InSITE Partners with the New York Angels
By · CommentsThe New York Angels is a formal organization for angel investors here in New York City to capitalize on sharing information and resources. Most large cities across the country have a similar group. Thanks to Paul Tumpowsky (InSITE Chairman of the Board) and Bronson Lingamfelter (former InSITE Fellow) who recently connected InSITE with the New York Angels, two other InSITE fellows (Marisa Tricarico and Roy Simkhay) and I are now part of the “Future Angels Program.”
As “Future Angels” we attend and actively participate in all of the angels meetings, and so far, the learning experience has been incredible. I am particularly impressed with the organization of the meetings and I am learning the appropriate questions to ask for understanding the fundamentals of a venture in just a 30-minute meeting—the Angel’s ability to quickly zero in on the critical issues is remarkable. I attribute this partially to the informal format of the meetings: a presentation spotted with Q&A is completely practical. This eases the tension for the entrepreneur and prevents the angels from falling behind throughout the presentation. When an entrepreneur struggles to explain the revenue model clearly or convince the angels as to why their marketing campaign will drive eyes to their website, an Angel immediately jumps in with questions and won’t move on until she understands.
Collaborative forums like New York Angels is a big part of what the venture community is about; as Brian Cohen has said, angel investing can be a tough sport. By coming together, the Angels can consider several potential investments at once, and analyze them with peers to spot the successful entrepreneurs and find ways to fund promising ideas. The Angels create opportunities for themselves by forming long-term relationships with entrepreneurs who have impressive backgrounds, or intriguing ideas.
At last month’s meeting, the Angels heard more than ten pitches. Here are my thoughts on a few that I would consider most promising.
NabeWise Media helps movers find the perfect neighborhood while also providing real estate agents with tools to educate their clients—think Yelp! of the real estate market. Due to the “fair housing” laws, Real Estate agents are not allowed to quote neighborhood characteristics such as safety, demographics, trendiness and noise level to their clients. Now, NabeWise gives these brokers a tool to recommend to their clients for getting that critical information. NabeWise’ success hinges on great scalability and marketing potential. CEO Ann Baldinucci hires interns to write initial reviews of various neighborhoods (i.e.: Tribeca, Williamsburg, etc.), which serve as a jumping off point for customers to research and offer their own unique feedback. Scale exists because the interns can review 100 neighborhoods in a month (as a reference point, New York City’s five boroughs have approximately 300 neighborhoods). On the marketing front, Ann is signing subscription partnership deals with large networks of real estate brokers who have provided positive feedback.
SeatGeek is the first website to both reliably scrape data from online ticket brokers and provide price predictor technology. Co-Founder Zack Groetzinger captured the Angel’s attention, proclaiming SeatGeek to be 82% accurate in it’s forecasting. The forecast uses algorithms that plow through millions of compiled ticket transactions and aggregated factors that influence ticket prices. These algorithms give SeatGeek a current competitive advantage that keeps their product superior to all other ticket aggregators and online broker sites. SeatGeek earns revenue through relationships with secondary ticket markets and has begun signing revenue sharing deals with many content sites. SeatGeek has the potential to become the next Kayak of the ticket world and for now they have gained another customer: me.
SpyderLynk creates a “snaptag”—a company’s logo with a unique (bar) code ring—that allows the consumer to interact with a company through a new marketing channel. Using mobile devices, consumers take a picture of a snaptag, which is strategically placed in a magazine or other advertisement, and then send the picture to the sponsor company. In doing so, the consumer enters into a game, wins prizes or receives coupons—the marketing and branding possibilities are endless. SpyderLynk reminds me of stickybits, in the way that both companies are creating connections between the physical and digital worlds. SpyderLynk has created a new way to build a brand, however, its success depends on (1) signing branded companies and (2) a smart marketing campaign to educate and attract customers who want to use the posted snaptags. SpyderLynk has a few name brands signed up, but for what seems like a trial, so I do not know how strong their biz dev and marketing campaigns are. This startup may be a concept that needs further development before finding investors, but for now, the angels have remained in contact.
