SocentVC » tech

Starting Up in New York

Mark — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:12:56 +0000

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.

PIPA and SOPA. What’s the Big Deal?

Mark — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:58:11 +0000

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.

Moving On, For Real!

Mark — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:30:40 +0000

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!

Whartonite Seeks Code Monkey

Mark — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:59:02 +0000

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.

Happy April Fools’!

Mark — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:19:32 +0000

My favorites are Robin Hood and Werner Heisenberg.

LinkedIn Map Amazingness

Mark — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:30:08 +0000

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:

LinkedIn 2010 Review

Mark — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:15:08 +0000

So I just got this email last night. “LinkedIn 2010 Review.” I’ve been on the service for awhile now, but I think this is the first time I’ve received an update like this. Thought it was an interesting way of summarizing a year’s worth of info in one snapshot and definitely a good way for LinkedIn to get users to click back to the site, especially if they haven’t done so in awhile!

Also, I know a lot of LinkedIn information is publicly available, but if you see your name or picture up here and would still rather not have it be featured, just let me know!

The Future of Media

Mark — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:43:05 +0000

Here is a great slide from Henry Blodget and Jay Yarow’s presentation to kick off last week’s IGNITION conference. Take a look at the market value of new media companies versus that of traditional media. Bottom line, the future is already here!

Gilt’s Evolving Sales Model

Mark — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:54:03 +0000

Interesting development in the online flash sale space today! We’re no longer just talking about vanilla sales of off-season or otherwise “new-old-stock” merchandise, or even the introductions of upcoming lines, like the recent Gilt x Brooks Brothers collaboration. Rather, we’re now seeing in today’s Gilt Man offering a carefully curated selection of men’s vintage watches, brought to Gilt’s customers by Ben Clymer of Hodinkee, one of my favorite watch blogs.

Obviously this process can be a rather time-consuming one and not quite as scalable as simply re-selling off-season goods, but I’m very interested to see how Gilt’s offerings will continue to evolve and develop in the future, and whether we see more deals in the “Gilt Man Finds” series. Gilt Man Finds will hopefully allow us to see a decreasing the number of “What were you thinking?” type offerings, as documented in the hilarious blog “Worst of Gilt.”

Check out the watches starting at 1 PM Eastern (pushed back from the regular noontime release)!

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EDIT: Check out Hodinkee’s thoughts on their Gilt collaboration, one day later.

The Student Loan Crisis

Mark — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:33:02 +0000

My friend Mike is the founder of an education startup called Skillshare, “a platform to learn anything, from anyone.” Given his passion in the education space, Mike / Skillshare, along with The Cultivated Word, is preparing to produce an animated short film titled “The Student Loan Crisis.”

They need to raise about $900 more in the next 9 days to reach their fundraising goal on Kickstarter, so please consider supporting this project, especially if you’re also interested in education and education reform!