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
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
3 Fellows Advance to SVCIC Nationals
By · CommentsInSITE fellows Mike Katz, Gregory Pennington, and Shirley Xu are part of the five-member team Smeagle & Cup that was chosen to represent Columbia Business School at the Fifth Annual National Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition, taking place at UNC, March 19-20, 2010.
To reach nationals, team Smeagle first competed in the Columbia Venture Capital Investment Competition. In that competition, an initial field of more than thirty teams was narrowed down to seven that participated in Finals on February 12th, 2010.
To prepare, the teams were given business plans two days in advance of Finals. On competition day, teams conducted blitz eight-minute due diligence sessions with each entrepreneur and negotiated a term sheet with their favorite investment prospect.
The competition was judged by an exceptional panel composed of Somak Chattopadhyay (VP, Greenhill SAVP), Sarah Tavel (Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Patners), Charlie O’Donnell (Entrepreneur in Residence, First Round Capital), Owen Davis (Managing Director, NYC Seed), Raymond Thek (Vice Chairman, Lowenstein Sandler), Matthew McCooe and Chris Brady (Chart Venture Partners), and David Birnbaum (Alloy Media + Marketing).
The judges were impressed by the whole field and praised team Smeagle in particular for its negotiation skill, understanding of deal terms, and rapport with entrepreneurs.
– Shirley Xu and Greg Pennington
InSITE Accepts 18 Fellows to Fall 2009 Class
By · CommentsThis semester, we received a record number of applications from the most talented group of people ever to be together in graduate school. InSITE is excited to annouced 18 terrific new Fellows – they are:
Jon Cooper, NYU MBA
Michael DiBenedetto, Columbia MBA
Seth Goldman, NYU MBA
Sharon Goswami, NYU JD
Daniel Harman, Columbia MBA
Omar Haroun, Columbia JD
Colleen Honigsberg, Columbia JD
Nick Hurley, NYU MBA
Camila Jimenez Villa, NYU MBA/MFA
Christopher Johnson, Columbia MBA
Mike Katz, Columbia MBA
Stephanie Palmeri, Columbia MBA
Greg Pennington, Columbia MBA
Brian Rothenberg, NYU MBA
Alex Shellhammer, NYU MBA
Maria Testani, Columbia MBA
Marisa Tricarico, NYU MBA
Shirley Xu, Columbia MBA
Bios for our new Fellows are available here.