Venture capitalists, meanwhile, have probably been pondering something else – specifically, how the deal impacts the value of their stakes in other social networks like Pinterest, which is now among the only still-private platforms of major scale, with roughly 50 million registered users to Tumblr’s 110 million registered users.

To read the full article on peHub, click here.

The post What Does Yahoo’s Tumblr Deal Mean for Pinterest? appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

It’s an experience I can’t recommend highly enough. The Oculus Rift is a gadget that could very well change the landscape of video games in the near future, bringing a viable virtual reality option to gamers for the first time ever. Hawken is, unsurprisingly, very well suited to the experience.

To read the full article on Forbes, click here.

The post Playing Hawken On The Oculus Rift: Welcome To The Future appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Since launching in 2008, the adaptive learning company, which takes a data-driven approach to personalizing learning, has partnered with less than a handful of other publishers, including Pearson, Wiley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Its latest partnership shows that its not only making headway in the domestic K-12 and higher education markets, but that it’s extending its reach overseas and among markets that have been slower to go digital.

To read the full article on GigaOM, click here.

The post Knewton teams up with Macmillan to bring adaptive learning beyond K-12 and higher ed appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Sam Whitaker, CEO of Greenphire, comments, “I am delighted to have been selected as a finalist by Ernst & Young and to be honored along with fellow nominees. As Greenphire grows and expands internationally, it is gratifying to be recognized for our successes in transforming outdated processes in the clinical trials industry. It would not have been possible without the tireless work of all the team members at Greenphire.”

To read the full article on Pharma, click here.

The post Greenphire CEO Selected as Finalist in Greater Philadelphia Region Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

You can add a new study to this growing body of evidence, and it involves brain games from a company called Lumosity, based in San Francisco. (Disclosure: Menlo Ventures is an investor in Lumosity and a seed investor in PandoDaily.) Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Clinical Breast Cancer, found that breast cancer patients who had undergone chemotherapy showed “significant” improvement in cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, and processing speed after playing the company’s games four times a week for 12 weeks.

To read the full article on PandoDaily, click here.

The post Study shows that Lumosity brain games can rehab your brain appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

To see the full list on CNBC, including Aereo, Shopify, and Pinterest, click here.

The post CNBC Names Aereo, Shopify, Pinterest to its Disruptor 50 List appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

One of the biggest names in New York ad tech is Michael Barrett.

He made his name running ad sales at MySpace (back when that was still a big deal).

Then he sold a company, Admeld, to Google for bank.

To read the full article on Business Insider, click here.

The post An Ex-Googler, Ex-Yahoo Really Good At Putting Himself In Money-Making Situations Just Joined The Board Of TapAd appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

But AHAlife founder and CEO Shauna Mei believes that luxury is actually an individual spiritual quest, defined by those gestures–big or small–that bring a little extra joy and meaning into our lives. Bold words for the CEO of a site that specializes in high-end fashion and design.

To read the full article on FastCompany, click here.

The post A Meditation On How Best-Selling Products Get That Way appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Tasting Room by LOT18 will open their service to the public on May 10, and we have to admit that for the first time we’re actually considering joining a wine club. And it’s all because of their wine profiles. Tasting Room by LOT18 wants to be sure that they always send you wine that you like — which we appreciate — and the way they try to do that is by creating a wine profile for you. This is where it gets fun.

To read the full article, click here.

The post Lot18 Tasting Room Is The First Wine Club To Get It Right appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The post Tapad CEO Are Traasdahl on CNBC’s Squawk Box appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

“Protecting patients from counterfeit drugs and ensuring their access to safe, quality medicines, everywhere on the globe, is our core mission,” said Shabbir Dahod, President and CEO of TraceLink. “We are honored that the Edison Awards recognized our innovation in building a secure application platform connecting every global supply network participant, from ingredient producer to patient, through a single point-and-click connection in the cloud.”

“Our judges recognized the TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud as a true innovation out of the many products in its category,” said Frank Bonafilia, executive director of the Edison Awards. TraceLink joins previous Edison winners such as Apple, GE Healthcare, SpaceX and other visionaries who are changing business and society.

This innovative spirit and passion for protecting pharmaceutical integrity and improving pharmaceutical supply network performance are two of the key reasons why four of the top-10 global pharmaceutical companies use the TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud, TraceLink’s Amazon AWS-based cloud application platform. Hear more in this video.

