Danny Rimer

Index Ventures' Danny Rimer and Mike Volpi to Open Silicon Valley Office

Kara Swisher in News on January 14, 2011 at 3:13 am PT

Two of Index Ventures’ high-profile partners–Danny Rimer and Mike Volpi–are opening a new Silicon Valley office for the Europe-based venture firm in September. The move is actually more of a return home for both men, now located in London, who had lived and worked at tech epicenter for much of their careers.

Catching Up With Factual CEO Gil Elbaz

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on December 10, 2010 at 8:58 am PT

When you want to build an application that uses lots of data, one of the fundamental questions is this: Where does the data come from, and how do you get it into the application? Gil Elbaz, the man who created what’s now Google AdSense, thinks he has the answer.

Swipely Nabs $7.5 Million in Series A Funding for Social Spending (And to Attack Blippy!)

Kara Swisher in News on May 11, 2010 at 1:59 am PT

Oh, joy: More venture bucks for more socializing of credit card information. Today, it is Swipely’s turn to grab the spotlight in the ever-crowded space to, as its press release so aptly says, “turn purchases into conversations.” BoomTown excitedly awaits the next big thing to be intrusively socialized, such as: Wipely (it records and shares every time you clean your bathroom), Diaply (don’t let your friends miss every diaper change!), and, of course, Hypely (every time a social category is overfunded by VCs, you get a poke).

Fred Davis to Join CBS's Quincy Smith at New Silicon Valley Boutique Bank Venture

Kara Swisher in News on December 9, 2009 at 10:26 pm PT

Fred Davis, the well-known entertainment and digital media lawyer, will join CBS Interactive head Quincy Smith at a new banking and advisory firm in Silicon Valley, according to several sources. Along with Davis, sources added, Smith is collecting a high-profile group of advisers to the still-unnamed firm, including Danny Rimer of Index Ventures, former Netscape CFO Peter Currie, and David Golden, EVP of former AOL CEO Steve Case’s Revolution LLC.

All Is Forgiven: "It's a Clean Slate," Says Andreessen About Lawsuit-Mad Skype Co-Founders

Kara Swisher in News on November 6, 2009 at 11:28 am PT

Silicon Valley legend and now VC Marc Andreessen was making the interview rounds after the settlement between the litigation-addled co-founders of Skype and all the various people they were suing was announced this morning. In an interview with BoomTown, when asked about the aggressive legal tactics of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis that resulted in them finally seizing a stake in the Internet telephony giant by suing him and many other Silicon Valley players, Andreessen said: “We did not take it personally. It’s a clean sheet of paper.” Well, it is actually a torn, stained and very worn out piece of paper, but bygones!

Silly Skype Soap Opera Finally Canceled

John Paczkowski in News on November 6, 2009 at 7:22 am PT

The fight for Skype has ended. After weeks of nasty legal sparring, the Internet telephony service’s founders agreed to join the investor group purchasing it from EBay and dropped the lawsuit that had threatened to bollocks the deal.

Mike Volpi Jumps From Joost to Index: A BoomTown Interview (And Full Press Release)

Kara Swisher in News on July 6, 2009 at 5:30 am PT

Two years ago, Index Ventures was part of a group that invested $45 million in Joost, the then-hot-and-hyped online video service, while bringing on well-known tech exec Mike Volpi as CEO. Now, he is headed to Index as a partner in the venture firm, in what some might think is an ironic move. That’s because last week, after much effort to get traction for Joost, Volpi announced that the service was undergoing a major shakeout–drastically cutting staff and shifting its business model and strategy.

Kara Visits London (to See the Queen Again)

Kara Swisher in News on September 22, 2008 at 12:42 am PT

Actually, although BoomTown is staying right around the corner from Buckingham Palace in Mayfair, I am in London on my way to the PICNIC conference in Amsterdam later this week, where I will be interviewing some digital leaders onstage. We’re still working on rolling out a version of our D: All Things Digital conference in Europe next fall, so it’s important to get a sense of what is going on here in the digital sector and, of course, what is not.

Spot Runner's CEO Nick Grouf Speaks!

Kara Swisher in News on July 31, 2008 at 10:05 am PT

On one of my many trips to Los Angeles (what can I say? I like to hang where LoRo* hangs), I dropped in to see Nick Grouf of Spot Runner. As many might know, Spot Runner is an online-offline ad agency play that has gotten big funding and even bigger hype of late. Usually, BoomTown runs screaming from such Web 2.0 dandies, but there is definitely some there there at Spot Runner.