VatorNews - Vator contributor stories

E-Trade exec's social network for pro-sumers

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 18, 2008 | Comments

By now, many people have heard of former E-Trade CEO Christos Costakos' new social network called Moli, which was seeded with $20 million in friends and family money as well as a $29.6 million investment from a group of investors in January. After the company's launch at Demo in that month, Judy Balint, Moli's president, said Moli's unique visitors (not pageviews mind you, but uniques) soared to 15.9 million in March. That's quite a surge from the couple hundred thousand ...

PageFlakes snapped up by LiveUniverse

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 18, 2008 | Comments

The field of upstarts taking on the giants in the personalized home page market shrank by half today when PageFlakes said it was being acquired by Brad Greenspan's LiveUniverse. Terms weren't disclosed. The San Francisco-based company had raised around $4 million in equity and debt.Although it was roundly praised for its easy-to-use interface, PageFlakes never attracted an audience nearly the size of its main startup competitor, netVibes, and neither of them comes close to the millions of users of the customized ...

23andMe ushers in social 'DNA' networks

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 17, 2008 | Comments

Relationships are typically formed around commonalities. In the old days, people came together because they went to the same school, grew up in the same town, or shared the same worldview, etc. Today, connections are formed through shared interests around movies you like on Flixster, the same widgets you like on Facebook, and in the future connections might be made based on the haplotype you share. “What’s your haplogroup?” may become as frequently asked as “What’s your sign?,” said Linda ...

Navigenics drives consumer genomics revolution

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 16, 2008 | Comments

For a person who rarely goes to the doctor and rarely takes medicine, it was an honor to moderate a panel on personalized medicine at MIT-Stanford Venture Lab, held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. It was the first panel at VLab with all female panelists, I was told. The discussion - held last night - was about consumer genomics, and specifically 23andMe, and what the market opportunities as well as the challenges are for this emerging sector. The ...

Lessons Learned: Martino says 'Hire former co-workers'

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 15, 2008 | Comments

2720_agregate-knowledge-lesson-08-7.flv_lthumb

Paul Martino, CEO and co-founder of Aggregate Knowledge, is a four-time entrepreneur who says he always makes mistakes but that the main goal is not to keep making the same ones. Some of the lessons he shares with Vator.tv's Bambi Francisco include hiring former co-workers, getting a good advisory board and "start a big company.""It's just as hard to start a small company as it is to start a big company," says Martino, whose previous startup, Tribe Network, was acquired ...

Slide's Levchin on making money in social media

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 14, 2008 | Comments (1)

Social networking is undoubtedly a ubiquitous feature of our online lives. But whether these platforms can make a lot of money is a big question. To this end, the business models of widgets - Slide, Flixster, iLike, RockYou - built atop of these “social graphs” seem somewhat tenuous. Max Levchin knows this all too well. He recently raised $50 million for what many consider to be a widget company. That company – Slide – now has a market valuation of ...

Sluggish market weighs on private valuations

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 14, 2008 | Comments (1)

With the stock market on a downward spiral, institutional analysts covering Google (which reports Q1 results Thursday), Yahoo and other big-name Internet companies are betting public market investors won't have any appetite for high-profile private companies at their valuations. Moreover, expectations are that valuations in the private sector will have to come down by some 30%to 40% to reflect what's happening in the public sectors. This is according to Jefferies & Company's Youssef Squali. Youssef and I were on a ...

Vator Box on beatboxing founders and next-gen social networks

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 13, 2008 | Comments

In this episode of Vator Box, the show where we rate your pitches, Paul Martino, CEO and founder of Aggregate Knowledge was our guest host. Paul made a great Simon Cowell (as I like all my guest hosts to be). This time around we watched the beatboxing founders at Buzzd, the mobile social networking company that’s a bit like Loopt meets Rabble meets Yahoo Buzz meets Yelp. We also look at Moli, a new social network for those who want ...

Quattrone signs Google, perfects origination 2.0

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 11, 2008 | Comments (2)

Frank Quattrone - the onetime, high-flying Wall Street banker who spent years in legal limbo - is now advising Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as the Internet giant maps out its gameplan in the increasingly complex Microsoft takeoever battle of Yahoo, according to the NYTimes. This is a brilliant launch move for Quattrone and his new San Francisco-based investment bank, Qatalyst Group. Take the biggest name in Internet history, and advise them for what I'm guessing is a nominal fee. How ...

