9 posts and columns on lead generation

First Class Ticket: Social Travel Start-Up Gogobot Raises $15M in Funding at $70M Valuation

in Social on November 3, 2011 at 12:00 pm PT

Around the world in $15 million.
Gogobot-Logo-1

Gogobot CEO Travis Katz Talks About Beta Launch of Social Travel Site

in News on November 16, 2010 at 8:00 am PT

Last week, BoomTown sat down with former Myspace exec Travis Katz to talk about the private beta launch of his new start-up, Gogobot. No, it’s not a robot from Google–it’s a social travel site, which uses friends to enhance the travel-planning experience. Essentially, it feels like Facebook for trips, but with really good images.

The Polyvore Team Talks About User-Generated Fashion Stylists and More!

in News on July 30, 2010 at 7:07 am PT

Earlier this week, I headed down to Mountain View, Calif., to the downtown HQ of Polyvore–the unusually named start-up aimed at the inner stylist in everyone–to talk about the economics of fashion online. The odd name is a combination that roughly means the devouring of many or much–which at Polyvore translates into leopard prints, kitten heels or the rubber clothes of Lady Gaga. The registered site, with six million unique monthly visitors, allows users to “mix & match products from your favorite stores” into fashion “sets” on any topic, concept or–in BoomTown’s taste-challenged case–fleece and Pumas.

Salesforce.com Joins in Tech Buying Binge

in News on April 22, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Salesforce.com said Wednesday that it would pay at least $142 million to acquire lead-generation startup Jigsaw, the biggest acquisition to date for the online software company. The move comes as companies throughout the industry gear up for a period of consolidation. Salesforce.com, which has made relatively few deals in its history, recently hired several mergers and acquisition specialists and in January raised $575 million in debt.

Groupon's Andrew Mason Speaks!

in News on March 4, 2010 at 9:00 am PT

My 2010 start-up that passes the slightly-less-raised-eyebrow test is Groupon, a group-based social buying service that nabbed another $30 million in funding in December. So earlier this week, I sat down with Groupon’s Midwesternly-nice Andrew Mason, 29, to talk about where the start-up is headed with its pile of dough and growing base of consumers who want to make a deal.
logo

Trulia's Pete Flint Chats About Everything (Except Google Interest!)

in News on January 6, 2010 at 12:38 am PT

Last night, Trulia sent me a small pile of information about the fast-growth year the real estate search and information site had in 2009, despite the near-complete collapse of the U.S. housing market. You can read all the stats below in Trulia’s press release after the jump–62.3 million unique monthly visitors, visits up 45 percent, page views up 105 percent and one million inquiries sent by home buyers to real estate agents via the San Francisco start-up, which was founded in 2005 by CEO Pete Flint and COO Sami Inkinen. BoomTown also had a short chit-chat with Flint about where Trulia is headed.
pete-2

Open House? Google Has Also Been Eying Trulia in Real Estate Search Play.

in News on December 18, 2009 at 4:51 pm PT

According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia, the real estate search engine. It is unclear what price Google would pay, but sources estimate that Trulia’s valuation ranges between $150 million and $200 million, although there could be a big premium on that. Rumors about Google’s interest in the real estate search market–and specifically in Trulia–have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year as the search giant focuses on the local arena.
trulia-logo

EA Hooks Playfish

in News on November 9, 2009 at 9:34 am PT

Electronic Arts is betting big on social gaming. This morning, the videogame publisher said it will acquire social network games maker Playfish for $400 million. An interesting move given that the company’s leadership dismissed rumors of such a deal just last month.
acquisitions1

Another Twitter Business That Doesn’t Make Money for Twitter: Pay Per Twitterer

in Media on June 17, 2009 at 3:00 am PT

Yet another addition to the Twitter ecosystem of companies based on the microblogging service, but that don’t pay it a dime: Pontiflex, which is trying to charge marketers for each Twitter user name it collects.
glengarry