Our Work
SafeSend Returns®, SafeSend’s award-winning, flagship offering, enables complete automation of the “last mile” of the tax preparation process, displacing archaic, labor-intensive, paper-based methods with digital collation and assembly, secure client delivery, and integrated e-sign of completed tax return packages. Tax and accounting firms benefit from automated, centralized, and standardized workflows, and their clients benefit from an intuitive, secure, and engaging online experience.
They have announced Brian Stone as the new Head of Customer Success. Brian will oversee the expansion of the Customer Success division with a focus on strategic, operational, and tactical workflow optimizations to accelerate revenue growth and customer engagement with SafeSend’s industry leading solutions. Most recently he spent 9 years with FairWarning, an Imprivata Company, as Senior Vice President of Customer Success.
Recently SafeSend has experienced incredible growth saling to serve more than 50% of the top 300 U.S. accounting firms. Founded in 2008 by Steve Dusablon and Andrew Hatfield and currently led by Chief Executive Officer Scott Fleszar, SafeSend is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
FUNDING: Lead Edge Capital
Symbotic is a global provider of integrated supply network automation solutions for warehouses and distribution centers. They have announced the hiring of Tom Ernst as their Chief Financial Officer. Tom Ernst will manage the financial functions within Symbotic. He has more than 20 years of extensive finance, leadership and software industry experience. Tom loves to tackle big challenges and lead teams of people to creative and impactful solutions.
Prior to joining Symbotic in September 2020, Tom served as CFO of RealPage where he led all accounting, finance, treasury, legal, M&A, and strategic project management operations.
Tom founded a strategy management consultancy in 2015. He led senior consultants and junior teams in advising public software companies on market positioning, developing an innovative and effective company culture, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic communications. He has eighteen years of software industry finance experience in equity research and investment banking. He also led the Goldman Sachs Software Investment Banking Team globally and the Deutsche Bank Software U.S. Equity Research Team.
Tom served as a Nuclear Engineer and Submarine Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy for five years on a fast attack submarine, and two years as the Military Training Department Head for the U.S. Navy boot camp. Tom earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth and his BS from the University of Minnesota.
Symbotic’s innovative robotics and software deliver advanced automation solutions that makes the supply chain faster, more efficient, and more profitable for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of all sizes. Symbotic’s headquarters is in Wilmington, MA. They have locations in Montreal, Quebec, Johnstown, Ontario, Bethlehem, PA, South Brunswick, NJ, Brooksville, FL, Tolleson, AZ, Woodland, CA and Melrose Park, IL.
CafeMedia connects authentic publishers, engaged audiences and leading brands to make the internet a better place. Stephanie Dolgins has been named the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer at CafeMedia, the world’s largest network of independent digital publishers. Ms. Dolgins will lead all marketing for CafeMedia and AdThrive in support of the company’s mission to build a creator-first future for the open web. She will report directly to CEO Michael Sanchez.
FUNDING: Threshold (formerly DFJ), Highland Capital Partners
Real Capital Analytics, Inc. (RCA) the authority on the deals, the players, and the trends that drive the commercial real estate investment markets has announced JP O’Sullivan as their new Chief Product Officer. He joins the RCA executive team, leading all aspects of the product development organization. Most recently JP was the Managing Director for S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Desktop Products and Financial Institutions Organization.
Across the globe, the most active investors, lenders, brokers, and advisors depend on RCA’s unique insight to formulate their strategies, source new opportunities, and execute their deals. An industry pioneer since 2000, RCA has earned a reputation for having the most timely and reliable transaction data and providing valuable intelligence on market pricing, capital flows, and investment trends.
RCA is privately held and headquartered in New York City with offices in San Jose, London, and Singapore.
FUNDING: Susquehanna Growth Equity, Endicott Group
Frame.io, the platform powering the future of creative collaboration, has announced Bryan Medway as their Head of Design. He will help lead design strategy and execution while growing their design team. Bryan most recently was leading Experience Design for Adobe’s Creative Cloud platform in San Francisco.
Today's Leading media companies use Frame.io to streamline their video review and collaboration process with teammates, clients, and a variety of stakeholders. They supercharge post-production workflows for more than 500K video professionals by bringing together media and stakeholders. Their platform makes things faster, smoother and more efficient while allowing you to work seamlessly across both web and mobile.
FUNDING: Accel, Shasta Ventures, SignalFire, FirstMark, Tectonic Capital, Kortschak Investments
Vox Media, a leading digital media company based in Washington, D.C. and New York City has named Amit Bhattacharyya as their Head of Data Science. Prior to Vox, Amit led the Data Science practice at Teachers Pay Teachers for over three years. He spent nearly ten years as a Quant in the financial services industry and earned his PhD in Physics from Indiana University.
Vox Media owns and operates offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco.
FUNDING: Khosla Ventures, Accel, Comcast Ventures, General Atlantic, NBC Universal, Allen & Company
Fundera, an NYC-based online credit marketplace for small business, announced Jason Rodriguez as Chief Technology Officer. As a 20-year technologist who helped lead multiple successful startups, most recently at SoulCycle, Jason will be an important driver in taking our tech organization to the next level as we continue growing investments in technology and our team to get there. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from NYU-Polytechnic School of Engineering.
With Fundera, business owners can get competing offers from dozens of the country's leading small business lenders by submitting just one application. Their mission is to put the power to borrow back in the hands of business owners.
FUNDING: BoxGroup, Khosla Ventures, Susquehanna Growth Equity, Core Innovation Capital, First Round, QED Investors
* Acquired byNerdWallet 2020
SafeSend Returns®, SafeSend’s award-winning, flagship offering, enables complete automation of the “last mile” of the tax preparation process, displacing archaic, labor-intensive, paper-based methods with digital collation and assembly, secure client delivery, and integrated e-sign of completed tax return packages. Tax and accounting firms benefit from automated, centralized, and standardized workflows, and their clients benefit from an intuitive, secure, and engaging online experience.
