Tag Archives: angel

In September, we covered the latest investment in FourSquare, a popular mobile app that fuses geo-location, micro updates, outside social networks such as Twitter, and social gaming into one, very social and addictive platform for the iPhone and Google Android phones.

Initially O’Reilly AlphaTech and UnionSquare Ventures were identified as investors. However, behind the veil, FourSquare also aligned an all-star list of investors and advisors. Yesterday, the company finally revealed the names behind the mystery…(descriptions amended)

Let’s play…

Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter.
Twitter has changed the way a lot of us think about things – presence, status, search.  Jack’s advice and feedback have already proven to be invaluable as the team hustles to improve and grow foursquare.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.
A day after FourSquare launched at SXSW, Kevin tracked us down and bullied them into making a badge for Digg’s party.  Since then he’s been one of their biggest supporters and a great source of advice and product ideas.

Joshua Schachter, founder of Delicious.
Since FourSquare launched, people have been describing parts of it as “Delicious for places”.  Obviously, they love this comparison and have been thrilled to have Joshua’s feedback and insight into their product goals.

Alex Rainert, co-founder of Dodgeball.
Very few people understand the mobile/social space as well as Alex.  Since their very first iPhone build, he’s been throwing feedback and product suggestions at us. Karen Bonna-Rainert, Alex’s wife and a good friend from Dennis’ grad school days at ITP @ NYU is also actively involved.

SV Angels LLC
The angel group founded and backed by Ron Conway is a major player in seed-stage tech investments since the early days of Google.

Chad Stoller, NYC branding/advertising/interactive superstar.
You can thank Chad for the “mayor” idea – which he demanded that the tream build so he could flaunt his loyalty to Think Coffee.  FourSquare sold out and wrote the code in exchange for two beers.  :)

Sergio Salvatore, long-time music / technology entrepreneur.
A long-time friend of Naveen’s, Sergio’s been advising the team on scaling and technical architecture issues since the early days of foursquare.

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by Marissa Louie

Has the current economic climate caused our dear angel and VC friends to be delectably off-humor in their blog posts? Or are they merely giddy at the thought of becoming VC billionaires in the downturn?

10 Funniest Blog Posts by Angels and VCs this month:

-1- Brad Feld: It’s Monday. Do you know what your VC is doing?

“This doesn’t mean sit around with your thumb up your ass.”

-2- Dave McClure: Fear is the Mindkiller

“If you are running an existing startup, you are probably going to have to cut spending, cut hiring, and you may even end up firing people / doing layoffs.  And then you pay taxes and then you die.“

-3- Guy Kawasaki: Guy’s Index of Absurdity: The Top Ten Ways to Tell If Things Are Really Bad

“Pierre Omidyar starts selling stuff on eBay.”

-4- RRE Ventures: RRE Bikini Bottom Franchise

“Another way to think about the team at RRE.”

-5- Dave Winer: Flirting Her Way to Victory

“At least three times, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience.”

-6- Jeff Nolan: Display Ads Gone Wild

“Apparently there is a new television show on CBS….”

-7- Fred Wilson: SWOT Analysis on America

“Your country is extremely lucky that it will have as a President someone who is universally acknowledged as the “deepest thinker to ever get in the Oval Office” “

-8- Mark Cuban: The Only Mavericks that Matter

“Anyone know of any decent players named McCain and Obama that I can sign for the preseason?”

-9- Jeff Clavier: One of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web. Moi?

“It is obviously very nice to share the investor spot with peeps like Peter Thiel and Paul Graham.”

-10- Christopher Griffin: “Sabers Up!” — Peter Thiel’s Criteria for Quality Entrepreneurs

“Create an internal drive to succeed unmatched by hopping from Ivy League to Wall Street to Stanford to employee #80 at successful startup X.”

**The black shih-tzu**

-11- Larry Chiang: Nine Biggest VC Mistakes in a Downturn

“Sell something you don’t own.”

**Honorable mention**

-12- David Cowan: Militant Avamparists are So Irritating

“Paschalepist – one who believes that on the Sunday following the full moon closest in time to the vernal equinox, a fluffy white mountain hare (of the species lepus timidus) hides chocolate eggs.”

**Your turn**

Suggest funny angel and VC blog posts through Halloween (you know these are going to be ridiculous!)

Marissa Louie founded AD Village (http://ad-village.com) to empower bloggers to maximize their ad space monetization and to enable advertisers to improve their audience targeting. She has written 10 Types of Ad Targeting, Top 10 Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Blog, and dabbles in blog poetry like *I REVOLT* (A Blog Monetization Poem). She is one of the Geekgirl GFs (The Gigis) and gets esoteric on Twitter.