-By InSITE fellow Jonathan Cooper
InSITE Alum Vic Singh’s NearVerse Raises $1M
By · CommentsTechCrunch reported on 4/1/2010 that NearVerse, co-founded by InSITE Alum Vic Singh, had raised $1M for further development of its proximity based mobile social network LoKast.
Funding came from Meakem Becker Venture Capital (interestingly, whose Managing Director Glen Meakem is the brother of InSITE Board Member and Kodiak Venture Partners Managing Partner Chip Meakem – all roads lead back to InSITE).
Read the full article at Techcrunch.
– Rich Powell, InSITE Board Member
2010 Spring Final Pitch Event
By · CommentsOn Friday, April 9, 2010, InSITE Fellows, Spring 2010 Companies, representatives from 6 venture funds and other guests gathered at the offices of Cooley Godward and Kronish for InSITE’s 2010 Spring Final Pitch Event.
InSITE’s Spring 2010 companies presenting were:
ProtEquity
Bandvest
modos
Klickable
Active Locations
A distinguished panel of senior venture capitalists and entrepreneurs provided invaluable feedback on each pitch. These included:
Jason Finger / Founder of Seamlessweb and EIR at Bessemer Venture Partners
Will Porteous / General Partner at RRE Ventures
Morgan Rodd / General Partner at Milestone Venture Partners
Other venture firms present were InSITE Sponsor Greenhill SAVP, Rose Tech Ventures and Tipping Point Partners.
InSITE is tremendously thankful to our sponsors for supporting us through another outstanding semester:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati
Canaan Partners
Contour Venture Partners
DFJ Gotham
Investor Growth Capital
Greenhill SAVP
Kodiak Venture Partners
Milestone Venture Partners
RRE Ventures
InSITE also thanks Cooley, Godward and Kronish for hosting our Pitch Event for the fourth semester.
We captured brief interviews with several participants in this Klickable video:
InSITE Companies Raise > $215M
By · CommentsOn the 10th Anniversary of our companies raising funding after graduating InSITE, we have surveyed their accomplishments and found tremendous success in Angel and VC fundraising.
Since Spring of 2001, InSITE’s companies have raised a total of more than $215 million of disclosed funding and have enjoyed at least 6 successful exits. With 96 companies completing our program to date, that’s an average of $2.2 million raised per company – an impressive number, particularly considering the majority of start-ups do not receive funding.
The biggest raise by far was by RecycleBank, totaling $71.1 million dollars over 3 rounds. Even without RecycleBank’s funding success, each InSITE company raised $1.5M on average. That’s a tremendous amount of Angel/VC funding for startups based in the New York City area.
Filling out the top five raises are Silicon Alley Telecom (which became Eureka Broadband and is now part of Broadview Networks) ($44 million), Hycrete ($25 million), Vindigo ($22 million), and ON Networks ($16 million). Our most recent large success has been Organic Motion ($8.28 million), a 2006 and 2009 InSITE Company.
Top Angel/VC investors have been involved in these ventures, including RRE Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield, Rose Tech Ventures, NGEN Partners, First Round Capital, Accel Partners, Kodiak Ventures, PKS Capital, SJF Ventures, Robin Hood Ventures, Foundry Group, Betaworks, and New York Angels.
To date, have been at least 6 successful exits including Klipmart, which is now Doubleclick’s Rich Media Ad serving tool, Motif. Others include:
Design2Launch, acquired by Kodak
EATS Media, acquired by Delivery.com
ASPEED Software, acquired by Simtone
PreClick, acquired by Smilebox
Mycrocept, acquired by Healthpoint
More information on InSITE’s companies is available here.
These numbers do not take into account undisclosed funding amounts. We know of at least 6 companies that have received seed funding, but the sizes were not publicly disclosed, including HopStop, MediaMerx, Frogtek and Catchafire.
Although InSITE doesn’t take full credit for the success of these companies, no one can dispute that the company selection teams each semester have successfully picked the best and brightest entrepreneurs in NYC.
InSITE teams work hard each semester with these companies to refine their pitches and presentations and put them in front of our Venture Capital Advisory Program Sponsors (VCAPS). InSITE congratulates 10 years of InSITE companies on terrific success in raising funding and building successful enterprises!