They have announced Brian Stone as the new Head of Customer Success. Brian will oversee the expansion of the Customer Success division with a focus on strategic, operational, and tactical workflow optimizations to accelerate revenue growth and customer engagement with SafeSend’s industry leading solutions. Most recently he spent 9 years with FairWarning, an Imprivata Company, as Senior Vice President of Customer Success.
Recently SafeSend has experienced incredible growth saling to serve more than 50% of the top 300 U.S. accounting firms. Founded in 2008 by Steve Dusablon and Andrew Hatfield and currently led by Chief Executive Officer Scott Fleszar, SafeSend is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
FUNDING: Lead Edge Capital
Parsley Health is the leading national provider of holistic personalized medicine services across telemedicine, diagnostics and in-person care. Parsley’s unique approach blends cutting-edge testing, nutrition, wellness and prevention with conventional medicine. It is the first and only vertically integrated digital health solution for reversing chronic disease and optimizing health.
Parsley recently hired Heather Hagg as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations where she will lead the 250+ member clinical operations team with a strategic focus on quality metrics and outcomes data. Heather brings decades of experience designing, deploying and managing administrative and clinical operations systems for government, academic and privately held health companies.
FUNDING: Groundswell Ventures, Summer VC, White Star Capital, FirstMark Capital
Realync is a leader in video leasing and resident engagement platforms enabling live video tours, live virtual open houses and DIY pre-recorded videos of properties. Realync’s platform simplifies and enhances the real estate touring process by providing a more efficient, convenient, and cost-effective way of showing and touring properties. Realync partners with many of the nation's largest property owners and managers, actively being used in over 500,000 units today. Realync is a 2021 NAA Best Places to Work company.
They have announced Moses Dwaram as Vice President of Technology. Dwaram will be responsible for all aspects of product and engineering activities. His focus is the efficient operation of the product and development teams, leading and scaling Realync’s technology strategy, and bringing innovative solutions to market that will solve Realync clients' needs. Dwaram has over 20 years of experience with software engineering, technology development, and bringing creative product solutions to market while scaling high-performing teams. Prior to joining Realync, Dwaram was the VP of Engineering at Litera, heading up the technology operations of its Transactional Business Unit.
FUNDING: Second Centry Ventures, Susquehanna Growth Equity, Capital Midwest Fund, Charmides Capital
Fundrise is America’s largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform. Since 2012, their mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering individuals. Investments that were once primarily reserved for billion-dollar endowments and sovereign wealth funds are now available to investors of all sizes, at the touch of a button. Fundrise has transacted over $5.7 billion worth of real estate and currently manages approximately $1.5 billion in equity, on behalf of our more than 150,000 investors.
Fundrise has announced Alan Keister as Senior Vice President of Engineering. He will lead and scale the engineering team, overseeing all aspects of fulfillment for Fundrises’s technology platform including issuance, origination, transactions, payments and compliance. Alan brings decades of experience leading and scaling engineering teams including AOL, Invincea, Sophos and most recently, Capital One.
B-Stock is the world's largest B2B recommerce marketplace for excess [or surplus] merchandise. Businesses of all sizes leverage the B-Stock platform to sell and buy customer returns, overstock, and other excess merchandise. Their customers are many of the world’s largest brands and retailers (including nine of the top 10 U.S. retailers). Having completed over 210,000 transactions in 2020, B-Stock gives buyers a simple and direct way to buy valuable products and offers sellers a trusted replacement for traditional liquidation while boosting operational efficiency, recovery rates, and cycle time.
They have recently announced the hiring of Ken Shum as Vice President of Engineering. Ken brings 25 years of Software Engineering experience to B-Stock; working with companies like Stitcher, GE Digital, Opentable.com, CafePress, and Lucent Technologies. At B-Stock, Ken will be focused on creating efficient processes to develop new software in line with company growth objectives and paving the way for new technological solutions for B-Stock’s future.
FUNDING: Spectrum Equity, New Millennium Partners, Susquehanna Growth Equity
TVision is the leader in TV performance metrics - an advertising technology firm that delivers real-time performance metrics for marketing effectiveness and efficiency. They measure who watches TV and how much attention they pay at the person-level to linear and streaming video. Marketers at some of the world’s largest brands, and premiere Media Sellers and Data Partners leverage TVision’s metrics to make more effective media decisions.
They have recently hired Kyle McCluskey as the first Head of Data Engineering where he will be responsible for technical leadership and the management of TVisions proprietary technology platform and product roadmap.
FUNDING: Susquehanna International Group, Accomplice, Golden Ventures, Jump Capital
Gooten operates a smart supply chain for brands looking to optimize their eCommerce business with on-demand manufacturing. It combines proprietary technology and operational expertise with a global network of 30+ best-in-class manufacturing partners. Their infrastructure allows Gooten to fulfill orders more efficiently, sustainably, and at a competitive rate. Gooten's manufacturing-on-demand model makes it possible for eCommerce brands to sell high-quality products without holding any inventory. Founded in 2015 and already profitable, Gooten is based in New York City.
Gooten has recently announced the hiring of Nelson Flores as Chief Product Officer. Nelson will lead global product strategy for the brand working with Gooten’s merchant and manufacturing partners, ensuring high level prioritization and execution of a complex multi-team product roadmap. Prior to joining Gooten, Nelson led product strategy at Kibo Commerce, a Vista Equity Company, and Shopatron, the world’s leading provider of cloud-based eCommerce order management solutions.
FUNDING: Lead Edge Capital, ff Venture Capital, KEC Ventures
Tropic is a tech-enabled procurement service for startups. Tropic experts in SaaS manage your contracts for you and work directly with your vendors on your behalf. By working with the same vendors repeatedly, they can drive better prices faster. Tropic automates SaaS procurement for tech-forward companies, saving them money and time.
They have recently announced the hiring of Nathan Verni as VP of Engineering where he will lead and scale the engineering organization, defining and establishing development standards, workflows, processes and technical partnership integrations. Prior to joining Tropic Nathan spent 11 years at Chargify where he designed and built the engineering organization from the ground up.
