmay@aol.com
Sent: Wed, Apr 11, 2012 18:58:14 GMT+00:00
Subject: Where's the 10x return 4 Lightbank in SocialKaty, a service co. w/FB & Twitter?
____________________________
Jason Jacobsohn: Confirms what David Culver told me at the CCEA event Monday night, that the Founder Institute gets mostly people at the idea stage or a bit beyond that, but mostly pre-Excelerate and definitely pre-1871
Subject: Re: Culver says most FI folks are at the idea stage, far before 1871 or Excelerate?
Date: 4/11/2012 2:12:22 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: jason@jacobsohn.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
CC: david@ForwardMomentumLLC.com
Yes, that is correct. Most come in with just an idea. However, some may have launched a business prior to joining FI. If that is the case, they are usually pre-revenue or have very minimal amounts of revenue. Graduates in other markets have gone on to some of the accelerators.
Jason
Jason Jacobsohn
773-368-0229
jason@jacobsohn.com
www.jacobsohn.com
Follow Me: LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog
--------------------------------
From: "RONALDMAY@aol.com" <RONALDMAY@aol.com>
To: jason@jacobsohn.com
Cc: ronaldmay@aol.com; david@ForwardMomentumLLC.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 2:06 PM
Subject: Culver says most FI folks are at the idea stage, far before 1871 or Excelerate?
______________________________
Crunchbase on isocket.com, Evan Hareras' old firm
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/isocket
edit
General Information
edit
Website
isocket.com
Blog
blog.isocket.com
Category
Advertising
Phone
1.866.914.5295
Email
hello@isocket.com
Employees
Founded
8/09
Description
Direct ad sales platform
Offices
edit
Burlingame, USA
270 East Lane
Suite 1
Burlingame, CA, 94010
USA
See nearby companies
People
edit
John Ramey
Founder & CEO
Gokul Rajaram
Advisor
Jeff Zucker
Advisor
Arjun Sethi
Advisor
Hiten Shah
Director
David Scacco
Advisor
David Ford
Advisor
David Blumberg
Board of Directors
Joel Yarmon
Board
Former People
edit
Zak Hassanein
CTO
Eston Bond
Mad Hatter
Funding
edit
TOTAL
$1.8M
VENTURE FUNDING TOTAL
$1.8M
Seed, 8/09 1
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
FF Angel LLC
SoftTech VC
Blumberg Capital
Metamorphic Ventures
Quest Venture Partners
Accelerator Ventures
Amidzad Partners
David G. Cohen
Arjun Sethi
$1.8M
Series A, 9/11 2
Tim Draper
David Blumberg
SoftTech VC
Tags
edit
advertising, platform, marketing, api, online-ads, offline-ads, ad, market, paas
isocket
edit
isocket makes direct ad sales super easy. Without isocket, it’s way too hard for advertisers and publishers to find each other and do deals directly with each other. Lot’s of paper, pain, wasted time, etc.
Hand selected publishers (like TechCrunch) use isocket to manage their in-house, self-service, and programmatic direct ad sales. Check it out:www.buyads.com/website/techcrunch
BuyAds.com is an open catalog of thousands of premium websites that advertisers can search through and buy directly from in minutes.
Once a deal is made, isocket can handle things like order management, scheduling, invoicing and credit cards, serving, reporting, and so on.
isocket was also the first company to offer programmatic direct sales, the Class 1 equivalent of what Real Time Bidding is for Class 2 remnant inventory.
Milestones
edit
isocket added Joel Yarmon as Board. (9/14/09)
Posted 4/4/11 at 2:08pm
isocket added Hiten Shah as Director. (12/1/10)
Posted 2/11/11 at 7:48pm
isocket added Eston Bond as Mad Hatter. (3/1/10)
Posted 4/2/10 at 5:22pm
isocket added David Blumberg as Board of Directors.
Posted 10/18/09 at 1:43pm
isocket added Arjun Sethi as Advisor.
Posted 10/18/09 at 1:42pm
isocket added Zak Hassanein as CTO.
Posted 2/25/09 at 6:20pm
isocket added David Ford as Advisor.
Posted 2/24/09 at 4:23pm
isocket added Jeff Zucker as Advisor.
Posted 2/24/09 at 4:23pm
isocket added David Scacco as Advisor.