What Time Warner, Akamai and Citrix seek to buy

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 10, 2008 | Comments

Following up on my last post, the big theme at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East conference was the economic slowdown and how that affects Silicon Valley and more broadly - growth companies across the country. Early signs show that the appetite isn't there as only five venture-backed companies went public in the first quarter, down from 31 in the previous quarter, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Additionally, there were only 56 acquisitions in the quarter, down from 83 ...

What Time Warner Investments seeks to fund

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 10, 2008 | Comments

Despite the slumping economy, and slowdown in IPO and mergers and acquisitions activity this year, big media companies say they're still actively seeking to invest millions into startups. Earlier this week I attended the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East conference in Boston. It’s one of the dozen or so “innovation-meets-money” gatherings that AO founder Tony Perkins is hosting this year. The event drew about 500 attendees. One of the themes at the conference – at least among the folks I spoke ...

NameMedia - on the hunt for niche properties

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 9, 2008 | Comments (1)

NameMedia is seeking to buy niche vertical properties to bring under its booming empire of content sites. It's not surprising. You gotta get big if you plan on going public - which NameMedia is. NameMedia, which generated $77-plus million in revenue and $32 million in cash flow in nine months, was one of the hottest companies to present at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East conference in Boston. Here's Kelly Conlin, NameMedia's CEO, giving his presentation at the event.NameMedia owns a ...

New mass media - It's the math, stupid

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 8, 2008 | Comments (1)

Recently, I interviewed Max Levchin at length. Max is the founder and CEO of Slide, the online personal media company that's a hit on Facebook with some 50 million users on that social network alone. I'll be posting the interviews shortly. For now, check out his video pitch he gave to Vator. In it, he said something that underscores his philosophy about creating media: Get a bunch of mathematicians and technologists to create a platform that encourages engagement. User engagement ...

Lessons Learned: It's about results, not effort

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 8, 2008 | Comments

Execution and hitting milestones; passion and why startup partners are like partners in marriage

Sid Mohasseb, Vator.tv's newest angel investor and the president of Tech Coast Angels and a partner at Venture Farm (angel network), has this to say to all you entrepreneurs: Execution isn't about hiring people, it's about results. According to Mohasseb, it's not about just applying theory to a problem or overly debating decisions. That will kill your company, he told ...

Controlling the brand experience

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 7, 2008 | Comments

A campaign for a new model of BMW is indicative of mainstream marketers willingness to not control their brand image, but rather to let users have at it.BMW is spending about $15 million to $25 million on a campaign that in part lets people on Facebook design virtual cars and share them with their friends in very creative ways -- like tossing keys or driving from one profile to another. The amount represents about half of BMW’s overall campaign budget ...

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 … 74 75 76 77 78 … 84 85 Next › Last »

Bambi Francisco Roizen
CEO and Founder
Vator (Owner)