FUNDING: Canaan Partners, Shine Capital, Company Ventures, Founder Collective
Real Capital Analytics, Inc. (RCA) the authority on the deals, the players, and the trends that drive the commercial real estate investment markets has announced JP O’Sullivan as their new Chief Product Officer. He joins the RCA executive team, leading all aspects of the product development organization. Most recently JP was the Managing Director for S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Desktop Products and Financial Institutions Organization.
Across the globe, the most active investors, lenders, brokers, and advisors depend on RCA’s unique insight to formulate their strategies, source new opportunities, and execute their deals. An industry pioneer since 2000, RCA has earned a reputation for having the most timely and reliable transaction data and providing valuable intelligence on market pricing, capital flows, and investment trends.
RCA is privately held and headquartered in New York City with offices in San Jose, London, and Singapore.
FUNDING: Susquehanna Growth Equity, Endicott Group
Lextegrity, an innovative Enterprise SaaS platform providing in-house counsel, audit, and compliance teams has announced the hiring of Deepak Jhalani as their Chief Technology Officer. As Lextegrity’s CTO, Deepak is responsible for our overall technological vision which encompasses implementing technology strategies, evaluating emerging technologies, and ensuring that our technology resources are aligned with our overall company's business needs. Deepak brings over 16 years of engineering leadership experience in the SaaS space, delivering cutting-edge solutions for both startups and global organizations. His true passion is building great engineering teams and commercially successful SaaS products.
Founded in 2017 by respected Compliance and Legal Officers, Lextegrity has built the technology they wish they had when they were in the industry through advanced fraud detection algorithms and machine learning techniques. Revenue-generating since their launch, Lextegrity boasts a growing list of enterprise customers including the likes of Airbnb, Embraer, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Lextegrity’s headquarters is in Chicago, IL.
CafeMedia connects authentic publishers, engaged audiences and leading brands to make the internet a better place. They have announced Jolene McGoldrick as their Executive Vice President of Analytics. She will oversee the growth and expansion of CafeMedia’s Analytics practice.
Prior to joining CafeMedia, Joline held the position of SVP, Data Insights & Research at VidMob and was VP of Research at Kantar Millward Brown Digital where she lead Kantar Millward Brown’s Digital Center of Excellence, an internal think tank that studies digital trends and best practices.
Joline was an early member of the Dynamic Logic Team, beginning in 2001 and is well versed in studying how audiences respond to Digital advertising. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Adweek, AdAge, the Economist, the New York Times, Media Post, and Mobile Marketer and she has spoken and moderated at conferences including the ARF, MRIA, OMMA, SWSW, MRMW, the Market Research Event and AdTech. Joline is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
CafeMedia is a leading digital media company that supports nearly 2,500 high-quality content creators. The company’s content collective, AdThrive, is the first and preeminent ad monetization platform for premium mid-sized digital publishers with superior ad optimization support, the latest ad fulfillment technology, and a customer-first approach. AdThrive empowers its creators to make a living doing what they love – producing great content – while managing the advertising for them.
The collective force of content creators reaches 102 million monthly unique visitors and 417 million social followers. CafeMedia provides premium programmatic media solutions that connect brands to deeply engaged audiences in food, family, home, and more. Brand partners get access to a highly curated pool of inventory with a focus on high viewability, brand-safe units and the right context or audience to drive exceptional performance.
FUNDING: Threshold (formerly DFJ), Highland Capital Partners
Tinkergarten provides early childhood education with outdoor classes and activities. They have announced Tim Broder as their Chief Technology Officer. He will be responsible for building the company’s technology strategy, priorities, and plans for achieving Tinkergarten’s growth goals. He was most recently Chief Technology Officer at WAVE Meditation, and prior was the CoFounder and CTO at Kidfund.
Tinkergarten brings high quality early childhood education to a park near you. Their technology platform vets, trains and mobilizes a distributed workforce of passionate, local leaders who run fun, social, and educational activity-based kids classes in green spaces everywhere. With Tinkergarten, kids become well-balanced people who can problem-solve, lead, and create.
FUNDING: WnderCo, Reach Capital, Owl Ventures, Omidyar Capital, Blue Collective, Structure Capital, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures
Say, a communication technology platform intended to help shareholders perform their ownership rights, has announced Chris Coluzzi as their CTO and CISO. He will own the technical vision and engineering roadmap for Say’s platform, maturing its’ existing systems while leading future product development efforts. Chris was most recently the CTO of CredSimple, a healthcare automation SaaS platform.
SAY’s platform enables open communication with companies outside the traditional framework of shareholder communications and transforms stock ownership by connecting shareholders to each other, enabling aggregated and authenticated shareholders to access previously unused or non-existent rights.
FUNDING: Point72 Ventures, Atomico, TABLE Management, Core Innovation Capital, Torch Capital, Quiet Capital
Patch, a network of hyperlocal websites covering community news in 1,200+ towns across America, has announced Laura Dansbury as its VP of Product. She will be tasked with setting the strategic vision and direction for Patch’s product offerings with a focus on modernization efforts and new product development.
Patch employs in-house development and product teams, and roughly 100 full-time reporters — including alumni of The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Associated Press, and many other of the nation’s great newsrooms. They are deeply committed to serving their 45M+ monthly visitors, and, equally, to maintaining a positive and inclusive work environment for their valued employees. Building off their success in the news vertical, Patch is deploying world-class technology and product development efforts to further expand their business.
* Acquired by AOL 2009 / Acquired by Hale Global 2014
7Park Data transforms data to revolutionize business decisions. They have announced Rikard Bandebo as their Chief Product Officer. Rikard will oversee the product organization and its aggressive targets for 7Park’s next stage of growth. Previously, Rikard was SVP of Product and Strategy for MarkMonitor, where he led a three-year turnaround plan and drove the execution of successful milestones.
Leveraging advanced machine intelligence, their platform transforms one petabyte of unstructured information into Leading Performance indicators for over 10,000 companies. Their Clients are the most sophisticated investment firms and Fortune 500 corporations who depend on 7Park Data for more accurate benchmarking, forecasting and strategic decision making.
