From: VatorNews.tv on Thu, Sep 02 2010 12:57 PM

Former CEO of Gaia Online shares his view on the evolution of gaming and what’s in store for Gaia This summer, I caught up with Craig Sherman, formerly CEO of Gaia Oline, an online hangout/virtual world primarily for teenage girls. This interview was taken before Craig stepped down as CEO. Bu...

From: VatorNews.tv on Tue, Aug 31 2010 1:43 PM

Startup attracts 11 angel investors, including Keith Rabois, Russ Fradin, Dave McClure and more Empowering people with an ability to make connections and the tools to attract an audience is what the Internet is all about. And, Udemy hopes its new round of financing will help them do that for e...

From: VatorNews.tv on Fri, Aug 27 2010 1:17 PM

Vator’s Startup Sessions takes you into the creative startup culture of iPhone app developer, Smule (Note: This mini-documentary was originally posted in April 2010. But we wanted to highlight it again because we thought it was so cool.) I've been a fan of Smule since the company launche...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Aug 23 2010 1:27 PM

Craig Sherman, former CEO of Gaia, talks about continuous deployment and listening to the user Given the popularity of online communities, it’s always useful to hear from those experienced at building them talk about their failures and the lessons they learned from them. One of my favorites is...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Aug 23 2010 1:27 PM

Profitable and growing, SideReel is becoming the place to track TV shows Despite the many number of video-tracking and video-search engines that have emerged and gone bust, SideReel continues to grow like gangbusters and become profitable. All this on just a relatively little amount of funding...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Aug 23 2010 1:27 PM

A conversation with David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect For entrepreneurs, the early days of Facebook is one of the more intriguing narratives of our time. And, David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect, does a superb job helping readers understand the players behind Facebo...

From: VatorNews.tv on Tue, Aug 17 2010 2:20 AM

CEO David Marcus on the challenges of going after the bigger e-commerce market The mobile-payment space has been called the next PayPal opportunity. While we’re far from using our mobile phone like a credit card at our local grocery store, typing in a seven-digit cell number on social networks...

From: VatorNews.tv on Tue, Aug 17 2010 2:20 AM

It’s 'unlikely' Tesla will have to raise additional money before the 2012 release of the Model S Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, was born in South Africa. At 12 years old, he sold his first commercial software he programmed. He went on to make his fortune during the Intern...

From: VatorNews.tv on Tue, Aug 17 2010 2:20 AM

Pete Slosberg: 'I didn’t start the company to make beer' "I didn't start the company to make beer," said Pete Slosberg. Now that sounds a bit ironic considering that Pete went on to make one of the more popular beers today.  Peter Slosberg is the creator of Pete’s Wicked A...

From: VatorNews.tv on Wed, Aug 11 2010 1:19 AM

Meebo founders place $50k bet into the instant messaging startup while Founders Fund matches Staying lean and forgoing fundraising are popular approaches to starting companies these days. In keeping with that philosophy, HipChat, a provider of instant messaging for small businesses, has opted ...

From: VatorNews.tv on Tue, Aug 10 2010 11:48 AM

Founder and CEO shares lessons on building a leading news-comedy site from his home in Kentucky Drew Curtis is at the helm of Fark, a news aggregation site known for clever and snarky headlines, founded 11 years ago. Drew owns 100% of this news site and operates it virtually. The quarterly get...

From: VatorNews.tv on Tue, Aug 10 2010 11:48 AM

CEO David Marcus on the challenges of going after the bigger e-commerce market The mobile-payment space has been called the next PayPal opportunity. While we’re far from using our mobile phone like a credit card at our local grocery store, typing in a seven-digit cell number on social networks...

From: VatorNews.tv on Fri, Jul 23 2010 1:40 PM

After raising $15m two years ago, the real estate startup is nearing profitability I recently caught up with Sami Inkinen, co-founder of Trulia, a real estate site that provides tools and information for homebuyers. Trulia launched in 2005 and has raised some $30 million in venture funding fro...

From: VatorNews.tv on Fri, Jul 23 2010 1:40 PM

CEO Craig Sherman on how the social gaming community is growing, and why he’s banking on advertising Despite the fact that most social networking or gaming sites are making a mint off of virtual goods, Gaia Online, a social gaming company for teens and 20-something-year-olds, expects advertisi...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Jul 19 2010 1:03 PM

Reena Jadhav speaks with Randy Williams, founder of Keiretsu Forum - a leading angel network

Reena Jadhav talks to Randy Williams, founder of Keiretsu Forum, about angel investing on her show, "Cashing Out: Exits and Valuations with Reena Jadhav." In this segment, Randy talks a...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Jul 19 2010 1:03 PM

Founder and CEO Angust Davis on how retailers can make consumers their marketers Purchase information is typically highly-valuable intel for retailers. I’m pretty certain that Restoration Hardware's or Amazon's knowledge of my purchase history helps them determine what else to sell to...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Jul 19 2010 1:03 PM

Tripit and Hotwire co-founder Gregg Brockway: The basketball star’s attitude is the right one You read about Gregg Brockway's lessons learned in the "Does an entrepreneur need an MBA?" series. Now watch and listen to him elaborate more about the lessons he's learned. And, this entrep...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Jul 19 2010 1:03 PM

Super angel Mike Maples: 'We’re in the buy-high-sell-low phase of venture capital'

Mike Maples, the founder of Floodgate, talks about how this year "scares the heck" out of him, mainly because money is flooding into the startup community. That's good news for eve...

From: VatorNews.tv on Mon, Jul 19 2010 1:03 PM

Fark’s founder and CEO Drew Curtis on the newest aggregators, publishers and the evolution of news Fark has been a longstanding aggregator of news site for more than a decade. You might have seen a Fark button on news articles so you can "Fark" a story, much like you'd do with a "Digg" bu...

From: VatorNews.tv on Thu, Jul 08 2010 2:11 PM

The personalized radio station is estimated to top $100m in revenue this year This analysis is the latest installment from Steve Carpenter, an Internet entrepreneur, who’s one of the few providers of financial insight about the high-profile yet opaque private company sector. This week, we take...