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Description
Please join us for an evening of fireside chats, panels and demos, with moderation by Andrew Weinreich of MeetMoi, and judging by VCs and industry execs. Our roster of speakers includes: Aaron Schildkrout//HowAboutWe, Adam Ludwin//RRE, Brett Martin//Sonar, Brett Topche//MentorTech Ventures, Lance Barton//M&A at IAC, Michael Geer//Formerly of Badoo, now founder of Causecart, and more. We will have at least 10 demos including Sparkology, UPlanMe, MiniDates, Stray Boots, Loveessence,and Amusemi, time allotted to networking throughout the evening, and free food.
If you would like to sponsor or demo at the event, please contact us directly.
Our Sponsors:
MUNDO Media is a performance–based ad network that provides advertisers and publishers world class expertise and the most up-to-date proprietary technology to create ROI-driven solutions. The company develops specific revenue generating programs for online marketers, businesses and media agencies. MUNDO Media’s breadth of knowledge includes programming experience from both affiliate and advertiser perspective. It prides itself on the complete mastery of all online tools, verticals and metrics so MUNDO clients receive maximum return. MUNDO also provides start-to-finish consultation to achieve the client goals stated from day one—and to push the boundaries of online advertising. To learn more, please visit http://www.mundomedia.com/
Vindicia is a leading provider of SaaS billing solutions that help digital leaders optimize customer retention and acquisition through integrated marketing bestpractices. Over the past twelve months, Vindicia clients sent $2.5 billion through its CashBox solution, billed in every global region, and generated $75 million in annual incremental revenue to its customers’ top line. Its clients include SNAP Interactive, Online Buddies, SpeedDate, eMusic, MOG, LeapFrog, NBA.com, Symantec,TransUnion Interactive, Intuit, Activision Blizzard, Bloomberg, and Next Issue Media. To learn more, please visit www.vindicia.com
Online Dating Summit (Barcelona Mar 3-5) With already 40% of the Top 10 Internet Dating Companies (and we expect that number to grow in the coming weeks) participating /speaking at the inaugural Online Dating Summit you can be assured that a ton of expertise is coming your way. Innovative, unique & bold are just a few of the superlatives that can be attributed to these Captains of your Industry. They will be addressing you with a myriad of topics that affect all stakeholders in the industry. If you want an insight on “best practices†for the future then the Online Dating Summit is an event you do not want to miss. Listen to experts from performance marketing networks, top-flight seo’s, leading advertising distributors and many more. Make your business fire on all its cylinders! The latest trends, topics and misconceptions will be addressed, the mobile paradigm will be brought into focus and get ready to meet the top affiliates in the industry. Make more money, optimize your traffic, monetize your exit traffic, make the smartest link exchanges…..just have a look at the schedule. We’re keeping our finger on the pulse of the internet dating industry! For more information please visit our website at http://www.onlinedatingsummit.com/en ; Download the participants list right here
Preliminary agenda:
Speakers:
Adam Ludwin, Principal at RRE - http://www.rre.com/team/adam-ludwin
Aaron Schildkrout, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at HowAboutWe - http://wearenytech.com/66-aaron-schildkrout-co-founder-and-co-ceo-of-howaboutwe-com
Brett Topche, Principal at MentorTech Ventures - http://www.mentortechventures.com/team
Brett Martin, Founder at Sonar.me - http://www.linkedin.com/in/brettlucasmartin
Lance Barton, Vice President of M&A at IAC (Personals) - http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lance-barton/3/539/a9b
Michael Geer, Formerly of Badoo, and now Founder at CauseCart - http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgeer
TBA
TBA
Demos:
Amusemi - http://amusemi.com/
LoCreep - http://locreep.com/
LoveEssence - http://loveessence.com/
Mini Dates - http://www.minidates.com/
Project Four - http://bit.ly/yviZu4
RAVN Events - http://ravn.com/beta/splash
Sparkology - http://www.sparkology.com
Stray Boots - http://www.strayboots.com/
UPlanMe - http://uplanme.com/
TBA
Company descriptions:
CauseCart - a new technology that allows you to raise money for your chosen cause without ever donating any money yourself. http://www.causecart.com/