• The TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud’s pharmaceutical track and trace solutions and supply chain collaboration applications help pharmaceutical companies and their supply network partners connect, share data and collaborate
• Comply with pharmaceutical serialization, ePedigree and reporting requirements for California ePedigree, China eCoding, Argentina ANMAT traceability and other track and trace mandates
• Protect patients from drug counterfeiting and diversion incidents threatening medicines like Avastin that kill over 100,000 people a year globally
• Manage the Big Data challenge arising from billions of uniquely serialized drug products produced and distributed each year across thousands of supply chain relationships
• Eliminate drug shortages for medicines like Doxil that have grown over 500 percent in recent years
• Access and protect the $165 billion in new revenue growth available in Pharmerging markets
• Build direct-to-patient communication through Apple iPhone and Google Android mobile devices

TraceLink enables the largest pharmaceutical company running SAP ERP and the smallest CMO supply partner using Microsoft Excel to build a globally collaborative and compliant supply network at 1/20^th of the cost and time of traditional enterprise applications and point-to-point integration approaches.

Being recognized with an Edison Award has become one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of innovation and business. The awards are named after Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) whose inventions, new product development methods and innovative achievements literally changed the world, garnered him 1,093 U.S. patents, and made him a household name around the world.

The ballot of nominees for the Edison Awards is judged by more than 3,000 senior business executives and academics from across the nation whose votes acknowledge the winners success in meeting the award criteria of Concept, Value, Delivery and Impact. The Panel includes members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), the American Association Advertising Agencies (4As) the Chief Marketing Officer Council (CMO), the Design Management Institute (DMI), the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Association of Technology Management & Applied Engineering (ATMAE). Also on the Panel are hundreds of past Edison Award winners, marketing professionals, scientists, designers, engineers and academics.

The post TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud Wins Edison Innovation Award appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Plenty of edtech startups have built brilliant products that leverage technology to improve the way teachers teach and kids learn. But, as we’ve outlined, the fremium, lean startup bottom-up sales method that’s now popular in enterprise software doesn’t work in edtech. Teachers don’t have budgets or buying power, and schools require long procurement processes to implement new technology. Beyond that, schools are risk-averse — they can’t easily pivot away from a new technology when it doesn’t meet their needs.

To read the full article on PandoDaily, click here.

The post Teachers first: How Schoology is changing the way schools buy technology appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The post Rick Heitzmann discusses his investment strategy with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg TV appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

“Protecting the player experience is largely made possible by ensuring players receive relevant and focused messaging that meets their needs, and not the broader audience,” said Chethan Ramachandran, CEO of Playnomics. “PlayRM Behavioral Push solves this challenge by allowing developers to provide a very customized experience for players based on their actual user lifecycle in the game. Using this kind of targeted messaging, developers using PlayRM have seen a 3-5x increase in engagement and monetization levels.”

Behavioral Push is directly integrated into the PlayRM Platform’s predictive segmentation engine, which captures dynamic gaming behaviors across over 100 million player profiles. Within this platform, developers can then deliver the right push notification to the right player at the right time. For example, with PlayRM Behavioral Push, developers could target the “At Risk” segment, a critical category of players who were once highly engaged, but have become bored and frustrated, and who decline in the intensity and frequency of their play. Offers and promotions sent to this specific group entice these players to return and help retain them within the game. More importantly, such targeted and focused marketing would not impact the game experience of other highly-engaged and monetizing users.

Additionally, Behavioral Push offers player level targeting and tracking that enable lifecycle A/B testing. This ensures that developers can monitor and manage the performance of push notification campaigns. It also provides the added benefit of helping developers gain insights on what specific messages and offers may be compelling to different types of users, and may even pinpoint the exact cause of user drop-off. In particular, the same “At Risk” segment is perfect for push targeting campaigns as the players in this segment were once the most engaged, but are now showing signs of dropping off – with one or all of their attention, loyalty, or intensity scores dropping dramatically – thus adding to the urgency to communicate with these particular players and act to retain them. Was it because they reached a road-block in the game and needed more guidance? Or perhaps they simply needed to be enticed by periodic offers to become truly engrossed in the game? PlayRM Behavioral Push answers these questions by providing developers a powerful tool to intelligently engage in dialogue with their players.

