First Growth Venture Network

TechCrunch: First Growth Graduate Birchbox Co-Founder Katia Beauchamp: We’re Poised To Grow Way Beyond Beauty [TCTV]

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:20:19 +0000

April 24, 2012 via TechCrunch by Colleen Taylor – Birchbox, the New York City-based startup that provides a monthly delivery service of beauty and personal care product samples, seemed like a lark to some when it first came on the scene back in September 2010. At that time, web startups aimed at the female demographic existed, but the space has grown to be much stronger since then. And Birchbox’s business model itself was a bit confusing to some people. Would anyone really pay $10 a month to get a box full of stuff they didn’t specifically ask for?

Since then, of course, Birchbox has been validated a few times over. Female-oriented websites have skyrocketed — Pinterest, anyone? — and the subscription commerce space has taken off as well, with the debuts of companies such as Kiwi Crate (kids’ toys), Babbaco (educational products), StitchFix (women’s clothing) Citrus Lane (baby products), and a number of others. Today, Birchbox now has more than 100,000 paying subscribers, a staff of 60 full-time employees, and has raised nearly $12 million in venture capital funding.

So when we heard that Birchbox co-founder Katia Beauchamp (pronounced “Beechum”) was in San Francisco this past week, we invited her to swing by TechCrunch TV to give us an in-person update on how things are going at her company…

You can watch the full interview video at TechCrunch.

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Wired Magazine: Young Readers Will Never Run Out of Books With (First Growth graduate) MeeGenius

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:44:29 +0000

April 26, 2012 By James F. Kelly via Wired …About a year ago I was introduced to the MeeGenius library — this is a company that is celebrating its second birthday on Thursday, April 26 (and a First Growth Venture Network Fall 2009 Vintage graduate). A very young company!

Besides accessing their large digital book library (currently over 700 titles) via a web browser, they also now have apps for both Android and the iPad. I can’t speak to the Android app, but I absolutely love the MeeGenius iPad and iPhone app…

… and many of these titles are found only in digital format in the MeeGenius app as the company has the largest kids e-book library available. The company tells me that each week, the MeeGenius app is opened over 300,000 times by parents and children looking to read, listen, or find new stories. And the new stories are being added at a rate of about 10 new titles per week!
Read more at Wired – Geek Dad.

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From Bloomberg: First Growth Fall 2009 Graduate CB Insights publishes breakthrough Halo Report on 2011 Angel Investing

admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:34:51 +0000

via Bloomberg March 12, 2012 — Anand Sanwal, chief executive officer of CB Insights a First Growth Venture Network Fall 2009 graduate, talks about the outlook for venture capital and angel investing funds in the U.S. He speaks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves.” Watch the video at Bloomberg…

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TechCrunch: First Growth graduate Skillshare Says Anyone Can Be A Teacher And Wants To Connect You To Students [TCTV]

admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:02:01 +0000

via TechCruch by Ben Tseitlin March 27, 2012 Raise your hand if the classes you took in college got you so excited that you couldn’t wait to share the knowledge you gained with others and keep coming back for more. Ok, hands down. Now raise your hands if you wish you could learn something useful for your career or want to pick up a new hobby but don’t know where to start. Skillshare (a First Growth Venture Network Spring 2011 Graduate) wants to help by letting anyone become a teacher and share what they’re passionate about.

In this interview with Mike Karnjanaprakorn, co-founder and CEO of Skillshare, he says everyone has something they can teach to others. Skillshare acts as a community marketplace that brings together students and teachers. He discusses the possibility of bringing more fun into learning, how Skillshare got started (hint: it has to do with poker and education inequality), where it fits into the current education landscape, why they chose to focus on offline learning, and what resumes could look like in the future.