FUNDING: Mueller Ventures, Granite Capital Management
CafeMedia connects authentic publishers, engaged audiences and leading brands to make the internet a better place. Stephanie Dolgins has been named the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer at CafeMedia, the world’s largest network of independent digital publishers. Ms. Dolgins will lead all marketing for CafeMedia and AdThrive in support of the company’s mission to build a creator-first future for the open web. She will report directly to CEO Michael Sanchez.
FUNDING: Threshold (formerly DFJ), Highland Capital Partners
Digital experience company Acquia announced the appointment of former SAP executive Kevin Cochrane will serve as Senior Vice President of Product Marketing. Bringing to Acquia more than two decades of experience, Cochrane most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer, SAP customer experience, where he was responsible for creating SAP’s Customer Experience global marketing team. His prior web content experience includes Adobe, OpenText and Jahia Solutions.
Driven by a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, in 2019 Acquia achieved its highest annual recurring revenue (ARR) increase and renewal rate in company history. The company was also named a Leader in Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for DXP, a true testament to Acquia’s ability to help companies build, manage and optimize digital experiences for their leading brands including Bayer, Liverpool Football Club, L'Oréal Group, Panasonic, and Wendy’s.
FUNDING: Sigma Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and Growth Equity, Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Goldman Sachs, Split Rock Partners, Amazon, Centerview Capital
* Acquired byVista Equity Partners 2019
Symbotic is a global provider of integrated supply network automation solutions for warehouses and distribution centers. They have announced the hiring of Tom Ernst as their Chief Financial Officer. Tom Ernst will manage the financial functions within Symbotic. He has more than 20 years of extensive finance, leadership and software industry experience. Tom loves to tackle big challenges and lead teams of people to creative and impactful solutions.
Prior to joining Symbotic in September 2020, Tom served as CFO of RealPage where he led all accounting, finance, treasury, legal, M&A, and strategic project management operations.
Tom founded a strategy management consultancy in 2015. He led senior consultants and junior teams in advising public software companies on market positioning, developing an innovative and effective company culture, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic communications. He has eighteen years of software industry finance experience in equity research and investment banking. He also led the Goldman Sachs Software Investment Banking Team globally and the Deutsche Bank Software U.S. Equity Research Team.
Tom served as a Nuclear Engineer and Submarine Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy for five years on a fast attack submarine, and two years as the Military Training Department Head for the U.S. Navy boot camp. Tom earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth and his BS from the University of Minnesota.
Symbotic’s innovative robotics and software deliver advanced automation solutions that makes the supply chain faster, more efficient, and more profitable for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of all sizes. Symbotic’s headquarters is in Wilmington, MA. They have locations in Montreal, Quebec, Johnstown, Ontario, Bethlehem, PA, South Brunswick, NJ, Brooksville, FL, Tolleson, AZ, Woodland, CA and Melrose Park, IL.
CommentSold helps business sell products digitally. They have announced Madeline Wareing as their new VP of Customer Success. Madeline will help build a world-class nationally distributed Customer Success team that includes Account Management, Customer On-boarding and Support organizations. Previously, Madeline rose through the ranks at OutboundEngine, a Marketing SaaS company based in Austin, Texas. She was largely responsible for creating the Customer Success function from the ground up.
With the CommentSold platform, businesses can manage inventory, automate invoicing, enable sales through social networking, and power web and mobile applications. Their mission is to democratize e-commerce by creating affordable, innovative, and easy-to-use software solutions. They were named 2019 BEST EASE OF USE for Billing & Invoicing, and Inventory Management according to Capterra. CommentSold is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.
FUNDING: Zelnick Media Capital
DoubleVerify is the leading independent provider of marketing measurement software, data, and analytics. They have announced Marissa McArdle as Vice President of Product Management. She will lead the Social Product Solutions team which has overall ownership of and accountability for DV’s fast-growing product line of measurement and data delivered for the use of brands, agencies, and trading desks inside of social and other large proprietary ad platforms.
In this role she will oversee the development and delivery of DV product capabilities including brand safety, fraud, viewability measurement for paid campaigns running on social and proprietary ad platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, Pinterest and more. Most recently she was Vice President at Nielsen where she ran their Global Digital and Cross Platform Ad Measurement products.
DV is powering the new standard of marketing performance, giving advertisers clarity and confidence in their digital investment. Built on best practices, DV solutions create value for media buyers and sellers by bringing transparency and accountability to the market, ensuring ad viewability, brand safety, fraud protection, accurate impression delivery and audience quality across campaigns to drive performance. Since 2008, DV has helped hundreds of Fortune 500 companies gain the most value out of their media spend by delivering best in class solutions across the digital ecosystem that help build a better industry.
FUNDING: Blumberg Capital, First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, JMI Equity
* IPO (2021) - NYSE: DV
Symbotic is a global provider of integrated supply network automation solutions for warehouses and distribution centers. They have announced the hiring of Marshall Aurnou as their Head of Engineering. As Head of Engineering, Marshall is responsible for managing Symbotic’s hardware, electrical and controls engineering to meet the company’s business goals.
Marshall joined Symbotic in mid-2020 and brings over 20 years of experience in engineering management. Prior to joining Symbotic, he was Vice President of Engineering Operations at JR Automation, a leading global systems integrator and solutions provider. Marshall has led global organizations in world-class product development, productivity, innovation, quality and growth/profitability. His diversified background includes 30 years of engineering and operations senior leadership roles at Tyco and Trident Motion Technologies, including more than 22 years with GE, with his last role leading global engineering for their Motors & Controls business. Marshall is certified as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt.
Marshall has a BSME in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.
Symbotic’s innovative robotics and software deliver advanced automation solutions that makes the supply chain faster, more efficient, and more profitable for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of all sizes. Symbotic’s headquarters is in Wilmington, MA. They have locations in Montreal, Quebec, Johnstown, Ontario, Bethlehem, PA, South Brunswick, NJ, Brooksville, FL, Tolleson, AZ, Woodland, CA and Melrose Park, IL.