HowAboutWe - online dating site revolving around proposing/accepting specific dates, E.g. "How about we..[fill in the blank]?" HowAboutWe raised $3.1M in Series A in Nov '10 led by RRE Ventures; it raised $15M in Series B in Nov '11 led by Khosla Ventures with participation from RRE, FF Ventures and some angels. www.howaboutwe.com
IAC operates more than 50 diversified Internet businesses across 30 countries, comprising Search, Match, ServiceMagic, and Media & Other segments. IAC's Match segment includes Match.com, Chemistry.com, PeopleMedia, OkCupid, Singlesnet, and Meetic, which generated $518M in revenue and $156M (30% margin) in operating income before amortization (OIBA) in 2011 representing 25% and 51% of IAC's aggregate revenues and OIBA, respectively. In 2011, IAC further expanded their reach in the online personals category through the acquisitions of OkCupid and Meetic as well as a minority investment in Zhenai. http://www.iac.com/
MentorTech Ventures - seed- and early-stage venture capital fund that invests in companies from the University of Pennsylvania ecosystem. These companies typically have key founders or managers who are students, faculty members or alumni of the university. Sometimes, the companies are based on intellectual property that originated at Penn. Several of the current investments include: Kembrel, TicketLeap, Wanderfly, Warby Parker. http://www.mentortechventures.com/
RRE Ventures - manage $850M in assets in 4 funds dedicated to high-growth early stage tech companies; investor inHowAboutWe; several of the 70+ current investments include ADstruc, Bit.ly, Sailthru, Yipit, Xobni, Venmo, Tippr, Solvate. www.rre.com
Sonar - an award-winning mobile app that reveals hidden connections users share with other people nearby, though existing contacts and preferences on social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare; LTD funding ~$1M. http://www.sonar.me
Speaker bios:
Andrew Weinreich, Chairman of Xtify and MeetMoi. Andrew has spent the past 15+ years starting and building businesses. In February 2006, Mr. Weinreich started MeetMoi, the first location-based mobile dating startup in the United States. In 2008, he spun off the persistent tracking technologies of MeetMoi into a separate company called Xtify, the first platform for geo-targeted mobile messaging. In January 2004, Andrew founded I Stand For, a full service technology solutions provider to political campaigns and non-profit organizations. In 2001, Andrew founded Joltage, an infrastructure services business devoted to building out a global network of WiFi hotspots. In 1996, Andrew launched the social networking space with sixdegrees.com, which over a period of five years grew to become one of the largest community sites on the World Wide Web. Prior to founding sixdegrees, he served as Vice President/General Counsel of Hertz Technology Group. Before attending law school, he was a financial analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. Andrew graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and earned a Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law in 1994.
Adam Ludwin, Principal at RRE Ventures. Adam is a Board Director at Kik Interactive, VYou, and Scout Analytics and is actively involved with RRE's investments in HowAboutWe, Piictu, and STELLAService. Prior to joining RRE, Adam worked at the design and innovation firm IDEO as a member of the business design team. Adam began his career at The Boston Consulting Group in New York, where he served clients in the technology, consumer, and financial services industries, and worked closely with the firm’s Strategy Institute. Adam is also a two-time entrepreneur, having built and sold a social shopping platform and later a discussion system for securities trading desks. Over the last decade he has enjoyed working with a number of non-profits and social enterprises in the U.S., China, Africa and the Middle East, including Roll Back Malaria, New Sector Alliance, SVT Group, and the Young Professionals Forum, which he founded in NYC in 2004. Adam holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar, and a BS from the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with Highest Honors.
Aaron Schildkrout, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HowAboutWe. Aaron oversees product development and spends his days leading a team of engineers and designers to create a fundamentally new way for people to use the internet to find love. Before HowAboutWe, Aaron was a high school educator at Codman Academy Charter Public School in Boston, MA. Aaron’s work was featured in, among others, the Gates’ Foundation “High Schools of the Future†curriculum and conferences, Massachusetts Charter School Association publications, the Boston Globe, and the Maury Povich Show. Aaron received his B.A. from Harvard, Phi Beta Kappa.
