On Saturday, the New York Times published a very cool graphic mapping the 400+ startups in NYC that have raised money from investors in the last two years. Many of these companies are ones that my firm has invested in, and given the firm’s mission to strengthen and diversify the city’s economy, I’m excited to see how the startup ecosystem continues to grow in New York! Click here to see a high-res version of the map.
For more details, read the posts by Bijan Sabet and Fred Wilson or watch this video on Vimeo.
Take 30 seconds and click here to write your congressman.
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Unlike a post made on this blog on April 1 of last year, this post actually does confirm I have indeed moved on from investment banking to pursue new opportunities. Specifically, I decided earlier this year to join a venture capital firm here in New York City and just had my first day on the job yesterday.
My new firm is called the New York City Investment Fund, which often leads people to ask if I am now a public servant of sorts (answer: no). The answer is that NYCIF is a private fund, but that it was formed with a civic mission in mind. In particular, it pursues the goal of strengthening and diversifying New York City’s economy in addition to seeking financial return. This might take place through promoting burgeoning high-tech industries in NYC, like biotech or cleantech, or it could come through investing in a non-profit bakery that provides jobs and teaching skills to low-income women. Yes, one could say that it fits right in with the title of this blog — where social entrepreneurship and venture capital meet!
While my roles and responsibilities will be ones that I figure out over time, I do know that one of my primary tasks will be to help manage the FinTech Innovation Lab, which you may have read about on TechCrunch back in December. I’m looking forward to joining the city’s innovation economy in earnest (instead of just attending meetups and events on the side) and hope to be meeting many more tech and social entrepreneurs going forward.
For more info on what NYCIF does, you can read this brief piece on my CEO Maria Gotsch, who was recently named as one of the “People to Watch in Silicon Alley” by Crain’s, or watch this interview with her on Bloomberg TV. Also, feel free to email me at any time!
Finally, a big thanks to everyone who helped me and encouraged me during the year-long process of recruiting. You know who you are!
View CommentsTags:fintech·New York·New York City·New York City Investment Fund·NYC·NYCIF·socent·tech·VC·venture capital
Just earlier this morning, a friend of mine Gchatted me with a question: Did I know of any developers that could help him with a start-up idea of his? I told him most of the folks I knew were either working full-time on
their own start-ups or already involved in multiple side projects, but I forwarded him on a list of great articles that provides a great starting point for non-technical founders to think about how to get off the ground. Given how commonly this question is posed these days, I thought I’d write up a quick post.
StartupDigest has actually consolidated several great threads / blog posts in one place, so click here for a primer on “Getting Started as a Non-Technical Founder,” including one by Vin Vacanti, a former Wall-Streeter who co-founded Yipit. And if you do happen to be a developer who’d be interested in a side project, please do let me know, and I can put you in touch with my friend.
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As a side note in case you’re wondering, Whartonite Seeks Code Monkey is an actual site started by a couple of Penn engineering students as an inside joke about “silly Whartonites” looking for Penn developers to help them with their amazing multi-billion dollar start-up idea. Follow them on Twitter.
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VisionSpring, a social enterprise that has been featured on SocentVC previously, just announced a new $250,000 fundraising campaign called “$4 Eyeglasses for the Poor,” with a specific focus on expanding VisionSpring’s outreach to areas of high need in India.
What kind of impact can you expect to see from this work? Founder Jordan Kassalow explains, “This project will restore the sight of 65,000 people & generate nearly $15 million in economic impact. Customers that use VisionSpring eyeglasses experience a 35% increase in productivity which can result in a 20% increase in monthly income.”
This fundraiser is also noteworthy because VisionSpring has entered into a partnership with Ray-Ban to provide incentives to donors. All individuals who donate $160 or more to this campaign will also receive a free pair of the legendary Wayfarer sunglasses. Props to Ray-Ban for supporting the work of organizations like VisionSpring!
View CommentsTags:eyeglasses·glasses·Ray Ban·social enterprise·sunglasses·vision·VisionSpring·Wayfarer
So… this’ll make two LinkedIn posts in a row. Not really the “next hot young startup” or anything like that, but they’re definitely rolling out some new features, like LinkedIn Maps.
Have you ever wondered what your network looks like? Wouldn’t it be cool to see a visual representation of not only how you’re connected to members of your social or professional network, but how those connections themselves are connected?
LinkedIn has done a great job at bringing this data to life in a way that is both easy to understand and also fun to explore. Take a look at my LinkedIn connections below, and you can quickly see the sub-networks present. Pretty cool, huh? (I love how the StartingBloc family is so tightly clustered, by the way!) Click here for a detailed look.
Also check out the introductory video that LinkedIn made right here:
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