To learn more about PlayRM Behavioral Push, visit http://www.playnomics.com/behavioral-push/.

The post Behavioral Push Comes to PlayRM Platform appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Syncapse worked with research firm Hotspex on a survey based on data collected from more than 2,000 U.S. panelists in late January and early February. The study compared Facebook fans and non-fans based and their corresponding product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value, cost of acquisition and brand affinity to arrive at the figure.

To read the full article on Mashable, click here.

The post A Facebook Fan Is Worth $174, Researcher Says appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Now he’s taking his expertise in game development, writing and technology (he also pioneered early virtual reality technology at David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton and applying them to transmedia. Long’s Meteor Entertainment, which has published the free-to-play Mech shooter HAWKEN, has partnered with Archaia Entertainment to digitally deliver his new graphic novel, RUBICON, over the cloud platform created for the HAWKEN game and transmedia entertainment.

To read the full article on Forbes, click here.

The post Rubicon Author Mark Long Explains How The Cloud Is Changing The Game Beyond Hawken appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

To read the full article on PC Gamer, click here.

The post Hawken update to add support class, dramatically rebalance weapons appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Television companies loathe Aereo. It does not pay networks for the free-to-air channels it streams. It allows people to receive content without paying for the bundles of channels from which cable firms derive their profits. Broadcasters have sued Aereo for copyright infringement and filed a request to shut down the service (this was denied on appeal on April 1st).

To read the full article on Business Insider, click here.

The post This Heroic Startup (And Barry Diller) Is Standing Up To Your Goliath Cable Company appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

For an example of how cities are leveraging the system, which just released a slew of updated features, take a look at Philadelphia. Since working with PublicStuff to create the Philly 311 app just over a year ago, the city has seen more than 12,500 app downloads and over 14,000 requests through the service to take care of things like graffiti removal, abused animals, and abandoned vehicles. That’s just the beginning of what the city hopes to do with the platform.

To read the full article on Co.Exist, click here.

The post This App Is Expanding 311 To Create A Robust Community-Engagement Platform For Philadelphia appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

One nice aspect of the new “Pin to Pinterest” feature is that it automatically gives credit to the right source and links back to the high-resolution source and not to Bing itself. Microsoft also says that its advanced search features will make it easier for Pinterest users to find images and sort them by size, color, layout, and more. Otherwise, this is a pretty straightforward integration without any major frills.

To read the full article on TechCrunch, click here.

The post Bing Integrates Pinterest Sharing Into Its Image Search appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Whitaker was honored for “leading the pack in bringing electronic patient payments technology into the mainstream of clinical trials,” using the ClinCard system, which has reduced administrative burden on sites by up to 90%, cut costs by up to 60%, and collecting payment data on a global basis, enabling complex financial analytics.  CenterWatch also noted his ability to change industry attitudes about new technologies; despite initial skepticism from the industry, Greenphire systems have been used in more than 12,000 studies in over 100 countries.

“I am honored to be included in this inspiring group of people who are developing exciting new solutions to the challenges facing the clinical trials industry,” said Whitaker, “I truly believe that Greenphire’s solutions, which transform global payments from inefficient, manual processes to technology-driven sources of strategic value are helping to push the industry forward and enabling sponsors and sites to focus their attention where it should be: developing promising new treatments for the patients they serve. “

For the last 20 years, the CenterWatch Monthly has kept the pulse of the clinical trials industry, shaping issues, and helping solve the problems that face drugs researchers and sponsors alike.  For its 20^th anniversary commemorative issue, for the first time, the publication has chosen 20 innovations they feel are leading the industry into the next decade and beyond.  Purchase the commemorative issue here.

For further information on Greenphire and its innovative solutions please email: info@greenphire.com, call +1 215-948-9251 or visit www.greenphire.com.

The post Greenphire Founder & CEO Sam Whitaker Chosen by CenterWatch as one of 20 Innovators Changing the Face of Clinical Trials Industry appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

In Q1 2013, total revenue for Aveksa increased 134% over total revenue for thesame period in the prior year. License and maintenance revenue increased 207%over Q1 2012. The revenue split in Q1 was 79% license and maintenance, and 21%services, demonstrating that Aveksa`s Identity and Access Management solutionsrequire minimal customization and are designed for rapid time-to-implementationvalue.