Posted 2/24/09 at 4:23pm
isocket added Gokul Rajaram as Advisor.
Posted 2/24/09 at 4:23pm
isocket added John Ramey as Founder & CEO.
Posted 10/20/08 at 5:48pm
isocket received in Series A funding. (9/28/11)
Posted 9/28/11 at 6:35pm via techcrunch.com
isocket received $1.8M in Seed funding. (8/27/09)
Posted 8/26/09 at 7:56pm
Videos
Screenshots
edit
Traffic Analytics
Compete
Sources
1. Draper via TC [edit]
2.Self-Service Ad Platform isocket Grabs More Funding; Partners With Google; Steals Rubicon Exec (techcrunch.com) [edit]
_________________________________
Thursday, April 12: ACG Chicago: Get in the Deal Next Thursday
Get in the Deal Next Thursday
Inbox
x
ACG Chicago Networking@acgchicago.com
Apr 5 (5 days ago)
to me
Images are not displayed. Display images below - Always display images from Networking@acgchicago.com
Think you know how your peers approach risk?
2nd Annual Texas Hold'em Tournament
Thursday, April 12
Register Today
We're betting on Great Networking and Fun!
Join us back at the East Bank Club for our 2nd annual
fun evening of networking and friendly gaming featuring
a multi-round, single-elimination Texas Hold'em
tournament including cocktails, appetizers and prizes.
Prizes include:
17th Annual Golf Outing Registration
Four 2012 Chicago Social Rooftop Passes
Select Wine Package
Game Night Package
If you are not familiar with Texas Hold ‘Em – not to worry –
we’ll make sure you know the difference between the flop
and the river by explaining the basic strategy and arming
you with some insider tips during a quick introductory
lesson at the beginning of the evening!
An open bar, jovial networking, cheerleading the
contenders and bag toss games on the riverside balcony
await those not in the final rounds.
Register Today
http://www.acgchicago.com/events/event.aspx?F_d=04%2f12%2f2012&F_y=2012&F_m=4&EventId=4327&
Thursday, April 12
5:30 - 8:00 pm
East Bank Club
500 N. Kingsbury St.
Chicago, IL
A Special Thanks to
Diamond Sponsor
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
BDO USA, LLP; Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP; Corinthian Capital Group, LLC; Golub Capital; McDermott Will & Emery LLP; Mesirow Financial; Plante & Moran, PLLC; PNC Business Credit; Vedder Price P.C.; Wells Fargo Capital Financial; West Monroe Partners; Winston & Strawn LLP
Silver Sponsors
AccuVal Associates, Incorporated; Gould & Ratner LLP; Burke Warren; Horizon Capital Advisors, LLC; Huron Consulting Group; The Jordan Company; Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP; RHR International; Synergy Law Group, L.L.C.; Tatum
Click here to unsubscribe
181 W. Madison Street, Suite 3350, Chicago, IL 60602
___________________________
Debra Jacobson: Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award
Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award
Inbox
x
from: Debra Jacobson GovsAwards@istc.illinois.edu
to: ron@themayreport.com
date: Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 11:13 AM
subject: Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award
mailed-by: istc.illinois.edu
: Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.
Debra Jacobson GovsAwards@istc.illinois.edu
Apr 2 (9 days ago)
to me
Just a reminder that the deadline for applying for the Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award is getting closer! Applications are due by close of business on May 25, 2012.
Two categories of awards will be presented:
Governor's Sustainability Award
Governor's Sustainability Award for Continuous Improvement (for past award winners only)Details and application information can be found on the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center website athttp://www.istc.illinois.edu/info/govs_awards.cfm or contact Deb Jacobson at 630-472-5019, djacobso@illinois.edu.
____________________________
Friday, April 20: Experience Spring 2012 IPRO Day
ubject: Experience Spring 2012 IPRO Day
Date: 4/10/2012 4:20:42 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: ipro@iit.edu
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
Experience IPRO Day!
Where:
Hermann Union Building
3241 South Federal Street
Chicago, IL 60616
Driving Directions
When:
Friday April 20, 2012 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM CDT
Add to my calendar
Dear Ron,
Don't forget to register for IPRO Day!
Come and experience the projects at IPRO Day!
Featuring:
Chicago's First Vertical Farm
Prosthetic Devices
Wishmap - An Innovative Social Network
Sustainable Educational Initiatives
Register below and please pass this along to your coworkers and colleagues!
