IA Capital Partners

Overview

I formed IA Capital Partners in Q1 2007 to hold my personal angel investments. My portfolio is focused on financial technology and digital media, and almost all of my companies generate valuable data/metadata which can be re-purposed, re-used and sold. I generally invest in applications and not platforms, and have increasingly have "clustered" my investing in order to leverage my networks, expertise and portfolio companies. I will both lead and participate in rounds but am almost always first money-in. I back great technologists with great ideas who want to build great companies together. I frequently invest with other Internet entrepreneurs, strategic angels and value-added venture firms.

Investments

I have invested in the following companies to date. A few solid exits, a notable failure and lots of great companies that are doing really, really well.

TheLadders.com (www.theladders.com), 2004
Offers online job search resources and content for the $100k+ job seekers and recruiters. Its specialized job search engines are an invaluable asset to top-earning job seekers in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Law, Technology, Operations and allother $100k+ fields. Matrix Ventures, angels.

Clear Asset Management (www.beacontrust.com), 2004
A quantitative equity money management and buy-side research firm that offers model-driven portfolios and ETFs (www.clearindexes.com) for institutions, intermediaries and individual investors. Angel funded. Original seed investor and former Board member. BOUGHT BY BEACON TRUST IN 2008.

Monitor110 (www.monitor110.com), 2005
Helps institutional investors access, analyze and monetize information extracted from the Internet. Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Gotham Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners LLC, Ron Conway, angels. Co-Founder and former Board member. CLOSED IN 2008.

Global Bay Mobile Technologies (www.globalbay.com), 2005
A SaaS-based on-demand platform delivering flexible mobile solutions for inspections, surveys and custom applications. Angel funded. Board member.

Spotlight Data Solution, Inc. (www.spotlightdata.com), 2005
Provides data collection and analysis software to help companies improve their business processes. New York Angels. Former Board member. BOUGHT BY METASTORM IN 2007.

Mimeo.com (www.mimeo.com), 2005
On-demand printing and binding, exactly the way you want it. Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Gotham Ventures, HarbourVest, Goldman Sachs Private Equity Partners, angels.

Wallstrip.com (www.wallstrip.com), 2006
An investment-driven video blog where stock culture meets pop culture. Angel funded. Former Board member. BOUGHT BY CBS INTERACTIVE IN 2007.

Mashery (www.mashery.com), 2007
The leading provider of web services and API management solutions enabling software-driven companies to unlock and accelerate their web services channel. New York Angels, First Round Capital.

V:social (www.vsocial.com), 2007
A social networking for video platform that enables content owners, site operators and online marketing organizations to custom brand, target, virally distribute and monetize their message via video. Consor Capital, angels.

BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com), 2007
A platform that extends the blog, allowing any individual to host a live blogshow online. The service is free to all users, plus hosts earn half of all revenue generated by their blogshow. The Kraft Family, angels. Former Board member.

Clickable (www.clickable.com), 2007
Leverages proprietary technologies to monitor search marketing campaign performance, providing actionable alerts and analytics that allow advertisers to maximize their advertising return on investment (ROI). Union Square Ventures, Pequot Ventures, Monster Ventures, Schoffstall Ventures, angels.

Covestor (www.covestor.com), 2007
A real-trade sharing service for proven self-investors, designed to share your real investment decisions, gain recognition and earn fees by helping others. All data is private, normalized and anonymous, and membership is free. Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Amadeus Capital, angels.

Mytrade (www.mytrade.com), 2007
A powerful, highly customizable investor portal for mainstream and alternative news, market data, portfolio tracking, audio, video and social networking. Angel funded. Former Board Member. SOLD TO THINKORSWIM IN 2007.

Buddy Media (www.buddymedia.com), 2007
A leading developer of applications for social media sites, including Facebook and MySpace. Buddy Media has launched seven applications to date including AceBucks, the underground currency of Facebook. Softbank Capital, Greycroft Ventures, European Founders Fund, Bay Partners AppFactory, Peter Thiel, Mark Pincus, angels. Board member.

Recognia (www.recognia.com), 2007
Develops and distributes proprietary technology for chart pattern recognition and price forecasting. The pattern recognition technology is capable of recognising patterns in the price charts of any publicly traded financial instrument including stocks, bonds, funds, commodities, currencies and indexes. Rockport Capital, Cirrus Capital, New York Angels, other select institutions and angels.