In addition to adding a record number of new license customers across allverticals and geographies, Aveksa also saw several existing customers makeadditional purchases to expand their footprint and deployment of the Aveksasolution. Following the introduction of cloud-based solutions, Aveksa gainedstrong traction with SaaS-based deals, with several new customers makingmultiple year commitments. Continuing with the rapid growth of the company,Aveksa increased its headcount by over 40% in Q1. The company hired across allfunctions, with emphasis on field resources.

Aveksa`s success in Q1 2013 is just the latest evidence of the incredible growththe company has experienced over the past few years in terms of revenue, companysize, and most importantly, customer acquisition. Customers have cited three keyreasons for selecting Aveksa to automate their Identity and Access Managementprocesses:

• Superior technology that can be verified through extensive technical evaluations
• Better approach to understanding customer needs and mapping them to the required solutions
• Ability to provide a superior experience throughout the customer engagement process

Aveksa also introduced new technology innovations in Q1, further differentiatingitself from competing solutions. In February, Aveksa launched new functionalitythat enables enterprises to monitor and validate changes to Microsoft ActiveDirectory (AD) deployments against access control policies, as well as reconcilechanges with authorized and approved change requests.

Designed to make Identity and Access Management (IAM) more responsive and agileacross the enterprise, Aveksa also announced new capabilities to furtherincrease the business value of a deployed IAM solution. These capabilitiesinclude support for mobile devices and increased scalability, two criticalfeatures that enterprises must consider as key components of their IAM platform.With the introduction of MyAccessMobile, Aveksa’s IAM platform for mobiledevices, Aveksa blazes a new trail as the industry’s first IAM vendor to supportthe business user experience for Identity Management and Governance on smartphones.

“Our success in Q1 is the direct result of flawless execution across everyoperational area of the company. It is truly due to the efforts of all of thefolks who work at Aveksa and their commitment to our customers,” said Vick VirenVaishnavi, President and CEO of Aveksa. “With the addition of new productsolutions such as Active Directory Monitor, MyAccessLive and MyAccessMobile,Aveksa is well-poised to experience continued rapid growth in 2013 as wecontinue to expand both our product footprint as well as our direct and indirectsales channels.”

The post Aveksa Begins 2013 with Record-Setting Q1, Continuing Trend of Strong Company Growth appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The transaction combines Dovetail’s advanced insurance technology platform with NetComp’s unique program management approach for distributing workers compensation insurance online through retail agents. Dovetail has supplied agent portal, policy processing and back office systems to NetComp since 2010. In fact, it was Dovetail’s specialized combination of technology and services that enabled NetComp to get to market in a very timely and cost effective manner when the company was founded two years ago.

“We are pleased to join Dovetail Insurance. Dovetail’s technology solutions and insurance expertise have been a critical factor in the success we’ve had in substantially growing our business in our first two years,” said John Seibert, President and CEO, NetComp Insurance. “Dovetail’s resources and advanced technology will allow us to further invest in the business, and continue our expansion to additional states.”

“The acquisition of NetComp is a natural addition to our business, and we believe there are excellent growth opportunities for both companies. Our focus has been on providing an efficient, seamless way for program managers to bring new insurance products to market. The addition of NetComp enables us to use the solutions that we have developed for the broader market, in-house,” said Steve Francis, CEO, Dovetail Insurance. “NetComp provides a platform for us to better service our customers, as we create new innovations and enhance our solutions.”

Both companies are based in Columbia, S.C. and backed by FirstMark Capital. NetComp will be run as an independent unit of Dovetail Insurance.

The post Dovetail Insurance Acquires NetComp Insurance appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The 2-to-1 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for Aereo Inc.’s expansion of a service that had been limited to New York City until this year. The company has announced plans to expand to Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and 18 other U.S. markets. Broadcasters including Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC and others had sued, saying Aereo copies and retransmits their programs as they are first aired without permission.

To read the full article on Crain’s New York Business, click here.

The post Aereo’s live TV on the Web clears legal hurdle appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

In less than a year since the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset made its debut on Kickstarter, the device has been wrapped in a cloak of hype, despite the fact that most of the big questions about the Rift are still unanswered. Will the developer kit actually ever ship? Will a refined prototype ever make it into the hands of consumers? Will game creators and publishers actually take the Rift seriously as a new platform? And — perhaps most importantly — what’s it like to actually play a real game? Most of those questions remain unanswered, but after playing Hawken, I believe that virtual reality gear like the Rift will be a mainstay in the future of gaming.