CommentSold helps business sell products digitally. They have announced Sarah Lodato as their VP of People Operations. Sarah will help continue building out the HR organization. She was most recently the Head of People Ops at Roadie where she led all things, culture, engagement, learning and development, and recruitment. She is also a Regional Organizer for Tech Ladies, an organization that helps connect women with the best jobs and opportunities in technology.
With the CommentSold platform, businesses can manage inventory, automate invoicing, enable sales through social networking, and power web and mobile applications. Their mission is to democratize e-commerce by creating affordable, innovative, and easy-to-use software solutions. They were named 2019 BEST EASE OF USE for Billing & Invoicing, and Inventory Management according to Capterra. CommentSold is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.
FUNDING: Zelnick Media Capital
CafeMedia connects authentic publishers, engaged audiences and leading brands to make the internet a better place. They have announced David Rowley as their new Chief Technology Officer. He will oversee the growth and expansion of CafeMedia’s technology products and teams. Most recently David was the CTO for Ask Media Group.
CafeMedia is a leading digital media company that supports nearly 2,000 high-quality content creators. The company’s content collective, AdThrive, is the first and preeminent ad monetization platform for premium mid-sized digital publishers with superior ad optimization support, the latest ad fulfillment technology, and a customer-first approach. AdThrive empowers its creators to make a living doing what they love – producing great content – while managing the advertising for them.
The collective force of content creators reaches 102 million monthly unique visitors and 417 million social followers. CafeMedia provides premium programmatic media solutions that connect brands to deeply engaged audiences in food, family, home, and more. Brand partners get access to a highly curated pool of inventory with a focus on high viewability, brand-safe units and the right context or audience to drive exceptional performance.
FUNDING: Threshold (formerly DFJ), Highland Capital Partners
EnergyHub, a dynamic energy software technology company has announced it’s new VP of Engineering will be Max Whitney. She was formerly the VP of Engineering at Noom Inc. She has a Masters in Computer Science from NYU. Max will help Energyhub further its technology mission and grow its team.
EnergyHub's platform lets consumers turn their smart thermostats, water heaters, and other products into virtual power plants that keep the grid stable and enable higher penetration of solar and wind power. We work on technology that already provides energy and cost savings to more than a million people through partnerships with the most exciting companies in the 'internet of things.' EnergyHub is an independent subsidiary of Alarm.com, the leading technology provider of connected home solutions. They are headquartered in Brooklyn, NY.
FUNDING: .406 Ventures, Physic Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners, NYSERDA, Partnership Fund for New York City
* Acquired by Alarm.com 2013
Fundera, an NYC-based online credit marketplace for small business, announced Jason Rodriguez as Chief Technology Officer. As a 20-year technologist who helped lead multiple successful startups, most recently at SoulCycle, Jason will be an important driver in taking our tech organization to the next level as we continue growing investments in technology and our team to get there. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from NYU-Polytechnic School of Engineering.
With Fundera, business owners can get competing offers from dozens of the country's leading small business lenders by submitting just one application. Their mission is to put the power to borrow back in the hands of business owners.
FUNDING: BoxGroup, Khosla Ventures, Susquehanna Growth Equity, Core Innovation Capital, First Round, QED Investors
* Acquired byNerdWallet 2020
Tinkergarten provides early childhood education with outdoor classes and activities. They have announced Kelly Newton as their VP of Marketing. Kelly will be responsible for shaping the company’s marketing strategy, priorities, programs, and plans for achieving Tinkergarten’s growth goals. She was most recently VP of Marketing at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, and prior was the Head of Growth Marketing for Audible, an Amazon Company.
Tinkergarten brings high quality early childhood education to a park near you. Their technology platform vets, trains and mobilizes a distributed workforce of passionate, local leaders who run fun, social, and educational activity-based kids classes in green spaces everywhere. With Tinkergarten, kids become well-balanced people who can problem-solve, lead, and create.
FUNDING: WnderCo,Reach Capital,Owl Ventures,Omidyar Capital,Blue Collective,Structure Capital,Brooklyn Bridge Ventures
7Park Data transforms data to revolutionize business decisions. They have announced Jodi Weissberg as their Head of Legal and Compliance. Jodi will oversee all internal and external legal and compliance matters for the company. Previously Jodi was Associate General Counsel of 451 Research where she handled all corporate legal matters, real property leases, human resource issues and litigation in the United States and internationally.
Leveraging advanced machine intelligence, their platform transforms one petabyte of unstructured information into Leading Performance indicators for over 10,000 companies. Their Clients are the most sophisticated investment firms and Fortune 500 corporations who depend on 7Park Data for more accurate benchmarking, forecasting and strategic decision making.
FUNDING: Mueller Ventures, Granite Capital Management
* Acquired byVista Equity Partners 2018
TripleLift creates advertising technology for the next generation of content. They have announced Andrew King as Senior Director of Product Management. Andrew will oversee the video product line, which is a critical and fast growing product lane for the company. Most recently Andrew was Head of Product at TayKey, acquired by Innovid in December ‘17.
TripleLift helps marketers reach hundreds of millions of consumers across any device, in as many channels as possible, while staying true to our core value of providing the most user-centric forms of advertising for each channel. Since its founding in 2012, TripleLift has consistently been named one of Crain's New York Business's Best Places to Work in NYC, has appeared on the Inc. 500 multiple times, all while being profitable.
FUNDING: NextView Ventures,True Ventures,Inovia Capital,Laconia Capital,Edison Partners
BestPass, the leading provider of single-source payment and streamlined toll management services for commercial fleets nationwide, has announced Michael Sebast as their new VP of Engineering. Michael has spent the last 13 years at IEEE GlobalSpec in Albany, NY. Most recently as VP of Technology and Delivery, he oversaw a team of 65 engineers focused on the design, development, and architecture of all major software solutions.
Founded in 2001 by the Trucking Association of New York, BestPass is currently 90 employees and was privatized by Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC in October 2018.
FUNDING: Susquehanna Growth Equity
CardFlight, a NYC based SaaS startup offering mobile payments technology and point of sale solutions for enterprises, has hired Nate Meagher as their VP of People. Nate is the former VP of People at NYC startup Animoto where he led the growth, hiring 85 employees across 3 office location. He developed key company culture iniatives to impact team success in a hybrid operations and resources leadership role. He oversaw recruiting, hiring, real estate management, benefits administration, compliance and asset management.