Get more information
Register Now!
https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?llr=8xoi8mcab&oeidk=a07e5hgib4829362f39&oseq=a01sofohopwpq
I can't make it
We look forward to seeing you on April 20th!
Sincerely,
IPRO Program Staff
IIT Interprofessional Projects Program
ipro@iit.edu
312-567-3162
This email was sent to ronaldmay@aol.com by ipro@iit.edu |
Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.
IIT Interprofessional Projects Program | Illinois Institute of Technology | 3241 South Federal Street | Hermann Hall, suite 111 | Chicago | IL | 60616
_________________________
The Lightbank team, including a Chicago Booth grad named Vicki Levine who attended a party in Palo Alto along with Nils Johnson, angel investor and Beautylish.com co-founder
http://lightbank.com/team
Eric Lefkofsky is the founder and managing partner of Lightbank. He is also the founder and director of several firms, including InnerWorkings, Inc., a global provider of managed print and promotional solutions; Echo Global Logistics, Inc., a technology-enabled transportation and logistics outsourcing firm; MediaBank, LLC, a leading provider of integrated media procurement technology; and Groupon.com, Inc., an online collective buying website. Eric is on the board of directors at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and is a Trustee of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He is also a visiting professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Brad Keywell is the founder and managing partner of Lightbank. He is also the founder and director of several firms, including Echo Global Logistics, Inc., a technology-enabled transportation and logistics outsourcing firm; MediaBank, LLC, a leading provider of integrated media procurement technology; and Groupon.com, Inc., an online collective buying website.
Brad is currently on the Foundation Board of Trustees of NorthShore University HealthSystem, the Board of Trustees of Imerman Angels, the Board of Directors of Warrior Productions, a Trustee of the University of Michigan Hillel Foundation, and a member of the Chicago chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization.
Paul Lee joined Lightbank as a Partner in February 2011. Previously, Paul was Managing Director and Group Head for Digital Ventures at Playboy Enterprises where he was responsible for acquiring, investing in, and launching digital businesses on behalf of the enterprise. In addition, Paul also spearheaded the digital strategy implemented in positioning the company for a take-private transaction. Prior to Playboy, Paul was a founding member and Senior Vice President at the Peacock Equity Fund, a joint venture between NBC Universal and GE Capital. In his capacity as a deal partner, some of Paul's representative Board and Observer seats include 4INFO, Greystripe, and Ramp. He first started in digital media as a co-founding employee of Click2Asia, a venture-backed online media company. Paul received a dual undergraduate degree in Mathematical Methods in Social Sciences (MMSS) and Economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.
Vicki Levine joined Lightbank in January of 2010 and is currently a Principal. Previously, she was a Technology Investment Banking Senior Associate at Robert W. Baird, where she advised executive management teams and boards of directors of public and private company clients on corporate strategy, acquisition strategy, and corporate finance alternatives. Prior to Baird, Vicki worked at Motorola, where she held a number of roles, including mechanical design engineer, business development manager for enterprise software solutions and emerging technologies, including RFID and NFC, and most recently, design strategy manager, where she lead the effort to incorporate consumer segmentation and tiering strategy into the design stage of the product development process. Vicki holds an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Physics, cum laude, from Duke University.
Bill Pescatello joined Lightbank as a Principal in May 2011. He joined the team from NBCUniversal, where he was a Vice President and founding member of the Peacock Equity Fund, the venture capital arm of NBCU, from 2007-2011. While at Peacock Equity, Bill served as NBCU’s board representative at Greystripe, Ramp and Vivox. Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Bill worked at GE Capital where he helped finance leading early stage biotech companies. Bill also worked as a Finance Analyst at Morgan Stanley and at Merrill Lynch within their Global Research Group. Bill is a Chartered Financial Analyst, holds a Bachelor Degree from Northwestern University and graduated with honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Marina Dedes joined Lightbank in April 2011. Prior to Lightbank, Marina was a Senior Associate in the Fixed Asset Valuation Group at Duff & Phelps. Marina holds a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
David Wald joined Lightbank in April 2011. Prior to Lightbank, David was a Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. David holds a BA in Business Administration and Organizational Studies, with High Distinction, from the University of Michigan.