To read the full article on The Verge, click here.

The post I played ‘Hawken’ on the Oculus Rift and it made me a believer appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The post NewsCred: Monetizing News Content – Shafqat Islam on CNBC appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

But that’s hard to do on phones and tablets — especially Apple’s iOS devices — which is one of the reasons there’s a big mobile ad gap. And it’s one of the reasons there are several startups that claim they can handle “cross-platform” ads.

Here’s one of them: Tapad, a two-year-old company founded by Are Traasdahl.

To read the full article on AllThingsD, click here.

The post Mobile Ad Targeter Tapad Raises $6.5 Million appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The mobile, browser, and social platform uses Playnomic’s proprietary algorithms to divide an audience of gamers into segments. Then it lets publishers maximize earnings, sort of like how airlines sell seats for different prices.

Playnomics is also announcing a partnership with social ad network Aditive, which will let game publishers use PlayRM Revenue to tap Aditive’s high-quality brand campaigns. If Aditive can serve the right ads to the players that Playnomics identifies as wanting those ads, then those ads will be more effective and the publishers will reap more money as a result. Chethan Ramachandran, chief executive of San Francisco-based Playnomics, said in an interview with GamesBeat that this method gives publishers the power of dynamically targeting players.

To read the full story on VentureBeat, click here.

The post Playnomics uses deep analytics to help game publishers pitch ads to the right player appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

If you don’t know them yet, the three-year old New York City-based PublicStuff is a digital communications system for residents and local governments that’s designed to facilitate reports like those, as well as provide access to city services. Think of it as 311 version 2.0.

So far, over 200 cities are using the platform, but residents of any municipality can download the app for free and plug in their request, which PublicStuff will route to the appropriate city agency. CEO Lily Liu tells Fast Company she hopes the new features take PublicStuff beyond resolving inquiries about trash pickup or alternate side of the street parking and into motivating residents to get more involved in improving their communities.

To read the full article on FastCompany, click here.

The post Listen Up: PublicStuff Makes It Easy For Cities And Residents To “Talk” appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The addition of the New York Times as a partner isn’t determative to the company. However, it is illustrative of how the company is currently performing, with its product to deliver content via partners to brands looking to build what it refers to as “experiences.”

NewsCred’s method of connecting partner publications to any company looking for content – pick a vertical, the firm has 2,500 partners – has seen self-described explosive success in 2012. According to its release, and conversation with TNW, NewsCred has reported revenues up eleven times over in the year, and customer growth spiking to 570% in the same period.

To read the full article on The Next Web, click here.

The post NewsCred locks in a $15M Series B and the New York Times as a partner to help grow its content network appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Nakachi will assume the new role as former CEO and Co-founder, Kirk Wylie, shifts his focus to the overall product vision and development of OpenGamma. Wylie will remain Executive Chairman of the Board and focus his efforts full time on continuing to make technology innovations for the industry-leading OpenGamma Platform together with his co-founders Elaine McLeod (OpenGamma’s Chief Quantitative Officer) and Jim Moores (OpenGamma’s Chief Technology Officer). Wylie will be joined on the Board of Directors by Nakachi, as well as industry veteran, Steve Gibson, Managing Director at Euclid Opportunities.

“Mas is the perfect candidate to serve as CEO of OpenGamma. During his time as COO, Mas quickly proved his ability to transform our commercial operations, while clearly showcasing his capabilities to run a successful risk technology business,” said Wylie. “I could not think of a better candidate than Mas. I believe the two of us working together is the best way for OpenGamma to continue its mission of becoming the de-facto standard for risk and analytics software for capital markets.”

“This move is part of the natural evolution of OpenGamma and is a very positive step toward the overall growth and expansion that Kirk envisioned at the outset,” said Bruce Golden, Partner at Accel Partners and the first investor in OpenGamma. “With Kirk establishing a firm foundation during the company’s first few years, Mas can now take the company to the next level, allowing Kirk to focus full time on product and technology innovation.”

“I am extremely excited to take on this new role and spearhead the continued global expansion of OpenGamma,” said Nakachi. “I have had the pleasure of working with a fantastic team here since joining as COO, and I look forward to building upon the innovative vision that the three founders had when they started the company in 2009.”

