Consumer applications, future of media, online video, developer platforms
Ethan Kurzweil serves as Partner, Investments at Bessemer Venture Partners. He was a Board Member at Stratim. He as eleven when he started his first business - The Cat Corporation. In charge of family cat care, he "awarded" all labor-intensive jobs to his sister (Cat Feeder, Cat Brusher) and claimed all management jobs for himself (CEO, VP of Cat Welfare, Executive Director of Grooming). He would now discourage founders from letting sibling rivalry influence their org charts. As a Stanford undergrad, Ethan eventually was a co-founder of a real company: SSB-Bart Group, which helps make the Web accessible to users with disabilities. Before joining Bessemer in 2008, he worked for Dow Jones & Co., managing the turnaround of The Wall Street Journal's international editions, and Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life. At BVP, Ethan focuses on investments in consumer technologies and developer platfor He is particularly excited about consumer video start-ups and companies "developerizing the enterprise," his phrase for companies that provide non-technical business users with powerful tools and potential impact without requiring them to code. Ethan's investments include consumer companies Twitch (acquired by Amazon), Periscope (acquired by Twitter), Dropcam (acquired by Google), Playdom (acquired by Disney), Zirx, Life360 and Piazza; developer platforms Intercom, Twilio, PagerDuty, npm, and Sendgrid; and SaaS companies Hightower and Simply Measured. He was also involved in the firm's investments in adap.tv (acquired by AOL) and Skybox Imaging (acquired by Google). Ethan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He serves on the Bay Area advisory board for New Leaders. Raised in Boston, he remains a Red Sox fan for life. He also serves as a Board Member at Periscope Data.
Partner, Investment Committee at TCG (The Chernin Group) | Kauffman Fellow
Series A VC (and beyond)
Marco DeMeireles serves as Principal & Head of Private Investments at Balyasny Asset Management. He is focused on public and private technology investments across Consumer Internet, Digital Media, Enterprise Software, HCIT and IT Infrastructure businesses globally. He attended Williams College where he graduated with a degree in Economics and Leadership studies. At BAM, Marco's investment experience spans Venture Capital, Growth Equity, Public Equities (equity long/short) and personal LP investments into leading fund managers. He has sourced and led the Firm's investments in Avant, Cuebiq, Orbital Insight, Outcome Health (fka ContextMedia), and Peloton where he serves as Balyasny's shareholder representative. Prior to joining BAM, Marco was with Technology Crossover Ventures, focused on growth stage investments, and began his career in Morgan Stanley's Investment Banking Division advising Technology clients based in Menlo Park. While at Morgan Stanley, Marco worked with companies in the storage, hardware, software, security, digital media and consumer internet sectors on a variety of transactions including public equity offerings (Palo Alto Networks), debt financings (Rovi, HP), leveraged buyouts (Dell/Quest) and strategic M&A assignments (Cisco/Meraki).
Jonathon Triest
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Jonathon Triest is the Founder and serves as Managing Partner at Ludlow Ventures. In 2011, he was awarded the Crain's Detroit Business award for 20 in their 20's. That same year, he co-founded Funded by Night, a vehicle to help internet startups launch and get discovered. Previously, he served as creative director for New York's Discovery Productions. In 2005 he launched the Atlanta-based Triest Group, a mid-level advertising firm. In addition to his role at Ludlow, he is a mentor at The Brandery and a board member of The Trico Foundation, and Venture for America. previously creative director for New Yorks Discovery Productions. In 2005 he launched Triest Group, a mid-level advertising firm. He sits on the Board of the Trico Foundation and the Board of Investors for Venture for America.
Omar El-Ayat
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Media • Businesses Solutions • Entertainment (& Sports) • IoT (& Wearables) • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Gaming (& eSports) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Online Social • Consumer
Description
VC at KB Partners
Most Interested In
Our core verticals include: digital fitness/wellness, immersive media (OTT/streaming, AR/VR, fan engagement), smart venue applications, esports, sports betting/fantasy. If you're doing anything in these spaces, feel free to reach out.
Not Interested In
We typically won't invest before the core team is in place and the product/service is in market (pilot stage works), but appreciate getting to know founding teams before then.
Jerry Yang
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • PropTech • IT (& TMT) • Hospitality (& Events) • Media • Education • BioTech • AgroTech • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • Energy • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Sales (& Marketing) • Cosmetics (& Fashion) • Entertainment (& Sports) • IoT (& Wearables) • CleanTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Blockchain (& Cryptos) • Web Security (& Privacy) • Gaming (& eSports) • Advertising • Analytics • AR/VR • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Developer tools • Future Of Work • Food & Beverage • Human Resources • Impact • Insurance (& InsurTech) • Payments • Robotics • Mobile Apps • Aerospace (& Defense) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Music • Investment Management • LegalTech • Mobile • Mobility • Online Social • Consumer • Oil & Gas (& Mining) • Industrials • Film Production (& Distribution) • Semiconductors
Description
Jerry Yang serves as Founding Partner at AME Cloud Ventures. Yang also serves as Special Partner at Neotribe Ventures. He serves as Investor of BirdEye. He also serves as an Independent Director at Workday and Advisor at Radius. He is the Founding Partner at AME Cloud Ventures. He serves as Board Observer and Senior Advisor at Didi Kuaidi. Since March 2012, he has worked with and invests in technology entrepreneurs as the founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures, his innovation investment firm. He is also a co-founder of Yahoo! Inc., where he served as a director from March 1995 to January 2012, and as Chief Executive Officer from June 2007 to January 2009. He also led Yahoo!'s investments in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, and he is a currently a director of Alibaba Group, where he has served on the board from October 2005 to January 2012 and from September 2014 to the present. He is also a director of Lenovo, Inc. where he has served on the board since November 2014. From July 2000 to November 2012, he was a member of Cisco Systems, Inc.'s Board of Directors, and he was a director of Yahoo! Japan from January 1996 to January 2012. He also is a director of various private companies and foundations. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees from June 2005 until September 2016. He is also an Angel Investor. He serves as Board Member at Docker
Simon Murdoch
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Dr. Simon Murdoch is a Co-Founder and serves as Managing Partner at Episode 1 Ventures. Currently he is also Board Member at Triptease. He sold his first company, BookPages, to Amazon in 1998 after which he reported to Jeff Bezos as VP Europe of Amazon.com. In early 2000, Simon founded and ran Chase Episode 1, an early stage European technology VC fund backed by JP Morgan Chase. After the fund Simon became a full-time angel investor. His angel portfolio includes/included investments in Shazam, Zoopla, LoveFilm (sold to Amazon 2011), Natural Motion, Covestor and Shutl. In addition, from 2010 to 2012, Simon worked at Octopus Ventures in portfolio development. Simon has a BA in Physics from Cambridge and a PhD in Computer Science and Expert Systems. He serves as Chairman at SubHub. He also serves as the board member at Profitero. He also served as aboard member at SwiftSwift. He holds the board position at Global App Testing, SimplyCook, Triptease and Passfort. He served as board member at ParamountZone.