CardFlight takes pride in building and maintaining solutions that are a step ahead of the curve in technology, reliability, and user experience. As the US leader in EMV Quick Chip enablement, CardFlight makes it easy, accessible, and secure for partners and merchants to accept payments.
FUNDING: ff Venture Capital, MATH Venture Partners, Accomplice, Atlas Ventures, ERA, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Payment Ventures
Opentrons, the maker of robots for biologists, has announced Ben Donohue as their new VP of Engineering. Ben will help grow and already outstanding engineering team. He will also further Opentrons’ commitment to the Open Source community. Ben brings an accomplished career as a technology executive across industries such as business intelligence, dark web intelligence, adtech, music/audio and financial services.
Opentrons’ mission is to provide the scientific community with a common platform to easily share protocols and reproduce results. Opentrons’ robots automate experiments that would otherwise be done by hand, allowing scientists to spend more time pursuing answers to some of the 21st century’s most important questions.
FUNDING: Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, SOSV, Lerer Hippeau, HAX, TSVC, NYU Innovation Venture Fund
Morty, the smart home mortgage, has announced Cindy Chin as their first Head of Marketing. Cindy will be spearheading all marketing initiatives to help provide research-driven plans and opportunities for brand awareness and growth. Cindy has lead marketing at early stage startups and growth stage companies such as Flocabulary and MarkerBot, as well as lead Digital Marketing and Retention for American Express.
Morty’s mission has been to empower homebuyers to make smarter home financing decisions. Whether it’s the best rate, product, technology or service, consumers deserve to be able to get the best of what they need in order to feel comfortable buying their dream home. Morty is committed to bringing this all under one roof through a seamless mortgage process providing buyers with a modern, transparent and empowering experience.
FUNDING: Thrive Capital, Prudence Holdings, FJ Labs, Techstars, SV Angel, Corigin Ventures
Frame.io, the platform powering the future of creative collaboration, has announced Bryan Medway as their Head of Design. He will help lead design strategy and execution while growing their design team. Bryan most recently was leading Experience Design for Adobe’s Creative Cloud platform in San Francisco.
Today's Leading media companies use Frame.io to streamline their video review and collaboration process with teammates, clients, and a variety of stakeholders. They supercharge post-production workflows for more than 500K video professionals by bringing together media and stakeholders. Their platform makes things faster, smoother and more efficient while allowing you to work seamlessly across both web and mobile.
FUNDING: Accel, Shasta Ventures, SignalFire, FirstMark, Tectonic Capital, Kortschak Investments
Betaworks Studios, a membership club for individuals looking to make a dent in the universe, has announced Beau Haugh as their first Head of Engineering. Beau will be responsible for introducing cutting edge technology that will bridge between digital and physical spaces. Studios locations will have space to meet, scheme, get advice, collaborate, do a little bit of work, attend and host events. For 10 years betaworks has been working and networking-building companies, running accelerators, investing in talent- and now they've opened their doors.
Beau brings the builder mentality that is at the core of betaworks studios. He is a startup founder, hacker, engineering leader, product designer and has worked for notable efforts like Airbnb, Hillary for America, and Quartet Health.
CardFlight, an NYC based SaaS startup offering mobile payments technology and point of sale solutions for enterprises, has hired Kyle Libra as Head of Product. Kyle joins from WorkMarket where he served as Director of Product for the platforms key features. He successfully launched many products during his time ultimately leading to acquisition of WorkMarket by ADP in Jan '18.
CardFlight takes pride in building and maintaining solutions that are a step ahead of the curve in technology, reliability, and user experience. As the US leader in EMV Quick Chip enablement, CardFlight makes it easy, accessible, and secure for partners and merchants to accept payments.
FUNDING: ff Venture Capital, MATH Venture Partners, Accomplice, Atlas Ventures, ERA, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Payment Ventures
Fundera, an NYC-based online credit marketplace for small business, announced Zahra Ladak as VP of Product. She brings 15+ years of experience building scalable product teams with expertise in consumer marketplaces, monetization and platform strategy. Prior to joining Fundera, Zahra was Sr. Director of Product for Zocdoc. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from University of Florida.
Zahra will lead the next generation of Fundera's product offerings while growing the product team. With Fundera, business owners can get competing offers from dozens of the country's leading small business lenders by submitting just one application. Their mission is to put the power to borrow back in the hands of business owners.
FUNDING: BoxGroup, Khosla Ventures, Susquehanna Growth Equity, Core Innovation Capital, First Round, QED Investors
* Acquired by NerdWallet 2020
Dailymotion, a video-sharing technology platform has named Yesh Srinivasan as their first Head of Data Science. Previously, Yesh led the development of the IntelliJet platform for Canon. He will spearhead the development of DailyMotion's data science organization in NY and Paris. Yesh received his PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering from Texas Tech University.
Dailymotion, with offices in Paris and NYC, attracts 300 million users from around the world, who watch 3.5 billion videos on its player each month. Dailymotion is majority owned by by French mass media conglomerate Vivendi.
FUNDING: Atlas Venture, Advent Venture Partners, Idinvest Partners, Partech, Orange, Vivendi
Teckst, a SaaS messaging and innovation company developing products that build conversational relationships between brands and consumers, has name Josh Rochlin as CEO. Josh was formerly the founding CEO of Xtify, a mobile messaging startup he led until it's successful exit with acquisition by IBM in 2013.
FUNDING: Zelkova Ventures, Gaingels, Kernel Capital, Composite Capital Partners
* Acquired by LiveVox 2019
Dailymotion, a video-sharing technology platform has named Justin Silberman as their VP of Product. Previously, Justin worked for Verizon Media where he led the vision, roadmap and development of Oath’s Self-Service Supply Side Platform which empowers App Developers and Publishers to manage their inventory by providing them with full stack enterprise monetization solution.
He will spearhead the product organization in NY and Paris. Justin received his MBA, and MS in Information Systems and Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University - Carey Business School.