Brett Martin, co-founder and CEO of Sonar. Prior to Sonar, Brett helped found K2 Media Labs, a New York-based seed stage mobile incubator, and AppFund, K2’s investment arm. Before K2, he studied strategic resource allocation in early stage startups as a Fulbright Scholar in Milan. He also helped launch Vice Magazine's web presence, VBS.tv, and worked on Wall Street as an equity research associate. Some other things Brett is proud of include: teaching himself Ruby, going to Dartmouth, getting published by Harvard Business, founding a rock band, starting a non-profit, and sailing 6,000 miles in a 30ft ketch.
Brett Topche, Principal at MentorTech Ventures. Mr. Topche joined MentorTech Ventures in 2007; he was previously a member of the Fund Investments Team at Hamilton Lane Advisors, a fund-of-funds manager and private equity investment consultant. Prior to working for Hamilton Lane, Mr. Topche was an Associate with NJTC Venture Fund, where he focused on investments in early-stage companies in the software, Internet and communications sectors. He previously worked for MRA International in real estate development consulting and for the accounting firm Frankel and Topche. Mr. Topche is a magna cum laude graduate of the Wharton School, with a B.S. in Economics, with concentrations in Finance and Legal Studies and a Political Science minor from the College and Arts and Sciences.
Lance Barton, Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions for IAC. In this role, he oversees the strategy and M&A activity of IAC’s Personals division, which includes Match.com, Chemistry.com, PeopleMedia, OkCupid and Meetic. Mr. Barton has held various positions within IAC’s M&A department since joining in 2008 and has worked on a number of transactions for IAC including the acquisitions of Meetic, OkCupid, Singlesnet, PeopleMedia, and DailyBurn as well as Match.com’s investment in Zhenai. Prior to joining IAC, Mr. Barton was an Associate in the Investment Banking Division of Citigroup Global Markets from 2005 – 2008. Before Citigroup, Mr. Barton held various roles as a Systems Engineer and Program Manager for Cisco Systems from 2000 – 2004. He holds an M.B.A from Columbia Business School and a B.B.A. in Finance from Wichita State University.
Michael Geer, Founder of CauseCart. He has traveled the world and learned the internet industry from the ground up, helping build badoo.com in Moscow and then setting up their London office, constructing Badoo piece by piece from 0 to 70 million users. He left Badoo in July 2010, moved to New York and now advises and mentors early stage tech startups, promotes the New York tech scene with his company NYC Bubble Proof and works full time on CauseCart, his passion project dealing with building ways to raise money for causes without asking for donations from end users. In his free time, he fights his ever growing addiction to The Social Network and Love Actually.
Demos descriptions:
Amusemi started out with the idea of group dating done the right way by combining speed dating with online pre-selection. It has evolved more broadly into an alternative to the event rsvp list. Rather than motivating users by showing them who's already registered, it lets people focus on who they want to meet. The end result is a small group event where everyone attending is there to talk to at least one other person. http://amusemi.com/
Presenter: Alex Shapiro, Founder of Amusemi, is a long term entrepreneur and founder of TouchGraph. Alex has a background in social network data analysis and algorithm design. He is also the business lead for his company, and is passionate about creating simple and engaging products.
Loveessence, a new romantic networking website for black women and all men, officially launched in November of 2011. Unlike traditional dating sites, Loveessence.com promotes romantic networking based on core values and shared love visions regardless of ethnicity, occupation or other demographic characteristics. http://loveessence.com/
Presenter: Ama Yawson, Co-Founder of loveessence.com, is a former banking regulator, telecom investment banking analyst and movie business-manager. Ms. Yawson was inspired to create loveessence.com because of her own experiences in discovering romantic love. Ms. Yawson earned a BA from Harvard University, an MBA from the Wharton School and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives inBrooklyn , NY with her husband and toddler.
MiniDates.com is an all-new form of personalized matchmaking that arranges Real In-Person Dates for you based on exactly WHO you're looking for, plus WHERE and WHEN you're free. MiniDates.com is the first service to propose casual get-togethers with your target matches at convenient times and places- all you have to do is accept! We do all the work, you stay in complete control- it can't get any easier. MiniDates is in private beta in NYC- get FREE early access at http://www.MiniDates.com and Just Meet!