OpenGamma continues to experience steady growth and industry recognition. Recently, it was selected for the annual Fast Company list of the “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” as the second most innovative company in the category of finance for exemplifying the best in business from across the economy and around the globe. OpenGamma was also shortlisted for “Risk Management Software of the Year” in the 2013 FStech Awards and was noted in Risk Magazine’s Firms of the Future, which highlighted a select group of organizations forecasted to have the biggest impact on the OTC derivatives market over the next five years.

The post OpenGamma’s Mas Nakachi Promoted to CEO, Former COO to Assume Leadership Role appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Enjoying wine is also an expensive sport. To add insult to tragedy, the ability to enjoy the more expensive wine is an acquired taste. Madeline Puckette, a certified sommelier who runs wine education site Wine Folly explains that as a wine drinker develops his or her palate, preferences will veer towards the more complex Old World wines.

Wine, with its enthusiastic and perhaps elitist consumer base, has lived quite comfortably in its small niche on the Internet. But one company, Lot18, sees the opportunity in appealing to mainstream wine drinkers who perhaps work around a tighter budget.

To read the full story on Mashable, click here.

The post There’s a Corner on the Internet For Every Wine Drinker appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The company was founded by Shafqat Islam, Iraj Islam, and Asif Rahman in 2008, and it has shifted focus a number of times, from a credibility rating score for publishers, to a “Ning for newspapers,” to a new kind of newswire and content licensing service. Licensing is actually still a big piece of the NewsCred business, but instead of selling that content to other publications, the company sells it to brands like Pepsi, Toyota, and Johnson & Johnson to use for marketing.

NewsCred says that it works with more than 2,500 news sources, using technology and an editorial team to choose the right articles, images, and videos for each brand, then distributing them via the web, email, and social networks. For example, NewsCred helped power the Pepsi Now campaign, in which the Pepsi website was taken over by a pop culture-centric news board. NewsCred says that one month after the campaign launched, traffic to Pepsi.com increased 2.4x.

To read the full article on TechCrunch, click here.

The post NewsCred Raises $15M To Build Marketing Campaigns From High Quality Content appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

“We’re delighted that Clayton is joining us as General Manager, Global Payments,” said Andrew Schneider, President and Co-Founder of Live Gamer. “Making it easy to accept global payments is one of Live Gamer’s core competencies. We have helped our clients grow their businesses and generate revenue in over 200 territories worldwide. With Clayton’s deep experience, knowledge and insights in e-commerce and payments we look forward to expanding our offering and generating even higher returns for our customers.”

“It’s great to be a part of Live Gamer’s executive team and I am looking forward to making my contribution to the company’s overall success,” said Clayton about his appointment. “Live Gamer has an impressive track record and boasts relationships with some of the biggest brands in the business. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work with an industry leader and help pave the way for our next phase of growth.”

Most recently, Clayton was the director of product management at Visa/Playspan where he led their global payments product. Previously, he led product management for payment solutions focused on digital goods monetization as the principal of product management at Amazon Payments. Before joining Amazon he co-founded as and was the VP of product management at Sotto Wireless, a venture-capital backed telecom service provider combining cellular and hosted VoIP for the small and medium enterprise market. He also held product leadership and innovation roles in mobile data services and applications at AT&T Wireless.

The post Clayton Foster Joins Live Gamer As GM of Global Payments appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

These new features make good on Pinterest’s promise to businesses late last year that it will introduce data analytic tools for companies to track Pinterest traffic. Pinterest, which began offering official accounts for companies in November, is focusing this year on “building foundations to monetize,” founder Ben Silbermann told the Wall Street Journal last month. The Web site does not currently have paid ads, but it’s looking at a potential advertising system, as well as working with businesses to learn how Pinterest can result in sales of merchandise, a potential revenue source for the site. Pinterest recently updated its site for business owners, which includes case studies from companies including Etsy and Allrecipes.

To read the full story on TechCrunch, click here.

The post Pinterest Launches New Data Analytic Tool For Businesses As It Prepares To Monetize appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

“We’ve been in this hyperlocal domain addressing the daily needs of people for about three years now, and the more we’ve worked with media companies, the more we’ve realized that we want to be focused on becoming an active part of the readers’ daily habits, and that goes beyond typical news,” said MyCityWay CEO Puneet Mehta.