Dailymotion, with offices in Paris and NYC, attracts 300 million users from around the world, who watch 3.5 billion videos on its player each month. Dailymotion is majority owned by French mass media conglomerate Vivendi.
FUNDING: Atlas Venture, Advent Venture Partners, Idinvest Partners, Partech, Orange, Vivendi
Vox Media, a leading digital media company based in Washington, D.C. and New York City has named Amit Bhattacharyya as their Head of Data Science. Prior to Vox, Amit led the Data Science practice at Teachers Pay Teachers for over three years. He spent nearly ten years as a Quant in the financial services industry and earned his PhD in Physics from Indiana University.
Vox Media owns and operates offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco.
FUNDING: Khosla Ventures, Accel, Comcast Ventures, General Atlantic, NBC Universal, Allen & Company
Chartbeat, a content intelligence company headquartered in NYC, has announced Alexandra Pressland as their new VP of Product. Chartbeat helps digital publishing organizations like the NY Times, CNN, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and ESPN improve audience engagement, inform editorial decisions, and increase readership. Their real-time and historical dashboards, in-depth headline testing and in-page optimization tools, robust reporting help these leading media organizations understand, measure, and build business value from the attention earned by their written and video content.
FUNDING: Betaworks, Lowercase Capital, Freestyle Capital, Lerer Hippeau, 14W, Index Ventures, SV Angel, Acequia Capital, Founder Collective, Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures, Uncork Capital, DFJ, Launch Fund, Harmony Partners, Digital Garage, North Atlantic Capital
Transmit.Live, a new media broadcasting platform that simplifies live stream distribution and promotion, synchronized by data-driven intelligence to expand viewership and build loyal audiences has name Jamie Roberts as Head of Engineering. Jamie will help build out Transmit.Live's offering and team.
FUNDING: MathCapital Ventures,R/GA Ventures, GroundUP
7Park Data transforms data to revolutionize business decisions. They have announced Joel Raha as their SVP of Engineering. Joel will oversee all technology and engineering for 7Park. Leveraging advanced machine intelligence, their platform transforms one petabyte of unstructured information into Leading Performance indicators for over 10,000 companies. Their Clients are the most sophisticated investment firms and Fortune 500 corporations who depend on 7Park Data for more accurate benchmarking, forecasting and strategic decision making.
FUNDING: Mueller Ventures, Granite Capital Management
* Acquired by Vista Equity Partners 2018
Material World, a personalized fashion (r)ecommerce service, has announced Guy Gavriely as VP of Engineering. Guy will help lead the technology organization and implement new key initiatives for Material World customers and partners. MW fashion trade-in service helps women evolve their closet seamlessly by trading in old fashions to earn credit on their Fashion Trade-In Card and shop at their favorite retailers.
Founded by two fashion ecommerce experts and Harvard Business School graduates with experience from top brands including Coach, Ralph Lauren, and J.Crew. Material World has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, ABC News, InStyle, Refinery29, Women's Wear Daily, and TechCrunch.
FUNDING: Great Oaks Venture Capital, SundBridge Global Ventures, Nissay Capital
7Park Data transforms data to revolutionize business decisions. They have announced Rishit Shah as their Chief Product Officer. Rishit will oversee all product efforts for 7Park. Leveraging advanced machine intelligence, their platform transforms one petabyte of unstructured information into Leading Performance indicators for over 10,000 companies. Their Clients are the most sophisticated investment firms and Fortune 500 corporations who depend on 7Park Data for more accurate benchmarking, forecasting and strategic decision making.
FUNDING: Mueller Ventures, Granite Capital Management
* Acquired by Vista Equity Partners 2018
Handy is the leading platform for connecting individuals looking for household services. They have announced Kulesh Shanmugasundaram as their SVP of Engineering. Kulesh will oversee all engineering efforts for Handy.
From home cleaning to handyman services, Handy instantly matches thousands of customers every week with professionals in cities all around the world. With a seamless 60-second booking process, secure payment and always on customer service, Handy is the easiest, most convenient way to book home services.
FUNDING: Highland Capital Partners, General Catalyst, MassChallenge, BoxGroup, Slow Ventures, TPG Growth, Revolution, AddVenture, Sound Ventures, Fidelity Investments
* Acquired by ANGI Homeservices/IAC 2018
Frame.io, the platform powering the future of creative collaboration, has announced Sockyung 'Sox' Hong as their first VP of Product. He will help lead product strategy and execution while growing their product team. Sox brings a strong design pedigree to product management which can be seen during his nine year tenure as SVP of Product for Vimeo. Sox led over 40+ employees across Product Management, QA, design, Messaging, and Community Teams.
Today's Leading media companies use Frame.io to streamline their video review and collaboration process with teammates, clients, and a variety of stakeholders. They supercharge post-production workflows for more than 500K video professionals by bringing together media and stakeholders. Their platform makes things faster, smoother and more efficient while allowing you to work seamlessly across both web and mobile.
FUNDING: Accel, Shasta Ventures, SignalFire, FirstMark, Tectonic Capital, Kortschak Investments
* Acquired by Adobe August 2021
CommentSold helps business sell products digitally. They have announced Lindsey Serafin as their VP of Customer Success. Lindsey will help build a world-class nationally distributed Customer Success team that includes Account Management, Customer On-boarding and Support organizations. For the last four years she has been a key leader of Customer Success at InVision, a unicorn status software company founded in NYC.
With the CommentSold platform, businesses can manage inventory, automate invoicing, enable sales through social networking, and power web and mobile applications. Their mission is to democratize e-commerce by creating affordable, innovative, and easy-to-use software solutions. They were named 2019 BEST EASE OF USE for Billing & Invoicing, and Inventory Management according to Capterra. CommentSold is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.
FUNDING: Zelnick Media Capital
Fundera, an NYC-based online credit marketplace for small businesses, announced Ryan Young as VP of Engineering. Ryan joins from Etsy where he spent over seven years, most recently as Director of Engineering. He was an original architect of Etsy's payment processing platform and he contributed to the growth of Etsy from 70 employees to over 900 when he left. Ryan received his BS, Computer Science & Engineering from MIT.
