Bambi Francisco Roizen
4,273 Splash Points
400 comments
1237 connections
6 votes
980 thumbs up
498 companies followed
21 competitions judged
1131 stories written

Bambi Francisco Roizen

CEO and Founder, Vator
bambi.blogs.com
San Francisco, California, United States United states
Business owner, Investor
Member since June 28, 2006
VEQ: TL-PM-MM
Quote
Wife, mom and entrepreneur. Running Vator, combining my love for journalism, innovation, and sociology. Quote_down
About Bambi
Work/education
Activities
Company profile(s)
Following
Video/images
I am a(n):

Lover of life

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

Vator

Companies I've invested in:

Vator, as well as Apple and Google in the public markets

Startups I worked for:

MarketWatch

If you are an entrepreneur, why?

I love eating Ramen.

My favorite startups:

Zynga, Twitter, AirBnB

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

One day it feels like you're on top of the world. The next day, you feel like it's all over.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make?

They don't realize that entrepreneurship is a journey and often a long and hard slog.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

The team is critical. Know which skills are needed to get your business off the ground and find people with those skills. Don't take "a lot" of money, early on. It only creates a higher return hurdle for you, and often adds undue pressure. Most businesses take time to bake and take multiple iterations on the product and business model to get it right. If you take too much money early on, it just means you'll make more expensive mistakes.

What keeps you going?

I have a dream.

Full bio

Vator was a side project of mine that was a mere concept while I was a columnist/correspondent at Dow Jones MarketWatch. It was originally started to help me vet the many startups pitching me while I was a journalist. It was designed to ensure that those I couldn't cover would have a platform for others to find them. 

I left in April 2007 and launched Vatortv in June 2007.

At Dow Jones, I covered Internet trends and investments across the public and private sectors. I was a morning business anchor for KPIX (the local CBS affiliate in San Francisco), and reported on MarketWatch's business magazine show on CBS. I made frequent appearances as an expert on technology on CNBC, Fox Business News, and CBS. In the 'mid-90s, I worked as producer at CNN's financial news network, where I created, launched and produced business shows, including one on IPOs and new ideas.

I am married to Ezra Roizen. We have four boys.

Investor interests