– Shirley Xu, 2009-2010 Special VP for Alumni Companies
InSITE 2010 Honors and Elections
By · CommentsOn Tuesday, April 13th, InSITE hosted it’s 10th Anniversary Celebration and closing dinner. We were thrilled to be joined by many special guests including:
Alex Cohen, InSITE Founder and GC and CCO for On Deck Capital
Andrew Moss, InSITE Alumni and Founder of BuyWithMe
Ben Lilienthal, InSITE Alumni and Founder of Vapps
Bronson Lingamfelter, InSITE Alumni and Associate at Rose Tech Ventures
Dan Lifton, InSITE Board and COO at Quality of Life Labs
David Pashman, Legal Team Leader at Meetup
Dawn Barber, InSITE Board and Founder of NY Tech Meetup
Josh Spodek, InSITE Alumni and Founder of Submedia
Karl Alomar, InSITE Past President and CEO at China Export Finance
Mac Lipscomb, InSITE Board and Operating Partner at InSITE Sponsor RRE Ventures
Mark Davis, InSITE Alumni and Associate at DJF Gotham Ventures
Matt McCooe, InSITE Alumni and Managing Partner at Chart Venture Partners
Molly Siems, InSITE Alumni and Account Manager at Fly Communications
Pete Karlen, InSITE Board and VP at EarthWater Global
Robyn Soto, InSITE Board and Director at Tishman Speyer
Sacha Ross, Associate at InSITE Sponsor Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Vic Singh, InSITE Alumni and Co-Founder of NearVerse
Vinay Jain, InSITE Board and Associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Zubin Canteenwalla, InSITE Alumni and Associate at NGEN Partners
InSITE presented several special awards:
Fellow Achievement Award: Shirley Xu
For special service as a first year InSITE Fellow, including leading our first VCAP Special Project Team and volunteering to serve as Special VP for Alumni Companies to survey their funding success, which showed that InSITE Companies had raised more than $215M in venture financing since 2000.
Alumni Achievement Award: Andrew Moss
For extraordinary accomplishments in entrepreneurship since graduating from InSITE (and NYU Law in 2001), particularly founding BuyWithMe in 2009 and raising a $5.5M Series A round.
First Annual Inductee into the InSITE Hall of Fame: Paul Tumpowsky
For guiding InSITE through 10 highly successful years as Chairman of the Board including developing the organization’s core program and relationships with sponsors, startups and supporters throughout the NYC venture community.
A full list of InSITE honors is available here.
Current InSITE Fellows and Board Members elected ten new executives to run the organization in 2010 – 2011 and two out-going Fellows to serve as Young Alumni Board Members:
Lastly, InSITE thanks the outgoing Class of 2010:
Christian DiCarlo, Columbia MBA
Duncan Welstead, Columbia MBA
Geetika Agrawal, NYU MBA
Godfrey Powell, Jr., NYU MBA
Haley Boruszak, NYU MBA
Jane Kang, NYU JD
Jeff Hui, Columbia MBA (who will stay on with InSITE as a Young Alumni Board Member)
Jennifer Gootman, NYU MBA
Justin Heyman, Columbia MBA
Kesha Cash, Columbia MBA
Max Eckstein, Columbia JD
Jane Kang, NYU JD
Ricky Opaterny, NYU MBA
Rob Schneider, Columbia MBA
Roy Simkhay, Columbia MBA
Ryan Orton, Columbia MBA
Shawn Khazzam, NYU MBA
Tony Leotti, NYU JD/MBA
Vinay Ganti, NYU JD/MBA
– Rich Powell, NYU JD ’10, signing off as 2009-2010 President; thanking all the past Execs, Team Leaders, Alumni and Supporters for another great year; and wishing the best of luck to the stellar 2010-2011 Execs
State of the VC Market
By · CommentsThe first quarter of 2010 was generally positive for the venture capital industry. Techcrunch recently reported that although funding was down from the fourth quarter of 2009, the amount still doubled the first quarter of 2009. And liquidity is beginning to appear for venture-backed companies; the IPO window has opened, although it may only be slightly ajar. 8 venture-backed companies went public over the past three months, and many more are currently seeking to go public. Whether the IPO window will stay open is anyone’s guess.