FUNDING: BoxGroup, Khosla Ventures, Susquehanna Growth Equity, Core Innovation Capital, First Round, QED Investors
* Acquired by NerdWallet 2020
RUN, a mobile-focused programmatic advertising technology company offering cutting-edge mobile solutions has announced Ragu Kamakshisundaram as their Head of Product. He will lead product strategy, development, marketing and support for the RUN Platform.
Prior to joining RUN, Ragu held engineering, operations and product management roles in various companies including Akamai, Tremor Video and Bank of New York Mellon. He is active in the ad tech community and has contributed to multiple IAB committees defining standards for online advertising.
Ragu has MBA degrees from Columbia Business School and London Business School, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, and a Bachelors in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology..
FUNDING: Verizon Ventures
* Acquired by Publicis Groupe 2014
Dering Hall, the premier digital publishing and analytics marketplace platform for the interior design industry, has announced Michael Lacy as Chief Operating Officer. As COO, he will work closely with CEO and Co-Founder to develop the product, technology and operating strategy.
Dering Hall’s mission is to assemble a community of the world’s leading creators in one place and to connect them with other designers and savvy, sophisticated consumers.
FUNDING: Lerer Hippeau, Hearst Communications, SoftBank Capital
* Acquired by Chairish Inc. 2019
Etsy, the ecommerce website focused on handmade or vintage items, supplies as well as unique factory-manufactured items, has announced Jeff Amlin has Head of Analytics. He will lead company-wide analytics to leverage data to make actionable product, marketing and business recommendations to improve key metrics.
Etsy was launched by Robert Kalin, Haim Schoppik, Jared Tarbell, and Chris Maguire in June 2005 and is based in Brooklyn, New York. Etsy went public (ETSY) on April 1, 2015.
FUNDING: Union Square Ventures, Accel, Mosaic Ventures, Index Ventures, Acton Capital Partners, Manatt Venture Fund, Burda Principal Investments, Glynn Capital Management, Breyer Capital
* IPO (2015) - NASDAQ: ETSY
RUN, a mobile-focused programmatic advertising technology company offering cutting-edge mobile solutions has announced Matthieu Labor as their EVP of Technology. He will be responsible for overseeing infrastructure and bidding technology. Prior to joining RUN, Matthieu was VP of Engineering at ActionX where he led a team of engineers build an innovative cross screen and retargeting engine which was later acquired by Xaxis/WPP.
Before moving into ad tech he worked in high frequency trading, and simultaneously developed his own startup bringing HFT to individual investors. Matthieu holds a master's degree in computer science from ECAM, France.
FUNDING: Verizon Ventures
* Acquired by Publicis Groupe 2014
PlaceIQ, a powerful, location-based audience and insights platform, has announced Jason Shao as their VP of Engineering. He will be responsible for growing the engineering team along with supporting PlaceIQ’s media business (Adserving, Business Intelligence, Business Workflow) and core analytics products (Location Analytics Platform, PVR, Audience and Campaign Analytics).
PlaceIQ uses its detailed understanding of location and consumer activity to reach a targeted audience, and also to derive powerful insights about consumer behavior to inform market and business strategies for national brands. The company is headquartered in New York City and also has offices in Palo Alto, Chicago, and Detroit.
FUNDING: IA Ventures, MDC Ventures, Neu Venture Capital, Valhalla Partners, Iris Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, Venvest Capital, Alibaba Group
Jibe, a SaaS-based recruiting technology solution for Global Fortune 1000, has named Andreas Turanski as Head of Engineering. Andreas will lead all growth and engineering efforts, including building the next generation Jibe Platform.
Jibe is headquartered in New York City and also has offices in Washington, D.C., Dallas, TX and Oakland, California.
FUNDING: Polaris Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Zelkova Ventures, Thrive Capital, DFJ, Gotham Ventures, Longworth Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures
* Acquired by Publicis iCIMS 2019
RUN, a mobile-focused programmatic advertising technology company offering cutting-edge mobile solutions has announced Chris Outram as their Chief Data Officer. He will be responsible for designing RUN's DMP product, analytics, science and audience data ingestion processes.
Before RUN, Chris was development lead for Targetspot and envIO Networks. He also spent four years leading the development of Fantasy Sports Application for Sporting News.
He has a B.S. in Computer Science from NYU and a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.
FUNDING: Verizon Ventures
* Acquired by Publicis Groupe 2014
S2 Security, an independent manufacturer of IP-based physical security and video management systems, has announced Steve Habermas as their VP of Engineering. He will be responsible for all engineering efforts of the company’s products. S2 Security creates a powerful, cost effective way to protect people, property and assets. Providing unmatched reliability and a 100% Web browser delivered user experience, S2 products are the physical security management systems of choice for Fortune500, education, healthcare, manufacturing and government customers around the world.
They are headquartered in Boston, Ma.
Arrivalist, the leading location analytics company, has announced Jason Falk as their VP of Engineering. He will be responsible for all engineering efforts of the company’s patent-pending location analytics platform that provides insights in to the way owned, paid and earned media exposures impact visitation from users who’ve been exposed to its clients’ media. Arrivalist works with 70+ Location Marketers including 23 States, 40 Cities/ Regions and 4 National Tourist Offices. Arrivalist is based in New York City with an office in San Francisco..
FUNDING: Lighter Capital
The Daily Beast, the online news source that delivers reports and opinions on politics, pop-culture, and world news has announced Ken Judy as their Chief Technology and Product Officer. He will be responsible for the roadmap and execution in design, product, and engineering for the consumer facing properties of The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast was founded in 2008 as the vision of Tina Brown and IAC Chairman Barry Diller. Curated to avoid information overload, the site is dedicated to breaking news and sharp commentary. The Daily Beast is the winner of two consecutive Webby awards for “Best News” site and regularly attracts more than 15 million unique online visitors a month. Deidre Depke is the Editorial Managing Director, John Avlon serves as Executive Editor, and Rhona Murphy is the Chief Executive Officer.