4 posts and columns on Max Ventilla

The Start-Up Whisperer: Michael Dearing Is the Hottest Angel Investor You've Never Heard Of

in News on February 16, 2010 at 8:30 am PT

While you might have heard of the acquisitions of Aardvark and AdMob by Google, Xoopit by Yahoo and Mixer Labs by Twitter, you might not have heard about the quiet angel investor they all have in common. And even in the loud echo chamber of Silicon Valley, Harrison Metal’s Michael Dearing likes it that way.

Aardvark Confirms It Has Been Acquired, but Not by What Company (But It's Google)

in News on February 11, 2010 at 11:20 am PT

Aardvark, the social search engine that has been the subject of much attention since it was founded in late 2007, confirmed that is has been acquired. “We can confirm that we signed a deal to be acquired,” wrote CEO Max Ventilla in an email to BoomTown this morning. But Ventilla would not reveal the buyer, which a report earlier this morning said is Google, for $50 million. Google has since confirmed that it is the buyer.
vark

Aardvark's Max Ventilla and Damon Horowitz Speak (Plus a Tour!)

in News on December 11, 2009 at 12:11 pm PT

Earlier this week, BoomTown motored over to the San Francisco HQ of Aardvark, the social search engine that has been the subject of much attention since it was founded in late 2007. While there, I got a tour of the 30-person start-up and did a video interview with two of its founders about where Aardvark is headed and more.
vark

The Mechanical Moo-Lah?

in News on August 14, 2008 at 6:33 am PT

BoomTown has officially selected The Mechanical Zoo–a super-secret-shhh-onthedownlow start-up that already got tons of attention due to its passel of ex-Googlers and its mashup plan to mix social and search–as its next candidate for excessive Web 2.0 funding. And, according to several sources, the San Francisco-based company is working on closing a mega-Series-A round right now, with all the usual big VC suspects in the running. The Mechanical Zoo has already raised $750,000 in seed funding from angel investors and has access to other funding from institutional investors.