Jeff Clavier

Start-Up Byliner Thinks the Digital Ink Isn’t Dry on Long-Form Writing

Drake Martinet in Media on July 8, 2011 at 10:23 am PT

There are at least a few of long-form writing’s elite who don’t believe the Internet is out to kill the written word. In fact, they’ve gotten together and built Byliner, a discovery platform for fans of long reads to chat about at their next wine, cheese and turtleneck party.

Do Us a Favor and Read About This Social Start-Up Called Favo.rs (Video)

Drake Martinet in Social on June 10, 2011 at 11:52 am PT

Adam Rodnitzky would like you to do him a favor. Actually, he’d probably prefer you do a bunch of favors for other people. Then, you’ll generate the kind of data his social start-up is hungry for.

Gigwalk Allows iPhone Owners to Stumble Into Part-Time Work

Ina Fried in Mobile on May 4, 2011 at 4:00 am PT

The idea of using the Internet to parse out small jobs is not new. But a new crop of businesses has popped up that use the iPhone to help people find and perform small tasks near them.

Topguest Hustles Its Way into Making Travel Loyalty Pay (Video)

Liz Gannes in Social on April 6, 2011 at 10:17 am PT

“Just hustling,” as CEO Geoff Lewis described it, has helped a small, less-than-a-year-old start-up with relatively few users score deals with the likes of Virgin America, Hilton and InterContinental Hotels Group to tie customers’ geo-located social media activity with existing loyalty rewards programs.

Topguest Checks In With $2 Million Series A Round (And Peter Thiel as Adviser)

Kara Swisher in News on November 15, 2010 at 7:33 am PT

Topguest, a check-in loyalty service that was founded just five months ago, has gotten $2 million in Series A funding, as well as nabbing well-known Facebook investor Peter Thiel as an adviser. Other investors in the round include: Thiel’s Founders Fund, as well as angels such as Ron Conway, Keith Rabois, Jeff Clavier and Naval Ravikant.

Voices

Tapulous Investor Jeff Clavier On Casual Gaming "Explosion"

Timothy Hay, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on July 7, 2010 at 12:00 am PT

Last week, the Walt Disney Co. acquired Tapulous Inc., a game company whose first home was Palo Alto, Calif.-based SoftTech VC, a seed-stage venture firm headed by noted angel investor Jeff Clavier.

Series Seed Documents Legal Guru Ted Wang Speaks! (Plus Get Your Free Term Sheet Here)

Kara Swisher in News on March 4, 2010 at 5:30 am PT

BoomTown finally got to meet Silicon Valley lawyer Ted Wang today, which was kind of a thrill since most tight-lipped attorneys run in the other direction when they see me coming. But Wang–who works for Fenwick & West and is a popular legal adviser to a spate of digital start-ups, such as Facebook, Aardvark, Twitter and many others–has a lot to talk about with the launch of a new Web site called Series Seed Documents earlier this week. It’s a laudable effort at simplifying the complex–especially since most lawyers mostly like to complexify the simple.

Series Seed Documents–With an Assist From Andreessen Horowitz–To Help Entrepreneurs With Legal Hairballs

Kara Swisher in News on March 1, 2010 at 9:03 am PT

Series Seed Documents, templated term sheets for entrepreneurs to use for seed-stage deals, will be launched today, part of an effort by Silicon Valley lawyer Ted Wang and pushed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The point: So new entrepreneurs don’t waste time and money negotiating often unnecessarily complex term sheets.

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!