_____________________________
We’re Going To This Super Happy Block Party In Palo Alto, And You Should Too -- and get this, in advance of the party, they list 30 VCs and angels who will be there -- we sure don't do that here!; and Matt Moog, you asked me what I want to know at Rockit, so let's start with this: How come I never see your Viewpoints staff at built in Chicago events? -- not entrepreneurial enough with all those guys from Orbitz and Cool Savings?
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/31/were-going-to-this-super-happy-block-party-in-palo-alto-and-you-should-too/
We’re Going To This Super Happy Block Party In Palo Alto, And You Should Too
Alexia Tsotsis
Saturday, March 31st, 2012
12 Comments
Who throws a party in Palo Alto?!
Well actually … Today Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Talenthouse, Super Happy Dev House and the City of Palo Alto itself have joined forces to give nerds a place to play on University Ave for 12 hours. So why should you stop coding and jump on the Super Happy Block Party bandwagon? Well a gaggle of VCs have occupied the 3rd floor of the High/Alma South Garage, committing themselves to hearing your ideas until 7pm tonight. Poor things!
Full list of VCs to harass to pitch:
Mark Goines, Morgenthaler
David Krane, Google Ventures
Jeremy Schneider, Webb Investment Network
Jon Soberg, Blumberg Capital
Ryan Kottenstette, Khosla Ventures
Michael Marquez, Morado Ventures
Felix Shpilman, Start Fund
Peter Ashley, 500 Startups
Todd Kimmel, Mayfield Fund
Vicki Levine, Lightbank
Thomas Korte, AngelPad
Peter Moran, DCM
Dave McClure, 500 Startups
Josh Goldman, Norwest Venture Partners
Stephanie Palmeri, SoftTech VC
Raymond Nasr, Innovation Endeavors
Itamar Novick, Morgenthaler
Gil Ben Artzy, UpWest Labs
CeCe Cheng, First Round Capital
Pejman Nozad, Angel
Eric Chen, Uj Ventures
Jay Jamison, BlueRun Ventures
Anne De Gheest, HealthTech Capital
Ron Hose, Angel
Scott Brady, Angel (Slice)
Nils Johnson, Angel (Beautylish)
Harpinder Madan, Angel (Slice)
Dror Berman, Innovation Endeavors
The organizers are expecting more than 2,500 people and have a contingency plan in case it starts raining and they have to move the Popup Innovation Parking Lot, Hack the Future Tent, the Day Star Zome & Silent Disco, the Soap Box Stages, and the Techno Petting Zoo of Robots indoors. Whatever those things are, they sound pretty trippy and cool.
Which is why I’m about to get in my car, and go pick up my colleagues Kim-Mai Cutler and Josh Constine (if he ever wakes up from whatever party he was at last night) and drive their butts down south.
Because way to let your geek flag fly Palo Alto; Your move SF.
Pics via/Amir Youssefi
Crunchbase
JOSHUA CONSTINE
KIM-MAI CUTLER
Person:Joshua Constine
Website:about.me
Companies:Inside Facebook, TechCrunch
Josh Constine is a technology journalist who specializes in deep analysis of social products. He is currently a writer for TechCrunch. Previously, Constine was the Lead Writer of Inside Facebook, where he covered Facebook product changes, privacy, the Ads API, Page management, ecommerce, virtual currency, and music technology. Prior to writing for Inside Facebook, Constine graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a Master’s degree in Cybersociology, examining the influence of technology on social interaction. He researched the impact...
Comments
Dror Berman · Founding/Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors
Thanks Alexia and all of you who attended SHBP yesterday. We were excited to bring together a community of visionaries to celebrate new ideas, new connections, and new companies! Special thanks to our partners, and to the hackers, entrepreneurs, and VCs who found time to engage in such a fun, yet meaningful way. we had a great time and definitely plan to keep pioneering new ways to bring the best minds in the world together!
Reply · 16 ·
· April 1 at 9:31pm
Taariq Lewis · MIT
I was just there for about 4 hours. It was *GREAT*. Whether it was hanging out at HackerDojo in the 2nd floor Garage or dancing to the silent Disco in the TalentHouse before hitting The Chairman food truck, you couldn't ask for a more awesome event. Even the 'Nawlins band playing outside brought out the sun. Great day for startups.