Petteri Koponen
Investing in IoT (& Wearables) • HealthTech ...
Helsinki, Finland
Previous Investments
• Iceye:
$13000000 (Later stage VC)
• Enevo:
$12000000 (Later stage VC)
• BetterDoctor:
$11000000 (Later stage VC)
• Synoste:
$5940000 (Early stage VC)
• Minima Processor:
$5500000 (Seed Round)
• The Curious AI Company:
$3670000 (Later stage VC)
Media • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • Gaming (& eSports) • Advertising • Consumer
Description
Rick Heitzmann is a Co-Founder and serves as Managing Director at FirstMark Capital. He focuses on consumer and enterprise investments in media, advertising technology, gaming, mobile, and data services. Rick has led investments in market leaders in commerce (StubHub, acquired by eBay), gaming (Riot Games, acquired by Tencent), data services (First Advantage, NASDAQ: FADV; acquired by First American), advertising technology (TapAd), media (Pinterest), and more. Prior to founding FirstMark, Rick was an entrepreneur including being a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage which he helped grow and sell to First American (NYSE: FAF). He serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association. Rick holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He also serves as Board Member at Dashlane, Grid Mobile and Playnomics.
Frank Gruber
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
San Diego , Los Angel..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• HashRabbit:
$1650000 (Seed Round)
• The Shelf:
$1390000 (Seed Round)
• Shearshare:
(Seed)
• SoLo Funds Inc.:
$1200000 (Venture Round)
• Klickly:
(Seed)
• Paracosm:
$3300000 (Seed Round)
• CTGT:
(Seed)
• Wallabi:
(Seed)
• CameraEye:
(Seed)
• BodyMatter:
(Series A)
• SixAI:
(Seed)
• Gravity AI:
$1000 (Seed)
• Aquacycl:
(Series A)
• Aquacycl:
(Seed)
• GoShare:
(Note)
• GoShare:
(Seed)
• Mercato:
$26000000 (Series A)
• Ateios:
$1300000 (Seed)
• Nanome:
(Seed)
• Nanome:
(Note)
• GoMeta:
$90000 (Series A)
• GoMeta:
$3100000 (Seed Round)
• GoMeta:
$200000 (Convertible Promissory Note)
• CourseKey:
$5600000 (Series A)
• CureMetrix:
(Series A)
• Labfellows:
(Seed)
• AttackIQ:
$8800000 (Series A)
• Cloudbeds:
$3100000 (Series A)
• Grolltex:
(Seed)
• Doctible:
$700000 (Seed Round)
• Mogl:
(Series B)
• MixMode:
(Seed)
• CleverPet:
(Seed)
Frank Gruber
San Diego - Los Angeles / Southern California, U.S.A.
Andy White is an Angel Investor. White is the Founder of Millennial Technology. He served as a Partner at VegasTechFund. He holds a BS in Marketing from Southern Illinois University.
How to connect with Angel Investors in the Gaming industry?
In the Gaming & eSports industry, prominent angel investors include Mark Cuban, Alexis Ohanian, and Chris Sacca. These investors focus on startups offering innovative solutions in gaming technology, eSports platforms, and interactive entertainment. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, invests in gaming and eSports startups that have the potential to disrupt traditional entertainment. Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, looks for companies that leverage technology to enhance gaming experiences and community engagement. Chris Sacca, founder of Lowercase Capital, seeks out startups with scalable and innovative gaming solutions. To connect with these investors, attend gaming conferences, eSports expos, and networking events such as E3, GDC, and DreamHack. Utilize platforms like AngelList and LinkedIn to identify and reach out to potential investors. When pitching, emphasize how your gaming or eSports solution addresses key challenges, such as improving game performance, enhancing user engagement, or providing competitive gaming opportunities. Highlight any traction you’ve gained, such as partnerships with gaming companies, user growth, or successful gaming events. Building relationships through initial informal meetings or discussions at industry panels can help establish trust with these investors. Demonstrating the impact of your technology or service through case studies or user testimonials can also add credibility. Personalize your outreach by referencing the investor’s previous investments and explaining how your venture aligns with their interests. Demonstrating a sustainable business model with clear revenue streams, such as game sales, subscription fees, or in-app purchases, will further strengthen your pitch. Leveraging endorsements or case studies from gaming or eSports experts can also enhance your credibility.
Case Studies: Successful Funding Rounds with Angel Investors on Angels Partners
Exotic Orange & Angels Partners: Turning Financial Simplicity Into Investment Success