To read the full story on AdWeek, click here.

The post N.Y. Daily News Releases City Guide App With MyCityWay appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Beginning today, developers using the Unity engine can access PlayRm, a data-driven online and mobile games platform that analyzes and helps manage player retention. PlayRM will provide developers with data on player behavior and engagement through predictive datamining and from there assist in developing monetization plans.

To read the full article on Polygon, click here.

The post Playnomics partners with Unity to help indie developers appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The AlwaysOn Power Players in Digital Entertainment list honors the most influential people in the banking, venture capital, legal, talent, government, and accounting world who support the digital media startup entrepreneurs who are bringing massive technology breakthroughs to the world of media, advertising, marketing, social commerce, branding, and public relations. These individuals and their firms are the infrastructure workhorses behind the ideas that make the Global Silicon Valley an incubator for success, creating strong digital media companies that are building forward-thinking, indispensable products and services.

To see the full list on the AlwaysOn site, click here.

The post 2013 Power Players in Digital Media Recognizes Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

In a discussion with Turck and fellow managing director Amish Jani, we covered the evolution of New York’s startup ecosystem and the firm’s investment theses.

To read the full article on Forbes, click here.

The post Talk With A VC: FirstMark Capital On The Triumph Of New York Tech appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Matt Turck is a force in the Big Apple’s burgeoning tech scene. He is the principal organizer of New York’s “big data” meetup group and is one of the most advocates for the city’s potential as a hub for technology startups.

Turck plans to continue investing in early-stage analytics and big data startups in his new gig, a trend that he believes is set to continue for at least a decade.

To read the full story on VentureBeat, click here.

The post New York’s ‘big data’ investor gets scooped up by First Mark Capital appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

FirstMark is one of the fast rising venture capital groups that has a deep focus on working closely with entrepreneurs to build out their operations. It’s an important distinction as it is a departure from the more traditional, hands off approach of older, more established firms.

The approach seems to be working. The group raised $225 million in December 2011. It is the firm’s second round. The New York based group has a number of well-known startups. It was the first venture capital group to invest in Pinterest.

To read the full article on TechCrunch, click here.

The post Bloomberg Ventures Co-Founder Matt Turck Joining FirstMark Capital As Managing Director appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Turck has been at Bloomberg since 2008, when he joined as Principal. Before that, he was a Senior Director at Oracle.

FirstMark has made a number of enviable investments including Pinterest, which was recently valued at $2.5 billion, education company Knewton and NewsCred. FirstMark was the first VC firm to invest in Pinterest.

To read the full article on Business Insider, click here.

The post Bloomberg Ventures’ Matt Turck Is Heading To FirstMark Capital appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Lolly Wolly Doodle Inc., the retailer founded by Temple in 2010, makes most of its sales through Facebook Inc., using the social network to set prices, take orders, forecast production and even market and design clothes.Lolly Wolly Doodle Inc., the retailer founded by Temple in 2010, makes most of its sales through Facebook Inc., using the social network to set prices, take orders, forecast production and even market and design clothes.

“I just snapped a picture and put it on Facebook,” said Temple, chief executive officer of Lolly Wolly Doodle, which is based in Lexington, North Carolina. “I said, ‘I have these 25 dresses, here’s how much I want for them.’ Within 30 seconds, they sold out.”

To read the full article on Bloomberg, click here.

The post Lolly Wolly Doodle Shows How to Profit From Social: Tech appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The move is driven mainly by investors’ growing appetite for student loans, said Barry Silbert, founder and chief executive of SecondMarket.

“The catalyst for this new suite of services is investor demand,” said Mr. Silbert. “At the end of the day, investors are yield searching.”

To read the full article on the Wall Street Journal, click here.

The post SecondMarket to Launch Student-Loan Securities Platform appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Alongside the announcement of expansion, Aereo has also said that its new advertising blitz will launch this week in New York. The multimillion-dollar ad campaign was first revealed earlier this month, after Aereo hired former Apple exec, Alex Moulle-Berteaux, as the company’s new CCO.

To read the full article on TechCrunch, click here.