Reply · 7 ·
March 31 at 6:11pm
Dave McClure · Top Commenter · Founding Partner & TroubleMaker at 500 Startups
fun times, despite the rain :)
Reply · 6 ·
· April 1 at 2:38am
Adrianna Lukasiewicz · Blekko, Inc.
This event was great and I hope it becomes an annual thing. My two geek kids ages 7 and 6 loved it as well. We stayed for 5 hours.
Reply · 2 ·
· April 1 at 12:50am
Patricia Drennan Dixon
Could you hold that party til Wednesday? I will be in town!
Reply · 1 ·
· March 31 at 3:09pm
Dennis Yu · Top Commenter · CEO and Founder at BlitzLocal · 1,071 subscribers
See you all there in about an hour!
Reply · 1 ·
· March 31 at 3:40pm
Michael Silverwood · UBC
Damn this sounds cool! Big dilemma...to keep working or go check this out?
Reply ·
March 31 at 3:17pm
David E. Weekly · Hustler at Gaston Labs · 400 subscribers
Mike - Come on down and join us!!
Reply ·
· March 31 at 3:39pm
John Rampton · Top Commenter · Palo Alto, California · 15,279 subscribers
Great event everyone, thanks to all who came!
Reply ·
· April 1 at 8:48am
NikoSan Chez
Can you keep it going until like 8 for me. I just found the article.
Reply ·
March 31 at 6:34pm
Timonious Jones
Sounds incredible:)
have fun!
Reply ·
March 31 at 4:15pm
Robert Lee Bell
That's the Day Star Zome!
Reply ·
· March 31 at 7:57pm
Mohammed El Hassan · Sydney, Australia
Wish I could go. I'm in Sydney
Reply ·
· March 31 at 6:07pm
___________________________________
41% of people believe online banking and shopping is akin to Russian Roulette and CBS News reported recently, in the same report in which they mentioned Uber, that only 12% used a mobile payment system last year
41% of people believe online banking and shopping is akin to Russian Roulette
Inbox
x
Yvonne Eskenzi yvonne@eskenzipr.com via prnews2.com
8:34 AM (7 hours ago)
to me
Dear Ronald
A national survey of 1000 people has discovered that most people are quite fearful of banking and shopping online – they love it, need it but believe it’s only a matter of time before they are compromised in some way! Cynical but true – read on for the full story – or if you would like the full survey results I would be happy to send them to you under embargo.
Cheers
Yvonne
0207 183 2832 or email Yvonne@eskenzipr.com
UNDER EMBARGO – 12TH APRIL - News Release
41% of people believe online banking and shopping is akin to playing Russian Roulette
This is because of the belief that it’s only a matter of time before they’re breached!
Women are more cynical about online security than men!
Figures released today from a survey examining “attitudes towards online shopping and banking” conducted by Entersekt – a mobile security company and carried out by OnePoll, reveals that four out of ten consumers suspect they are playing with fire conducting financial transactions online. The study of 1,000 people, found that while the individuals questioned love it, rely on it, and aren’t willing to give it up, 41% are convinced their accounts will be breached in the future, making it comparable to playing Russian Roulette! With 53% either directly affected by, or knowing someone that has fallen victim to card fraud, their fears may be well founded.
In the physical world customers are reluctant to let their credit cards out of their sight with only 13% doing so in the last six months when completing a transaction in a shop or restaurant. However, slightly less consideration is shown online with just two thirds (69%) of people making sure they know how secure their transaction will be before completing the process.
Interestingly, when comparing the sexes, there was a marked contrast in attitudes towards the risks associated with online banking and shopping. For example, women had greater reservations about the security of online banking and shopping with 51% worried about conducting financial transactions, versus 41% of males. Seventy-two percent will look at how secure the transaction process will be versus 65% of males. However, both sexes are agreed that they would change their bank because of lack of security (70%).
Misguidedly, when asked who would bear the cost if a card was used without authorisation, 85% believe it is the bank or card issuer. In fact, when fraud occurs, it is the merchant who is ultimately responsible and faces the financial hit! That’s bad news for everyone as the price of goods will factor in for this eventuality.
Reassuringly, customers are not deterred by robust security practices. Contrary to some perceptions, 78% of consumers are in favour of using keys, fobs and passwords foisted upon them by banks in an effort to increase security. In fact, only 18% would prefer reduced security as a payoff to having less hassle. This is borne out by the fact that over two thirds of online consumers would change their bank if they thought it was lacking in security, yet rather bizarrely, 30% wouldn’t move!