Professor Jay Ritter from the University of Florida, a renowned expert on IPOs, had the following to say in recent correspondence with InSITE: “The IPO market has rebounded to modest levels of activity, but deal volume ever since the tech stock bubble collapsed in 2000 remains low compared with an average year in the 1980s and 1990s. What is particularly noteworthy is the paucity of offerings by small and young companies, in marked contrast to the 1980s and 1990s.”
Professor Ritter’s website provides extensive and timely information about the IPO market, which can help shed light on his reserved comment. For instance, only 9 and 12 venture-backed companies went public in 2008 and 2009, respectively, whereas over 500 went public in 1999-2000. So while the IPO window clearly isn’t wide open, it seems that more than just a few anomalous companies will have the opportunity to go public in 2010.
Further links:
- Professor Ritter’s IPO website
- Historical charts and data covering venture-backed IPOs
– Ryan Golden
Jason Finger Sits Down with InSITE
By · CommentsJason Finger, Founder and, until February 2010, CEO of Seamlessweb; recently named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners; and, most importantly, NYU JD/MBA ’99, sat down with InSITE last Wednesday night.
As I’m sure anyone who has met him will quickly attest, Jason is a profoundly nice guy, and was willing to speak with us on a wide range of topics from his time in a law firm to founding a remarkable company to turning down his first exit opportunity.
Jason first discussed his background and how starting out working at a law firm and seeing the inefficiencies there inspired him to write the business plan for Seamlessweb:
Jason next discussed leaving the law and raising his first friends and family, and later institutional, rounds of funding, as well as about the early technical challenges of building a scalable enterprise platform for the ordering system:
Jason then described growing and expanding the business to the consumer side, and its 2006 sale to Aramark, as well as his recent transition from CEO to his new job as E-I-R at Bessemer Venture Partners:
Jason later went onto discuss the process of scoping a business model as an entrepreneur as opposed to as an investor, as well as the sometimes delicate interpersonal issues that arise when a group of friends starts a business together:
The rest of the talk is available at InSITE’s YouTube Channel.
Jason then joined us for drinks at InSITE’s local watering hole, Cassidy’s:
— Rich Powell, President 2009-2010
Catchafire Closes Angel Round
By · CommentsInSITE alum company Catchafire just closed an angel round of funding and is building up staff in anticipation of its NYC Beta launch on June 28, 2010. Catchafire.org is a social venture start-up that will revolutionize the way people volunteer by matching professionals with nonprofits that need their skills.
Catchafire looks to register 1,000 volunteers by its late-June launch, so if you’re a professional who wants to volunteer what you are good at, sign up at www.catchafire.org.
The InSITE team that worked with founder Rachael Chong was struck by her vision, energy, and enthusiasm. About her InSITE experience, Rachael notes, “Working with my InSITE team was not only enjoyable and thought-provoking, but it also forced me to practice my pitch in the best possible way. To date, I still use the pitch we created together, and I often get comments on how clear and concise the deck is.”
Angel funding was used to hire a Head of Technology and a VP of Sales & Marketing in preparation for the NYC launch. Catchafire’s still looking for an “uber-creative social media/communications/PR/events expert” to work as a consultant over a 3-4 month period. If interested, contact rachael@catchafire.org.
For the latest on Catchafire, visit blog.catchafire.org
– Jennifer Gootman
A Conversation with InSITE Co-Founder Kevin Keller
By · CommentsAn engineer by training, Kevin Keller realized in law school at NYU that his interest lay in how companies generate revenue with their technology. Alex Cohen, a Columbia Law student with similar interests, approached him and together they founded InSITE. Through InSITE, Kevin learned how to help companies develop compelling ways to describe their plans for monetizing growth, a skill that has helped to shape his career.
After graduation, he did tech deals at Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto. From there, he left to work in-house—first at Micron, then for Microsoft and now as the lead in-house counsel for Lab126, the wholly owned subsidy of Amazon responsible for developing the Kindle.
What did you take away from your experience with InSITE?
