Skip to content

True Ventures

News

Monthly Archive for September 2008

Automattic Acquires IntenseDebate

September 24, 2008

Comments are an integral part of blogging. IntenseDebate has created a great commenting system with superior comment flow, management, tracking, and organization. Matt, Toni, and the Automattic team recognized this, wanted to offer top-notch commenting services at WordPress, and asked the IntenseDebate team to come aboard.

Braughm Promoted To CFO

September 24, 2008

We are excited to announce that True’s own Braughm Ricke has received a well-deserved promotion to Chief Financial Officer. Congrats, Braughm!

Dan Primack of PE Hub made the announcement here.

GigaOm Content Featured On CNNMoney & NYTimes

September 23, 2008

Back in July, GigaOm announced a content partnership with BusinessWeek with selected content from the GigaOm properties to appear on the BusinessWeek.com site several times per week. Yesterday, Om announced the GigaOm Network content will be featured on Time Warner’s CNNMoney.com, the online home of Fortune magazine, Money magazine and several other publications. This coverage will include broadband, VoIP, Internet infrastructure, mobile devices, wireless innovation, digital media and venture capital, among others. Today, Om announced a content distribution partnership with the New York Times’s web site as part of their technology channel.

Keep up the great work, Om & Team!

Bandcamp Launches

September 19, 2008

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Bandcamp! Bandcamp is a publishing platform for musicians. It offers bands autonomy and ownership, speed and reliability, viral distribution, and stats. Or, as Ethan calls it, “Your fifth (very nerdy) Beatle . . . who loves digital distribution, search engine optimization, web programming, audio transcoding, server scalability and internet marketing . . . But won’t even ask to play tambourine.”

Andy Baio’s interview with Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond is the best place to read all about it.

Great job, Ethan, Shawn, Neal & Joe!


Bandcamp Screencast from Ethan Diamond on Vimeo

For some additional coverage:
http://joelaz.com/post/50520524/bandcamp-screencast-this-looks-awesome-ethan
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2008/09/bandcamp-offers.html
http://www.kenmc.com/2008/09/17/bandcamp-launched-it-looks-interesting/
http://www.killuglyradio.com/2008/09/17/bandcamp/

GigaOm Acquires TheAppleBlog

September 15, 2008

Today, Om Malik announced the acquisition of TheAppleBlog, which is, as the name indicates, all about Apple products and services. TheAppleBlog is the seventh member of Giga Omni Media’s growing blog network and the second acquisition this year. In July, GigaOm acquired mobile gadget blog jkOnTheRun, which informs readers on all things mobile from mobile phones to cloud client computers.

Meebo’s New Interface

September 15, 2008

In October, Meebo will launch Community IM, a service enabling sites to offer their own web-based instant messaging services. Meebo is a great place to chat with friends regardless of their IM service, but Meebo’s new white-label platform will also allow other sites to offer this functionality without expending the resources to develop it themselves as Facebook and MySpace have. For a sneak peek of the new interface, read Eric Eldon’s post on VentureBeat.

WordPress VIP’s Newest Customer: NFL

September 8, 2008

The National Football League has partnered with WordPress VIP for their launch blogs.nfl.com. This rollout includes Sunday Night Football Extra, their new web video application. Automattician Raanan shares the details.

Om Malik joins True as Venture Partner

September 8, 2008

My partners and I started True in 2005 with a very simple objective: build a new type of venture firm designed for the entrepreneur. Everyone on our team has previously started their own business(es) as a Founder, and many of us have invested in start-ups as VCs throughout our career. From these experiences, we share a conviction that the most important ingredient to early stage success is the entrepreneur. Other factors matter a great deal, such as market forces, timing and unique advantages like technology and product, but we feel the most important aspect of a startup is its leader. The mantra that “people are everything” has guided our portfolio and deal decisions, the construction of our investor base and, of course, our own team here at True.

We’re careful and cautious about growth, but we recognize our shortcomings and we are always striving to improve the products and services we offer entrepreneurs.

Imagine our excitement to announce that Om Malik joins True as a Venture Partner. We have known and worked closely with Om for a long time. He not only embodies the passion, talent and drive required to build a start-up, but Om is turning his idea for GigaOm into a leader in the blog-based media market before all of our eyes. Om’s entrepreneurial journey with GigaOm is ongoing and is happening now, and to be clear he will remain focused on that priority as job one.

As GigaOm has evolved though, so too has Om’s scope and ambition. I will leave it to Om’s own words to describe his motivations for joining us and the evolution of his career and life. With Om connected to the small but growing True platform, entrepreneurs inside and out of the True family stand to benefit from his day to day experience building GigaOm, industry vision and uncanny and prescient ability to glean trends from disparate pieces of data.

Our goal at True is clear: use our firm’s resources to provide better services and more talent to our customer the entrepreneur. The addition of Om to our already amazing Venture Partner team of Toni Schneider and Tony Conrad furthers True’s mission of having exceptionally gifted, real-live, active entrepreneurs involved in all aspects of our team’s decisions.

We consider it a tremendous privilege to call Om our Partner.

Welcome Om!

Trading Spectrums

September 5, 2008

Spectrum Bridge matches buyers and sellers of spectrum licenses used for wireless communications. Their initial inventory of approximately $250 million worth of spectrum will launch Friday. Read about it here in the Wall Street Journal.

We’re thrilled to be invested behind Richard Licursi and the team at Spectrum Bridge. These entrepreneurs embody the spirit and talent that we strive to work with at True. The company also represents our belief in the tremendous opportunity that remains in B2B marketplaces, which is a theme that we’ve pursued at True since day one.

It’s a privilege to watch a great team perform.

Congrats to Richard and the team on such terrific early progress.

For additional coverage, please visit:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/091208-wireless-spectrum.html

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/12/meet-ebay-wireless-spectrum

Mobilize with GigaOm

September 5, 2008

GigaOm will host Mobilized, its Next-Generation Mobile Conference, on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at the Mission Bay conference center. Keynote speakers include Rich Miner, Co-Founder of Google Android and Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco Systems. Join Om, Paul, and the GigaOm team as they engage the future of the mobile internet.

Click here to register with a 10% discount.

Next Page »