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Vator Box

Vator innovation series

Vator's version of Siskel & Ebert meets American Idol. Each week, host Bambi Francisco, VB regular, Ezra Roizen, and a guest host, rate entrepreneur pitches.

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Breakthrough on Splash Box at Vator Splash

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, October 5, 2010 | Comments (2)

Felicis Ventures, FirstMark, First Round and Khosla Ventures analyze mental-health startup onstage

Breakthrough, a provider of confidential online counseling and therapy, brought home the gold at Vator Splash (Sept). If you attended the event, you would have not been surprised, as this company won the hearts of our investor panelists. When Robert Scoble (the emcee of the startup presentations) asked Mayfield's Raj Kapoor, Norwest's Tim Chang and Washington Post's Thao Tran ...

Can CrowdFlower become a Thunder Lizard?

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, June 1, 2010 | Comments (1)

Super angel Mike Maples is our guest host analyzing the labor crowdsourcing startup

For many years, companies have looked overseas for "cheap" labor. Today, that labor can be next door, or anywhere in the country or around the world. Importantly, it can be accessed by companies - big and small - thanks to crowdsourcing efforts by startups, such as CrowdFlower. While crowdsourcing has been around for sometime, the "wave of crowdsourcing has yet ...

Education site Udemy doubles down on poker

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, May 20, 2010 | Comments (2)

Vator Splash winner plays a cool hand before VCs from Lightspeed, August Cap, and SoftTech VC

Udemy claimed overall Vator Splash winner, after going through three rounds, including an online competition against more than 100 companies, a judges' round, and then an audience vote at Vator Splash. As the overall winner, Udemy founder Gagan Biyani got a chance to present once again before a panel of judges - Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Ventures, Howard Hartenbaum of ...

The prospects for a Facebook for calendaring

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 8, 2010 | Comments (1)

Angel investor Jeff Clavier analyzes the opportunities for a calendar service for colleges

With Facebook sporting a potential $40 billion valuation, the idea of starting a service focused solely on colleges sounds like a smart starting point. After all, Facebook got its start by serving only students at Harvard. DormNoise is a budding company started by 21-yr-old Jay Rodrigues, a junior at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. The ...

Splash culminates with Splash Box

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 9, 2010 | Comments

Investors from Greycroft, Venrock, NEA and Ackrell Capital analyze RentCycle - Splash overall winner

More than 175 companies, more than 3,000 people voting, and one company left standing onstage. The Vator Splash competition culminated at the Splash event, with the final round to find the overall winner consisting of voting among the 375 attendees gathered at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. The overall Vator Splash winner was Rentcycle, a startup that wants ...

Video startups aren't an easy sell

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 25, 2010 | Comments (1)

Super angel Jeff Clavier shares his investment philosophy around video ventures, specifically Vidly

Jeff Clavier, prolific angel investor in Silicon Valley, joins us as guest host in this episode of Vator Box. If you have a video service/product and want to show Jeff, better watch this segment to get a better idea of what he's looking for, and what he's not. This week, we take a look at Vidly, a young startup that ...

Analyzing the drumbeat of the social Web

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 11, 2010 | Comments (1)

August Capital's Howard Hartenbaum is our guest host analyzing Tribevibe

In this Vator Box segment, in which we take a look at one video pitch and discuss the presentation, novelty of the idea, business opportunity and challenges, we have Howard Hartenbaum, venture capitalist at August Capital, join us as our guest host. Hartenbaum's two current investments are Swoopo and Pixazza. He's also well known for being the first investor in Skype. ...

HearPlanet - a geoWeb iPhone app worth a look

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 15, 2009 | Comments

Vator Box guest host Mayfield Fund partner Raj Kapoor says HearPlanet is in a hot space

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 ...

Will Jigsaw be acquired or has it peaked?

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 1, 2009 | Comments

Prolific angel investor Aydin Senkut is our guest host analyzing the Wikipedia for business contacts

This week, we take a look at Jigsaw, a leading provider of business card and company data services that leverages user-generated content contributed by its community of some one million members. Our guest host was 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 ...

A dating site worth hooking up with

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, November 18, 2009 | Comments (2)

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 ...

QLess - line management that's worth a look

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

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

Is it time for private company marketplaces?

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

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

With the IPO market in the doldrums for some time, and merger activity still scarce, shareholders of venture-backed companies have had trouble getting liquidity for their stock. The dearth of exits has created a new opportunity for companies such as SharesPost, which launched in June 2009, and SecondMarket, both of which are trading platforms for buyers and sellers of ...

Thumbtack (People's Choice) on Juice Box

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, October 13, 2009 | Comments (1)

Startup wants to be the next-generation local services marketplace, combining Yelp and eBay

Thumbtack was given the People's Choice award at the Juice Pitcher last week. The local services startup was chosen after presenting alongside nine other companies at the event, which showcased 10 startups chosen by their peers during the Juice Pitcher competition. Presentations by Mint CEO Aaron Patzer and Like CEO Munjal Shah about building startups were also given. (See links ...

AirBnB should leverage Facebook's network

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, September 28, 2009 | Comments (1)

	Vator Box gives AirBnB a thumbs up for novelty This week, we take a look at AirBnB, a startup that wants to be the eBay of space by being the conduit for couch or bed rentals as well as entire apartments, hotel rooms or villas in Malaysia. AirBnB facilitates the transactions and takes a 10% booking fee, which it collects once the traveler checks in. Noah Doyle, managing partner ...
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