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A dating site worth hooking up with

by Bambi Francisco, November 18, 2009 | Comments

Angel investor Aydin Senkut is our guest host analyzing Thread, the dating site leveraging Facebook

The online dating market is a $1 billion annual business. One company - Thread - is trying to go after that market by leveraging the connections on Facebook by creating a dating filter on top of the massive social network. The value proposition? Why not meet friends of friends rather than some random person considered psychologically compatible? We take a ...

Can't make money off apps on social networks

by Bambi Francisco, November 17, 2009 | Comments

Angel investor Aydin Senkut on where he'd invest and sectors he'd avoid

Aydin Senkut, an early-Google employee-turned angel investor, is becoming known as one of the more prolific seed-to-early-stage investors in Silicon Valley, having invested in 40 companies since 2006. His portfolio consists of some well-known consumer Internet companies, such as Mint, which was recently sold, Disqus, Dogster, BrightRoll and Rapleaf. to Intuit for $170 million, Aardvark, In this second segment of ...

The venture capital industry isn't broken

by Bambi Francisco, November 10, 2009 | Comments (11)

Foundation Capital Charles Moldow views on the financiers of innovation

This year has been one in which the venture capitalists and their business model have been called into question.The venture industry is heading into a perfect storm of problems, according to one writer. Union Square Ventures Fred Wilson says there's a venture capital math problem. A number of venture capitalists have chimed in as a chorus, saying it's broken. Many ...

Can friends be business partners?

by Bambi Francisco, November 10, 2009 | Comments (2)

Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn on building a business with a former roommate, and other lessons/advice

Andy Dunn, co-founded pants designer and retailer Bonobos in 2007 with his former Stanford Business School roommate Brian Spaly. So far, so good. The two are making a killing at their new venture.But it's not been all that easy."My co-founder and I have highly overlapping skill sets," said Andy, in this segment of "Lessons for Entrepreneurs." Working together has been ...

QLess - line management that's worth a look

by Bambi Francisco, November 3, 2009 | Comments (6)

Vator Box guest host Mayfield Partner Raj Kapoor says QLess has promise

For those who're not familiar with Vator Box, it's our version of Siskel & Ebert meets American Idol. We take one company's video pitch and put it in front of a guest host and our VB regular Ezra Roizen, digital media investment banker, and myself. The three of us then analyze the company's prospects. And, in some cases, the guest ...

Making money off of matchmaking on Facebook

by Bambi Francisco, November 3, 2009 | Comments (1)

Can Facebook-funded Thread take a piece of the billion-dollar online dating business?

Playing matchmaker online can be a lucrative business. Hundreds of dating sites are raking in a total of a $1 billion dollars each year, with popular sites, like Match.com, eHarmony, Yahoo Personals and Plenty of Fish, taking the lion's share. But there's always room for newcomers who design a different offering for today's generation.One such newcomer is Thread, whose co-founder ...

Demand Media's IPO ambitions

by Bambi Francisco, October 28, 2009 | Comments (3)

CEO Richard Rosenblatt on his new media's financing future, and his Godly goals

When you listen to Richard Rosenblatt, CEO and co-founder of Demand Media, explain his company's mission, it has a sort of Google-esque ring to it. Google's missions is simple: to organize the world's information. "We want to publish the world's content," said Richard, in a recent interview with me, at the Web 2.0 conference.If search is the primary online conduit ...

Demand Media's scientific approach to news

by Bambi Francisco, October 27, 2009 | Comments

CEO Richard Rosenblatt is creating an assembly-line approach to content creation

Imagine an assembly line, of title creators, writers, fact-checkers, editors, etc. all lined up and working on one article or video. Each person touches a piece of content in a sequential manner using optimally-planned logistics.That's the methodology behind Demand Media's content creation. And, it's getting noticed. "We're adding science to the art of creating content," said Richard Rosenblatt, CEO and ...

Angel investing hits a nadir

by Bambi Francisco, October 27, 2009 | Comments

Startups can take comfort in signs that early-stage investing may have hit bottom

For most seed- and early-stage startups, it's been a challenging 12 months to raise funds. But that's likely to change in the coming months as angel investing picks up again. In the first half of 2009, the total investments made by angel investors was $9.1 billion, down 27% from the first half of the prior year, according to the Center for ...

Is it time for private company marketplaces?

by Bambi Francisco, October 27, 2009 | Comments (9)

Vator Box takes a look at SharesPost, an online marketplace to trade private company shares

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Be relentless; don't compromise; be thrifty

by Bambi Francisco, October 26, 2009 | Comments

Foundation Capital's Charles Moldow offers advice to entrepreneurs

Before Charles Moldow became a general partner at Foundation Capital, he spent more than a decade as an entrepreneur. He wrote the original business plan for AtHome, a high-speed Internet access comapny, which eventually became ExciteAtHome. He also worked at TellMe, which was sold to Microsoft. Charles also led investments in roughly 10 startups, including Xoopit, Powerset, Weblistic and AdWhirl. ...

Twitter CEO admits slowdown, now what?

by Bambi Francisco, October 20, 2009 | Comments (6)

Evan Williams says Twitter traffic may have plateaued, but only temporarily

Evan Williams, CEO and co-founder of Twitter, speaking at the Web 2.0 conference late Tuesday wasn't exactly candid about what's happening at Twitter these days. He dodged just about every question John Battelle, founder of Federated Media, threw his way about Twitter's plans for monetization. Williams also wouldn't comment about reports that both Microsoft and Google are interested in licensing ...

Comcast's video on demand, on steroids

by Bambi Francisco, October 20, 2009 | Comments

CEO Brian Roberts shows off Fancast, a beta service to be rolled out later this year

Pretty soon, Comcast subscribers will have access to video nirvana or video on-demand, on steroids. That's according to Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, who showed off Fancast, the cable companies on-demand video service that's in beta at the moment but will be formally released by the end of this year.The online service will be "much better than the TV experience ...

How to hook this angel: Aydin Senkut

by Bambi Francisco, October 16, 2009 | Comments (4)

Investor in Mint, Aardvark, Disqus is still looking to place bets

Aydin Senkut, an early-Google employee-turned angel investor, is becoming known as one of the more prolific seed-to-early-stage investors in Silicon Valley, having invested in 40 companies since 2006. His portfolio consists of some well-known consumer Internet companies, such as Mint, which was recently sold to Intuit for $170 million, Aardvark, Disqus, Dogster, BrightRoll and Rapleaf. Aydin, who's taken a hiatus ...

The secret behind Like.com's revenue engine

by Bambi Francisco, October 14, 2009 | Comments (3)

CEO Munjal Shah reveals the real strategy behind making money off of visual search

Like.com CEO and founder Munjal Shah was one of the presenters at The Funded and Vator’s Juice Pitcher event last week. Munjal’s presentation, which was a frank and detailed outline of Like’s strategy to generate revenue, was a nice complement to Mint CEO Aaron Patzer’s, another detailed summary of how Mint grew its company and what it cost. Like.com has ...

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Bambi Francisco
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