We are excited to announce the closing of our latest round of financing. You can read all of the details here. We’re pleased that all of our venture investors, including Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners and Betaworks are all participating alongside our existing angels. We are also happy to welcome the New York City Investment Fund to the Outside.in neighborhood.
The other news today is that I have joined as CEO and that co-founder Steven Johnson is becoming Executive Chairman. Steven is going to be spending more time this summer working on his next bestseller, but will be actively involved with the team and me as we continue to build out the vision that he and John Geraci had when they founded the company.
It is an exciting time in “local” and here at Outside.in; I am thrilled to join such a passionate forward thinking team.
What does “local” mean? Well, to us “local” means something different to every user. There is a huge demand for knowledge about what is happening around you…the news, discussions, information and trends…the things you want to know to be a better neighbor. But there is a general lack of ability to truly personalize that local information beyond basic zip code structure. We are building a business that centers around the neighborhoods and places where people actually live their lives…the elementary school, the dangerous intersection down the street or the park where you play with your dog.
“Local” also means something different if you are a publisher. Think about how your readers interact with your content. They look for how your coverage of news and events translates to their world…the world that starts at their door and gets — literally and figuratively — farther and farther away with each step. (This is what Chris Anderson calls “The Vanishing Point Theory of News“.) Imagine being able to bridge your online content to their real world lives. We do this already for some great publishers. Expect much more along these lines in the coming months.
We have a great pipeline of innovative products and businesses that build on the success we’ve had to date. We are going to spend the next few months rolling them out and talking a whole lot more with you, our users and partners…our neighbors. If you are a publisher, big or small, or advertiser, expect to hear from us about how we can help you get more local than ever before. If you just can’t wait to hear from us, reach out to us. We’d love to talk.
So, if you are new to Outside.in like I am, welcome to the neighborhood.
Mark
Posts FromMay, 2008
May 08
Financing & News
May 08
Financing Press Release
Outside.in Announces $3M Round of Financing, and
Appoints New Chief Executive Officer
Popular Hyperlocal News Site and Technology Platform Receives Additional Funding and Names Mark Josephson as CEO
BROOKLYN, NY (May 20, 2008) – Outside.in (www.outside.in), the web’s leading platform for neighborhood news and conversation, announced the hiring of Mark Josephson, former President of Seevast Corp. and General Manager of About.com. The company also announced a round of financing that includes existing investors Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners, Betaworks, and a group of prominent angel investors led by George Crowley. A new investor, the New York City Investment Fund, also joined the round.
This round of financing will fund the continued development of industry-leading consumer tools available at www.outside.in, as well as the expansion of the suite of products and services that empower content publishers of all sizes.
Co-founder and former CEO, Steven Berlin Johnson will remain actively involved as Executive Chairman.
“There is a huge opportunity to connect the Internet to people’s offline lives and Outside.in’s tools empower greater knowledge about local communities and neighborhoods, down to the street level,” said Mark Josephson. “The team at Outside.in is determined to revolutionize how ‘local media’ is defined and I am thrilled to join them in that quest.”
We’ve spent the past 18 months building the largest database of place-based content on the web, and we’ve developed pioneering tools for exploring all that information. Mark’s skills and experience make him uniquely suited to turn those tools into a dynamic business,” said Johnson. “And the continued support from our investors is a great vote of confidence in the model we’ve developed.”
About Outside.in
Outside.in (www.outside.in) is the web’s leading platform for neighborhood news and conversation. Outside.in’s technology dynamically maps web content to offline locations, which enables hyperlocal news discovery and sharing for consumers and provides powerful tools for content creators of all sizes. The company was founded by Web pioneer and bestselling author Steven Berlin Johnson and acclaimed social media creator John Geraci. For more information, visit www.outside.in or the company’s blog at http://blog.outside.in.
May 08
Thank you for blogging responsibly
We were so excited to be a part of the fantastic 2008 Brooklyn Blogfest last Thursday at the Brooklyn Lyceum, organized and curated by Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn (and her team of volunteers). We’ve had our finger on the pulse of hyperlocal blogging for some time now, so it was inspiring to see so many niche bloggers from our fine borough in person. Blogging can be a lonely and sometimes dangerous endeavor, so we were happy to fuel the socializing and blog discussion with some local beer from Park Slope’s Bierkraft. Since outside.in believes in connecting neighbors, on and offline, we thought the least we could do was provide the drinks for the Blogfest.
(photo credit: Hillary Byrum)
Our own Josh Mack announced our upcoming tools for bloggers (stay tuned!) and we learned about a lot of great blogs, new and old, during the open mic portion of the program. We hope that if you’re one of them, you’ll sign up for outside.in and submit your blog to our system. If you know of any hyperlocal bloggers we’re missing (anywhere in the U.S.), send them our way. We really enjoyed the photoblogger slide show which showcased lots of local talent, and the humorous, but useful tips for new bloggers. It was great to chat with bloggers and blog enthusiasts alike post-program. We hope you’ll continue the friendships forged and conversations started last week: outside.in/discussions. Thanks to everyone who came out to support Brooklyn blogging, and remember, please blog responsibly!