The post Aereo Launches Cable-Killer Ad Campaign, Expands Into Three New States appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

“After several successful campaigns with some of the largest advertisers in the U.S., we are pleased to take our cross-device, video ad delivery offering far and wide,” said Founder and CEO, Are Traasdahl. “The brand lift and holistic view we’re able to deliver has gotten a terrific response so far, and given the rising trajectory of ad spend in video*, we are well-positioned to meet demand and address a real market need.”

Tapad’s video product enables advertisers to:

•     Reach their audiences with Tapad’s quality desktop, mobile and tablet video inventory
•     Use video in their unified cross-device marketing strategies
•     Measure viewer conversion rates across computers, tablets, smartphones and connected TVs

For more information about Tapad or any of its cross-device advertising solutions, please visit http://www.tapad.com.

*In 2013, eMarketer projects that 23 percent of online ad dollars will go to video.

About Tapad 
Tapad Inc., is an ad technology firm renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device advertising solutions. The company offers the largest in-market opportunity for advertisers to address the new and ever-evolving reality of media consumption on smartphones, tablets and home computers. Employed by a majority of Fortune 500 brands, Tapad’s proprietary cross-platform audience buying technology provides an accurate, unified view of consumers across all screens. Tapad is backed by major venture firms and “a hell of a list of entrepreneurs who created some of the most valuable online advertising companies of the last decade” (TechCrunch). Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.

The post Tapad’s Latest Innovation: Video Across All Screens, Now Out of Beta appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The OpenGamma Platform (http://www.opengamma.com/platform) delivers a completely open architecture that offers unprecedented transparency and improves the quality, accuracy and real-time availability of the critical trading and risk analytics required by front-office traders, quants and risk managers. OpenGamma offers an intuitive and flexible open source alternative to traditional or proprietary analytics and risk management solutions. It features a Universal Calculation Engine for real-time and batch risk computations, comprehensive support for stress testing and custom scenario analysis, and extensive market data support and trade data management capabilities to enhance any modern trading and analytics application.

“IT budget limitations and demands to better manage irregular data volumes and shifting regulatory mandates continue to drive firms to seek out the most cost-effective, flexible and powerful risk analytics solutions available,” said Kirk Wylie, Co-founder and CEO of OpenGamma. “Our inclusion in this shortlist demonstrates the financial services community understanding that they need a new way to design their risk infrastructures, navigate today’s volatile regulatory environment, and ensure the highest levels of transparency for their firms.”

The FStech recognition continues OpenGamma’s early positive momentum in 2013, including the company being named to Fast Company’s annual list of the “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” as the second most innovative company in the category of finance due to it exemplifying the best in business from across the economy and around the globe.

The winners of the FStech Awards will be announced at the Gala Dinner in London on 17 April 2013.

The post OpenGamma Nominated for Risk Management Software of the Year appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

Making an educated guess at best, investors like Rick Heitzmann, founder and managing director of FirstMark Capital, have pinned their pocketbooks to a service that merely offers the promise of future reward. FirstMark Capital was Pinterest’s first institutional investor. The firm has participated in every one of the startup’s funding rounds, including the monster $100 million round announced yesterday.

“Pinterest is a company whose product has really hit a core consumer use case,” Heitzmann told CNET. “It’s one of the fastest growing sites in the history of the Internet.”

To read the full article on CNET, click here.

The post Why one investor believes Pinterest is worth $2.5 billion appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

The round, which was rumored to be in the works a few weeks ago, closed with firm Valiant Capital Management leading the way, and was first reported by AllThingsD. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partner, and FirstMark Capital all doubled-down on the beloved site for clipping little treasures to digital pin-boards.

“Our focus is on helping millions of people discover things they love and get inspiration to go do those things in their life,” Ben Silbermann, Pinterest co-founder and CEO, said in a statement to CNET. “This investment gives us more resources to help realize that vision.”

To read the full article on CNET, click here.

The post Pinterest officially pins down $200M at $2.5B valuation appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

That’s a vote of confidence in the company’s PlayRM service, which predicts which monetization or retention schemes work best with online and social-game players. Last week, San Francisco-based Playnomics extended that service to mobile platforms.

Existing investors FirstMark Capital and XSeed Capital also participated in the round. That should help Playnomics on its mission of democratizing the use of scientific analytics for the larger game development community.

To read the full article on VentureBeat, click here.

The post Playnomics raises $5M to fuel data science for digital games appeared first on FirstMark Capital.

To see the full list on PCMag.com, click here.

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