Read more and watch the TechCrunch TV interview at TechCruch…

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From TechCrunch: Trying To Be Mint.com For Student Loans, First Growth Participant Binksty Raises, Redesigns, Hits $10M In Debt Under View

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:28:00 +0000

via TechCrunch March 13, 2012 by Rip Empson …Luckily, startups like Binksty are doing their part to come to the rescue of debt-burdened students everywhere. Currently part of the First Growth Venture Networks’ fourth class of startups, Binksty is a personal finance tool for educational debt (CEO Brendan McQueen likes to call Binksty the Mint.com for student loans), which launched into private beta at the end of last year.
Today, the startup is announcing that it has over $10 million in student loans under view, and has recently forged partnerships with Yodlee, which provides Binksty users with loan aggregation tools (the same engine that powers Mint.com and LearnVest) and Fynanz, a startup which now offers its competitive private consolidation and refinancing options to Binksty users. The startup is also launching a major redesign of its web platform, which makes navigating loans and finding easy repayment options much easier.

The Harvard Fashion Tech Crew, Round Two – spotlights First Growth Fall 2011 participant Keaton Row

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:23:21 +0000

March 1, 2012 via Xconomy by Erin Kutz Call it an embarrassment of riches. On Valentine’s Day (no coincidence) I published a roundup of 16 fashion tech startups with founders from Harvard Business School, and asked any entrepreneurs I may have missed to please come forward. What resulted was enough new submissions to merit another story. So here we are.

This new set of companies includes online stylist platforms, innovative online men’s boutiques, and service for loyal consumers with targeted offers from fashion brands.Three of the companies are led by HBS alums. Read more at Xconomy…

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From TechCrunch: Lover.ly (a First Growth Venture Network graduate) Raises $500K To Be An Online, Visual Inspiration Engine For Weddings

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:25:27 +0000

February 14, 2012 via TechCrunch by Leena Rao – Lover.ly, an inspiration engine and Pinterest-like startup for weddings, has raised $500,000 from Joanne Wilson, Michael Edwards, Michael Yavonditte, Charles Smith, Anu Duggal, Jordan Levy, and Rick Webb.

Launched in the Fall of 2011, Lover.ly is a centralized place that helps brides discover and save wedding ideas. The site is designed to help brides, vendors, and wedding enthusiasts find inspiration (from wedding blogs), people to hire, and things to buy. Similar to Pinterest, the site allows users to curate board of ideas and make them public for users to view and draw inspiration. Read more at TechCrunch…

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From finance to fashion: Julie Macklowe uses her $250 million hedge fund wizardry in the beauty world

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:30:22 +0000

February 10, 2012 from Houston CultureMap by Lindley Arnoldy – Don’t let her 5-foot, three-inch frame fool you; Julie Macklowe is a powerhouse. By the age of 30, this savvy investor was running her own $250 million hedge fund after stints at Chase Capital Management and SAC, happily married with a beautiful daughter, and known on the fashion circuit for her outrageous sense of style.

After spending 12 years in finance, she recently closed Macklowe Asset Management to pursue her real passion: Investments in emerging entrepreneurs in the fashion industry.

She made her first investment in Bauble Bar (a First Growth Venture Network graduate), a site that sells jewelry directly from suppliers and designers, and then shifted her efforts from fashion financier to entrepreneur in her own right.

From Bloomberg TV Money Moves: First Growth Venture Network founder Ed Zimmerman on Environment for Tech Startups

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:35:01 +0000

February 9, 2012 from Bloomberg — Edward Zimmerman, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler PC, talks about the outlook for angel investing in technology start-ups. Zimmerman speaks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves.”

Watch the video here at Bloomberg.

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From VentureBeat: With powerful new apps, Producteev (a First Growth Venture Network alum) is the task management service of your dreams

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:48:12 +0000

January 24. 2012 via VentureBeat by Devindra Hardawar If you’re like me, you’ve tried and abandoned countless task management services. It’s easy to make a half-hearted promise with yourself to organize your tasks, it’s tougher to find a service that’s flexible and simple enough to use without becoming a chore in itself.

Producteev (a FGVN graduate), which is launching a slew of new apps today, comes the closest to being the task management service I’ve always wanted. It works on a multitude platforms, can be used for both group and individual tasks, and even integrates directly with other task services (including some that it’s directly competing with).

(VentureBeat Disclosure: Producteev angel investor Aydin Senkut is also an investor in VentureBeat.)

The company also announced today that it has landed over 1,000 paying business customers, including companies like Orbitz, the Financial Times, and Logitech.