Lookery (www.lookery.com), 2007
Provides demographic marketing services in and around social networks. Lookery makes it safe and easy for social networks to distribute their data as targeting information outside their web sites, in order to make money in partnership with web sites that have great inventory but little or no user targeting information. Charles River Ventures, angels.

OrganizedWisdom (www.organizedwisdom.com), 2007
The first human-powered, doctor-guided search service for health. OrganizedWisdom continues to bring innovation to online health care by leveraging social media and the power of collaboration technologies to improve the quality of health search. ETF Ventures, Esther Dyson, angels.

Zoo Games (www.zoogamesinc.com), 2007
A NY-based developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software for use on all major platforms. Knight's Bridge Capital, angels.

Chazak Value Corp. (www.publicard.com), 2008
Through PubliCARD and its Infineer Ltd. subsidiary, Chazak Value designs and develops smart card software and hardware solutions for campus environments. The Company's solutions facilitate card-based payment for a wide variety of services typically found on both corporate and education sites. The 500 Group, institutional investors. Board member.

Path 101 (www.path101.com), 2008
A NYC-based startup building an online destination for career discovery - the place to figure out what you want to do. Angel funded.

TubeMogul (www.tubemogul.com), 2008
A free service that provides a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. Trinity Ventures, Knight's Bridge Capital, angels.

Genesis Interactive (www.gotgame.com), 2008
A revolutionary social gaming platform that will change the manner in which online gamers communicate, as well as discover and access content. UB Equity Partners, angels.

Zoomino (www.zoomino.com), 2008
Powered by the cutting edge artificial intelligence systems, Zoomino finds the top concepts on any web page and mark them with virtual links. Virtual links activate contextual apps that bring relevant web contents and services right onto the same page to speed up your research, or quench your curiosity. Angel funded.

Invite Media (www.invitemedia.com), 2008
A stealth-mode company working to optimize online display advertising. First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures, angels.

Silicon Alley Insider (www.alleyinsider.com), 2008
Covers the intersection of the technology, media, and communications industries, with a focus on companies and people making waves in New York.  Specifically, SAI provides news, commentary, and discussion about digital publishing, entertainment, news, music, social networking, mobile, and gaming.  Kohlberg Ventures, angels.

Standout Jobs (www.standoutjobs.com), 2008
Provides a suite of Web-based tools to power companies’ online recruiting efforts. Using social media tools and principles, Standout Jobs brings the latest Web consumer experience – easy, personal and dynamic – to the recruiting process. iNovia Capital, angels.

StockTwits (www.stocktwits.com), 2008
Facilitates idea-sharing around stocks on Twitter, simply by including a $ sign in front of a ticker symbol. Think Twitter + RSS + tumblr. Betaworks, angels. Led the Series A round. Board member.

TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com), 2009
Helps organize your Twitter feeds in an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Enables users to group people together and search across the twittersphere. Columns automatically update, providing the user with a very effective dashboard of real-time information. Betaworks, angels.

Selerity Financial (www.selerityfinancial.com), 2009
Stealth event notification start-up. Institutional investors, angels. Board member.

Alphacet (www.alphacet.com), 2009
Develops innovative software tools that help quantitative analysts, traders and portfolio managers create consistent alpha, or absolute, returns. Alphacet Discovery is the only complete Straight Through Processing platform for advanced quantitative strategy development and deployment. Saturn Ventures, angels. Board member.

Domdex (www.domdex.com), 2009
Domdex allows marketers to target display advertisements with the efficacy of search.  The combination of Domdex's familiar SEM interface, industry leading privacy technology, universal third-party ad integration and the data providers' high new-user and conversion rates enables easy precise targeting of a user in purchase mode with a product-specific display ad and landing page. Domdex finally brings search ad revenue beyond the search engine. NYCSeed, strategic angels. Led the Series A round. Board member.

Bit.ly (www.bit.ly), 2009
bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). bit.ly can be accessed through its website, bookmarklets, and a robust and open API. bit.ly is also integrated into several popular third-party tools such as Twitter and Tweetdeck. Unique user-level and aggregate links are created, allowing users to view complete, real-time traffic and referrer data, as well as location and metadata. O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Social Leverage, angels.

Ticketfly (www.ticketfly.com), 2009
An online ticketing and marketing platform that increases efficiency and offers next-generation ticketing functionality and sophisticated marketing and community tools. It's mission is to be the most innovative provider of ticketing and marketing software for event promoters, and an important online consumer destination in the live music space. Social Leverage, strategic angels.

Vaultive (www.valutive.com), 2009
Stealth Internet security start-up. Mark Gerson, strategic angels.