A few things: First, if you can’t convince yourself that you, your ideas, or your business will be successful, you can’t convince anyone else. Whether it’s a job interview, a pitch to a VC, etc. you need to believe and tell a compelling story to others that gets them excited about you, your ideas and your opportunity for success. To do that, you need to be able to boil your ideas down to their essence, to describe them in a precise and succinct way. It doesn’t matter the business, it could be technology, law or selling shoes, you have to be able to tell a compelling story. Second, working to start InSITE and with our first groups of companies and sponsors, I learned that my interest lay in a more business-oriented area of the law, not in patent prosecution, corporate securities or M&A, but in helping companies as they crafted the deals that created technology and monetized it.
What was the difference between working for a law firm and working in-house at a company?
Law Firm
Working for a law firm allows you to represent many clients across many industries. At the law firm where I started (Wilson, Sonsini), I worked with companies across technologies from file-sharing to consumer electronics, biotech, semiconductor equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing (to name just a few). I also represented companies at various points in their lifecycle, from start-up through sale, IPO or even bankruptcy. However, as an attorney at a law firm you’re an expensive consultant, and rarely have the opportunity to spend the time to engage deeply with the business. Hours are also long and scheduling can be very unpredictable.
In-House
Working in-house allows you to engage deeply with all areas of one business. I don’t mean to suggest that working in-house is limited though. There are issues across the board to consider—environmental, software, export, FTC, licensing, regulatory—but the issues surround one device or category. The in-house opportunity probably gives you more opportunity to sink your teeth into the initial conception of an idea through putting that product into the customer’s hands.
There are significant differences between working in-house at a start-up and working in-house somewhere like Microsoft. Working in-house for a bigger company is more like a law firm since there are so many resources and people. It’s often good for someone more junior to start in-house at a larger company since it will be more structured. At a smaller company, you do a lot of the research yourself, you don’t have an assistant, you don’t have the resources to call in experts for every issue. It might mean more work, but you become more of an expert and become more involved in the various issues instead of passing them along.
What advice do you have for students looking to get into venture capital and/or entrepreneurship?
The best thing you can ever do is to try areas that you don’t have much experience in. I took a number of jobs that broadened my skill set. For example, I worked doing biotech deals for a year. If you’re at a law firm, I also think doing some M&A and bankruptcy work would be useful.
What advice do you have for law firm associates?
Keep your eye on deals coming down the pipeline. At Wilson Sonsini, there was a daily deal sheet showing the new clients and matters opened by partners across the firm. I would get to work really early and scour the upcoming deals. When I found something I was interested in, I would approach the partner on the deal and offer my help. I would suggest that you be as engaged as you can. You can go to work and push papers and get the hours that come your way, or you can take a step outside your office and find opportunities.
What is the best part of working at a start-up?
The best part of working at a start-up is that there are no established ways that things have to be done. The pace is quick and there are always interesting issues that may be similar to ones you’ve seen before, but are new twists that require you to think on your feet. It’s never boring.
As Chief Counsel for a start-up, how involved are you in business development?
Very. In-house counsel is usually involved from the conception of ideas to the eventual development of the product and beyond. The level of involvement depends a lot on the size of the company and the level of the attorney, but it’s generally much more involved than outside counsel.
What advice do you have for students and other young people beginning their career?
Treat people well, not just those that you think are in a position to help you enhance your career. While it’s not certain that this will lead to more career opportunities, it will lead to a much more fulfilling life.
– Colleen Honigsberg, AVP Communications 2009-2010
An Overview of InSITE Alumni
By · CommentsThe InSITE alumni network is comprised of more than 180 alumni who are employed in various industries across the globe. The three most common industries that alumni have matriculated to are financial services (34% of alumni), consulting (21% of alumni) and media/technology (19% of alumni).
Employers of InSITE alumni include renowned firms such as:
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Amazon American Express Bessemer Venture Partners Boston Consulting Group DFJ Gotham Goldman Sachs Governing Dynamics H.I.G. Capital IBM |
JP Morgan Latham & Watkins McKinsey & Company Morgan Stanley NGEN Partners Pfizer Rose Tech Ventures Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Tishman Speyer Unilever |
In addition, several alumni have gone on to found or join startups in New York City and various cities across the U.S.
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Vapps LLC Submedia BuyWithMe.com Lab126 |
For continuous news on current and alumni Fellows, please visit the Fellow News section of our blog. Our most recent Alumni classes are listed here.
– Shawn Khazzam, VP Alumni 2009-2010