Kara Nortman

Investor

Urbanspoon, Qwiki, Klout, Fwix, Flipboard

Frustrating- always feel like not moving fast enough
Rewarding- chemistry, execution speed

Worrying too much about perfection, not iterating quickly enough. Also recognizing that the DNA of the company is set early so plug faults and do not be penny wise but pound foolish with equity grants.

Always fund great teams (vs. great markets). Great teams are hungry, irrationally exuberant, but at least a little self-aware. Have at least one core unique skill set that is exceptional (developer driven product, UX for new devices, brand stewardship/launch community/betas).

Kara Nortman
Senior Vice President of Publishing, CityGrid Media

Kara Nortman is the Senior Vice President of Publishing for CityGrid Media, an IAC owned online media company that connects web and mobile publishers with local advertising organizations by linking them through CityGrid®, its local content and advertising network. In this role, Ms. Nortman is responsible for overseeing the publisher side of the CityGrid Media’s owned properties, which include consumer sites, Citysearch, Insider Pages and Urbanspoon. In addition, Ms. Nortman is responsible for charting the growth of new content for the CityGrid® network, which includes partner sites such as Bing, YP.com and more.

Previously, Ms. Nortman served as Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions for IAC where she oversaw a number of IAC’s recent moves in the local space including the acquisitions of InsiderPages and Urbanspoon. Prior to IAC, Ms. Nortman worked for Battery Ventures were she focused on investments in the Internet, communications and new media sectors. At Battery Ventures, Ms. Nortman was involved in the development of Synaptic Digital, The Loan Page (acquired by HouseValues), EnvoyWorldWide (acquired by PAR3 Communications), Kashya (acquired by EMC), and Cbeyond Communications (Nasdaq: CBEY).

Ms. Nortman has also held positions at Microsoft and Morgan Stanley. Ms. Nortman holds a BA in political science from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Past Speaking Experience: 

March, 2011 – GeoSocial Conference - The social-loco SMB (Upcoming)

Feb, 2011 – Digiday Mobile – Mobile App Showcase: What is a Good App?

December, 2010 – BIA/Kelsey - Interactive Local Media Conference - The Big Money in Local

July, 2010 – TechCrunch’s Social Currency Event – Check-ins, Coupons and Commerce

May, 2010 – Digital Hollywood – Smart Phones – Smart Consumers – Location-Based Real –Time Marketing

March, 2010 – O’Reilly Webcast – Where 2.0 Preview

March, 2010 – Digiday:Social - The Mobile-Social Connection

December 2009 - BIA/Kelsey - interactive Local Media Conference - Social Local Search Panel

November 2007 – BIA/Kelsey – Interactive Local Media Conference - Investing in Local

July 2007 – AlwaysOn Summit - Panel

June 2007 – Web 2.0 NYC – The Web 2.0 Way of Doing Business

June 2007 - WidgetCon2007 – Keynote session

May 2007 - NEVCA - Sector Focus Breakfast Consumer Internet - Alive and Well on the East Coast

October 2006 - Local Ad World - Web 2.0 meets local search?

April, 2006 - FundingPost event - Perfect Venture Conference

2011 Articles: 

Feb 21, 2011 – BrandWeek – The Customer Review Learns Shorthand

Feb 4, 2011 – BtoC Marketer - Local Businesses, Listen Up:  A New Kind of Shorthand is Taking Over