angel investor

You Sold Your Company, What Did You Buy First? Here’s What I Did.

Jason Hirschhorn, Entrepreneur, Former Co-President, Myspace in Voices on August 5, 2011 at 11:01 am PT

Having some money all of a sudden is a weird thing. I’ve always wondered what entrepreneurs do when they hit it. What do they buy, if at all?

Another Ad Exchange Player: Microsoft Vet Jeff Green Launches The Trade Desk

Peter Kafka in Media on March 23, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

Last fall, Jeff Green left his job running AdECN, Microsoft’s entry into the real-time ad-exchange business. He didn’t go far. Green is building The Trade Desk, a start-up designed to help marketers buy advertising from exchanges like the one he left.

A Father and Son Team That Founds Web Start-Ups Wants to Finance Them, Too: Ken and Ben Lerer Get Their Own Fund

Peter Kafka in Media on February 2, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

Meet another set of investors funding New York-based Web start-ups: Lerer Media Ventures, run by Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer and his son, Thrillist co-founder Ben Lerer. Their backers include familiar names like Ron Conway and Arianna Huffington.

Hot Potato Is Ready to Eat: Do Twitter, Facebook Users Want Another Real-Time Chatter Service?

Peter Kafka in Media on November 25, 2009 at 7:25 am PT

Last month I told you about Hot Potato, one of the buzziest start-ups in the very buzzy “real time” sector. Now you can check out the service yourself. Or at least you can get a glimpse of it in this video.

Angel Group Likes Lights, Camera and Action of Indie Films

Tomio Geron, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on October 12, 2009 at 1:31 pm PT

As an experienced tech entrepreneur and angel investor, Rizwan Virk was happy to see a solid return on one of his recent investments after just one year. But the exit didn’t come from a software start-up or social media company finding a corporate acquirer. Instead, Virk’s quick payoff came from an independent film.

Loïc Le Meur Speaks About New (and Improved?) Seesmic!

Kara Swisher in News on September 18, 2009 at 4:11 am PT

When BoomTown went to visit serial entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur early last year at his San Francisco HQ, he was stoked about the prospects of his “video conversation” community start-up. Fast-forward to today and the entire business plan of Seesmic has been upended, with the video part pretty much junked. Now Le Meur is focused almost entirely on his social media desktop client, as well as Web and mobile versions, which began as a dashboard for Twitter. If at first you don’t succeed, dump and change again–the motto of Silicon Valley!

Gadget Gods Peter Rojas and Ryan Block Finally Unveil their Newest Gadget Site: Gdgt. Get it?

Peter Kafka in Media on July 1, 2009 at 11:00 am PT

Does the world need another gadget site? Yes, say two of the gadget world’s biggest stars, who are launching gdgt.com today. The site is the work of Peter Rojas, who helped build Gizmodo and Engadget, and Ryan Block, who took the torch from Rojas after he moved on. Gizmodo and Engadget are the best known and most powerful of the new generation of gadget sites, which makes Rojas and Block revered by the gadget gang and able to cobble together funding. But they’re still taking on a very crowded field.

BoomTown's Annual Chat With Silicon Valley Angel Investor Ron Conway!

Kara Swisher in News on May 6, 2009 at 2:20 pm PT

BoomTown likes to get together every year with well-known Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway for a chat about what’s up. This year, he drilled down on something he is dubbing “persistent data,” which has all to do with Twitter, the hot microblogging service in which he is an investor. Because of innovations like that, things seem to be looking up in the tech investing space, he said, and he is even predicting IPOs sooner than later.