Schalk Nolte from Entersekt explained, “In today’s world, consumers are not only aware that fraud exists, but many have either experienced it personally, or know someone that has and this is verified by our survey. This criminality impacts all of us through increased insurance, increased prices, and increased hassle. However, what I think is interesting and actually quite comforting, is that people are happy to be inconvenienced if it means they’re better protected.”
Mobile Banking Perceptions
With banks investing vast sums in mobile banking, it seems consumers are split about carrying out online transactions on their mobile devices – less than half are in favour (48%), 36% are against and a further 16% remain to be convinced. Interestingly it is men who are less adverse to the practice with 32% stating they would use it versus just 25% of women. However, when examining what financial transactions they would be willing to complete surrounded by fellow passengers when travelling on public transport, just 18% would feel confident and secure to bank and shop online from their mobile phone, with a further 3% comfortable only to bank and another 18% would only shop.
Schalk concludes, “Just as people are looking to banks and retailers offering strengthened security, I believe mobile banking applications and services critically, should reflect this requirement. Trust is at the heart of any financial transaction and the very fact that 19% of the people surveyed are already taking advantage of mobile banking is a strong indication that it’s a service people require. Security becomes a critical requirement and all parties involved in a financial transaction need to consider security. Mobility and freedom to transact anywhere, anytime is no longer negotiable – it is the nature of the lives we live today. ”
ENDS
Entersekt is a mobile security software development company focussing primarily on banking and financial services by enabling user mobility. Based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, with offices in the UK and USA, Entersekt uses an underlying PKI infrastructure developed for mobile devices, securing both users and transactions. Entersekt is the first company in the world to roll out a transaction authentication solution to a banks online customer base. The Entersekt software secures millions of transactions every month.
For more information contact Yvonne Eskenzi on 0207 1832 832 or email Yvonne@eskenzipr.com
www.entersekt.com
____________________________
Thursday, April 12: You’re invited to check out the big changes that have taken place at Swissôtel Chicago
re: Can you make it tomorrow night?
Inbox
x
Jennifer Vander Sanden jvandersanden@empowerpr.com
9:15 AM (7 hours ago)
to me
Be One of the First to See & Taste the New Swissôtel Chicago
You’re Invited to an Exclusive Unveiling of the Hotel’s $10 Million Renovation
You’re invited to check out the big changes that have taken place at Swissôtel Chicago. The hotel’s $10 million renovation impacted the sights, sounds, and tastes at the Four Diamond Chicago property, and we want you to be among the first to enjoy it all!
Join us Thursday, April 12th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. to tour the renovated lobby and classic meeting space, and sample the menu and drink list available at Amuse, the hotel’s latest food and beverage concept. Amuse features seasonal small and large plate options with cocktail and/or wine pairings for each. While snacking, take in the artistic Swiss circle projection and DJ-style music that change to fit the mood on the lobby area. The lobby now features a modern design with natural elements that reflect the hotel’s Swiss heritage. Another major change is the hotel’s new check-in pods that replace the front desk, giving team members the chance to better engage with guests upon their arrival.
Swissôtel Chicago will be the first property to provide meeting planners and attendees with Nervana’s Bonfire Events Management app. This application tracks schedules, flights, and presentations, connects guests via a social site and sends alerts for any changes in scheduling. It will come in handy for upcoming meetings in the newly renovated classic meeting space that’s been transformed to mimic the modern, monochromatic feel of the hotel’s 38,000 square foot Event Centre that opened in 2009.
Here are all the details of this exclusive event:
When: Thursday, April 12th
4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: 323 E. Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL 60601
Please RSVP to me if you plan to attend. We hope to see you there!
Best,
Jennifer Vander Sanden
Empower Public Relations
jvandersanden@empowerpr.com
o: 312-854-8814
c: 312-375-1517
About Swissôtel Chicago
Swissôtel Chicago is a AAA Four Diamond hotel offering 661 newly renovated guestrooms, suites and a new state-of-the-art, 38,000 square foot Event Centre. The all-glass triangular hotel, designed by Harry Weese, is wedged into the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan and features wrap-around views from Navy Pier to Millennium Park and The Magnificent Mile. For more information please visit www.SwissotelChicago.com.
_______________________________
END OF REPORT |
|
|