Bambi's feed

Other contributor channels

99 Desk	Abrar Ahmad
Adam Hoeksema	Adam Sachs
Alain Chuard	Albin Serviant
Alex Kutsishin	Alex Mermod
Alexa Lee	Alia Knight
Anannya Debnath	Andy Freeberg
Andy Parng	Ane Howard
Angelica Davis	Anne Frisbie
Antonio Saillant	Auren Hoffman
Awais Khan	Aylon Steinhart
Banckle Collaborative & Social	Barry Graubart
Ben Casnocha	Ben Elowitz
Bethany Wesch	Bjoern Herrmann
Brad Feld	Braden Kelley
Bradly Couch	Brian Prows
Brian Rayve	Brian Solis
Brittany Laughlin	Bryan McClain
CandleStick Advisors	Carey Ransom
Carl Brown	Carloans Forall
Charlene Li	Chris Arsenault
Chris Caceres	Chris Cunningham
Chris Petrovic	Christine Herron
Cole Flournoy	Constance Hammond
Dan Edwards	Dan Verhaeghe
Danah Boyd	Daniel Ketter
Daniel Sontag	Dave Lavinsky
David Hornik	David Howard
David Jakubowski	David James
David McGee	David Saad
Deborah Deragon	Demian Entrekin
Dennis Drake	Dominic Marc
Dominique Molina	Don Dodge
Doron Jampolsky	Douglas Zanger
Dr. Steven Pouls	Duncan Davidson
easy unlock	EchoChief.com Editor
Eddie Kim	Eldad Matityahu
Eray S	Eric Manlunas
Eric Mieras	Eric Remer
Eric Ries	Eric Yang
Erin Håkansson	Ethan Kurzweil
Eze Vidra	Ezra Roizen
Faith Merino	Focus.com .
Forrest Kolb	Fred Wilson
G S	Gagan Biyani
Gary Silver	Gerard Szatvanyi
Gerhard Gschwandtner	giles richardson
Glenn Pingul	Gregory Ness
Gregory Pleshaw	Hannah Young
Hans Peter Brondmo	Howard Fried
Immad Akhund	J.D. Rucker
Janine Popick	Jasmine Powers
Jason Carbin	Jason Nazar
Jason Ng	Jayasri Gill
Jean Blaise	Jeffrey Bussgang
jenifer smith	Jeremy Beck
Jeremy Liew	Jessica Altieri
Jessica Miller	Jessica Washington
Jessica Laine Simmons	Jill Asher
Joe Gagliano	Joe Peacock
Joel Passen	Joey Tamer
John Bautista	John Greathouse
John Im	John Mcbill
John Shinal	jonathan bergstein
Josh Chandler	Julie Trade Levitch
Kanya Goldman	Katie Gatto
Kedric Van de Carr	Kevin Cimring
Kevin Hsu	Koby Biller
Konstantin Tovstiadi	Krista Paul
Kristin Karaoglu	Krystal Peak
L.B. Higginbotham	Larry Chiang
Larry Irons	Larry Kless
Larry Kramer	Larry Lisser
Lars Hard	Lauren Perkins
Lis Hubert	Lisa Anderson
Lisa Constance	Live Octane
Lorenzo Carver	Louis Gray
Luara Simpson	Marc Dangeard
Maria Victoria Beltran	Mark Cuban
Mark Evans	Mark Hauri
Mark MacLeod	Martin Zwilling
Matt Bowman	Matt Curcio
Melih Oztalay	Meliza Solan Surdi
Merrin Muxlow	Mia Saini
Michael Blend	Michael Bowers
Michael Burke	Michael Harries
Michael Kriz	Michael Ostendorff
Michael Stocker	Mike Cuesta
Mike Fruchter	Mike Rehan
Mikita Tseplavukhau	Mitos Suson
Nabeel Ahmed	Nagy Erzsebet
Nathan Lands	Nathan Pensky
Nelson Tan	Nick Such
Nikko Marasigan	Nir Eyal
Niraj Patkar	Norm Strassner
NuNet *	Olya Shabanova
Pascal Bensoussan	Patrick Haynes
Paul Schwartz	Peak Adventure
Per Håkansson	Pierre Coupet
Projector 123	Rachel Barge
Rakesh Verma	Raksh Martin
Ray Grieselhuber	Rebecca Fannin
Rebecca Weeks Watson	Reena A Jadhav
Research Mindz	Resource Nation
Rich Reader	Richard Kastelein
Roger Royse	Ron Levi
Ronny Kerr	Roy Stewart
Russ Whitman	Ryan Bagueros
Ryan Downs	Ryan Roberts
Samantha Spuckler	Samir Soriano
Sean Anderson	Seth Godin
Seth Lieberman	Sharad Saxena
Shavkat Karimov	Shiva Badruswamy
siraj deen	Sponsored Story
Steffen Heringhaus	Stephen G. Barr
Steve Anderson	Steve Blank
Steve Patrizi	Steve Ragan
Steve Rosenbaum	Steve Slepcevic
Steven Loeb	Subhash Kandpal
Susan Payton	susan solovic
Sutapa Kasibhatla	Sylvie Leotin
Tara Hornor	Taylor Buley
Tech Startups 3.0	Ted Hollifield
Ted Rheingold	The Editor GreatStartups.com
Theresa Johnson	Thom Calandra
Thomas Korte	Thomas Rigler
Tim Flannagan	Tim Marman
TJ Marsh	Tom Patterson
Tony Dillistone	Tony Shaw
Vahid Dejwakh	Victor Hanna
Winson Ng	Xtreme Labs
Yield Software	Zahra Siddique
Zamic Michael