Presenter: Beverly May, Founder and CEO of MiniDates.com, founded her first company when she was in 20 and is also a 15-year tech and Internet veteran. As the creator of the User Experience Awards and the founder and CEO of Oxford Technology Ventures, a boutique user experience and product strategy consulting company, Beverly has helped her clients launch dozens of successful, useful, effective, and engaging digital products and services-- skills which are now being applied to MiniDates.com. Beverly has a technology Master's degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and an MBA from Oxford University.
Project Four is a revolutionary social game that places your surroundings at your fingertips. It's "Hot or Not" meets Foursquare. By allowing users to rank other checked in nearby, the service is able to recommend venues where you can meet people you'd like.
Presenter: Matt Newberg is a social technologist based in NYC. He recently graduated from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, where he gained digital experience through internships at small and large firms including IPG, Fox Interactive Media, and Sincerely. He is currently working on his second mobile dating concept, Project Four, which is trying to create new interpersonal interactions over the mediums we use on a daily basis.
RAVN Events is the "Pandora of Event Discovery", offering personalized recommendations of local events based on your interests. The app provides an easy way for users to browse, search and book local events and activities in their city. It is the fastest and simplest way to find unique and creative date ideas that go beyond dinner and a movie, perfect for first dates or couples. http://ravn.com/beta/splash
Sparkology is a luxury dating site for young professionals. We embrace quality, courtship, and meaningful interactions by having an invite-only community and requiring men to be verified grads of top universities. Men pay for per initial message, alleviating the spam shotgun approach plaguing many existing platforms. A team of VIP Concierges monitors the site and offers one-on-one support with profile creation and date planning. http://www.sparkology.com
Presenter: Alex Furmansky, Founder & President of Sparkology, has been working full time on Sparkology since April 2011 and enjoys mentoring other entrepreneurs to further grow NYC's startup scene. Past experience includes being Director of Biz Dev @ OpenPeak and investment banking @ Evercore Partners & UBS. Alex holds degrees from Penn's School of Engineering and Wharton. Only thing better than sailing and wine is startups! http://about.me/alexfurmansky
Stray Boots turns the city into an urban adventure that makes exploring fun, easy, and engaging. Like your “own private Amazing Race,†our games take you to the coolest, most interesting spots in town, using your own cell phone as your guide. The perfect ice-breaker for early daters, Stray Boots avoids the pain of Dinner-and-a-Movie by eliminating the awkward silences, face-stuffing, and challenge of picking the perfect place. For dating sites, Stray Boots can offer their clientele a dating experience that’s fun, casual, unique, and unintimidating. The sites can co-brand dating-oriented games that we help create, extending their user-engagement offline into the real world. http://strayboots.com.
Presenter: Avi Millman, Co-Founder & CEO of Stray Boots, has spent his professional career rapidly growing businesses. After graduating cum laude from Princeton, he joined national apparel retailer Steve and Barry’s in its internal consulting group. Rising to Director of Logistics, he grew the company’s supply chain systems from handling 60 stores to over 200 in two years, supporting annual sales of $1 Billion. He then went on to head up Regional Sales at beverage startup Q Tonic, where he grew top line sales by 600% in one year. An avid traveler, he started Stray Boots after a trip to Rome, where he realized the guidebook experience was far too passive for the digital era.
UPlanMe is the “Pandora for your social life†providing personalized event and activity suggestions based on your interests in sports, music, TV, shopping, dining, nightlife and more, direct to your UPlanMe calendar. For brands and businesses, UPlanMe provides a suite of tools and capabilities to manage and promote their events, specials, sales and incentives to existing and potential customers. For dating sites, UPlanMe can provide the ability to embed its Discover Tab directly into their websites to let daters browse the calendar of upcoming events in their city for suggested date ideas. http://uplanme.com/
Presenter: Sean Barkulis, Co-Founder & CEO of UPlanMe, began his career at Citigroup in the Corporate & Investment Bank where he advised financial institutions on debt, equity and M&A offerings. He then spent several years on the buy-side where he invested over $500MM into distressed debt of internet, media and technology companies, first at Citigroup then at Solar Capital. Prior to UPlanMe, Sean was the Founder & CEO of BL TradeXchange, an online trading platform for institutional investors to the leveraged loan market.
Pricing:
Early bird: $15 (until 2/16)
Regular: $20 (2/17-2/29)
At the door: $25 (if not sold out)
Your ticket includes free grub. For this event, we are moving to a Manhattan venue, so space is limited.
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