4 posts and columns on Pilot Group Ventures

DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum Steps Down

in Media on May 6, 2009 at 3:44 am PT

DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum is leaving the company, less than a year after Comcast bought the fashion and shopping newsletter from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group Ventures for $125 million. His last day is Friday. Sheinbaum, who started working for the company as a consultant in 2000 and took the top job in 2005, says he doesn’t have a new job lined up yet. “I let them know after nine years it was time to look for the next thing,” he says via email. No word yet on a replacement.
psheinbaum

Want Bob Pittman’s Money? Start a Newsletter Business.

in Media on January 29, 2009 at 12:01 pm PT

Are you an aspiring media entrepreneur trying to figure out how to raise money during brutal times? Here’s one method: Start an email newsletter business, then give Bob Pittman a call. The investor behind DailyCandy and Thrillist is trying it again, via a $1 million stake in VitalJuice, a “wellness” newsletter.

The $125 Million-Sweet DailyCandy Revenge of Bob "Pitchman"

in News on August 6, 2008 at 6:55 am PT

Oh, there had to be much, much gnashing of teeth in the corporate offices at the Time Warner Center in New York yesterday with news of the sale of DailyCandy to Comcast for $125 million. Why? Maybe because that tasty payment is going right into the hands of Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group Ventures, which bought the fashion and shopping newsletter business for $3 million in 2003. This is certainly different from the situation almost exactly six years ago when Pittman–nicknamed “Pitchman” for his smooth business stylings–was driven out of then-AOL Time Warner on the proverbial rail. If you want a taste of those once-grim times for Pittman, here is an excerpt from my book, “There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future.”