Posts Tagged "betaworks"

6
Dec 10

Outside.in CEO Mark Josephson to Speak About ‘The New Local News,’ at ILM: 10

Posted by Esther Brown in Announcements / Events / News — View Comments

Local media leaders will gather in Santa Clara, CA this week to take part in BIA/Kelsey’s annual conference on Interactive Local Media. Outside.in will have a strong presence at the conference, beginning with our CEO, Mark Josephson, who’ll be participating in a 9:15 A.M. panel on Day 2 of the conference (Wednesday, December 8th) entitled “The New Local News.”

According to BIA/Kelsey,  “the shift to the Internet and mobile is perhaps most apparent in the presentation and aggregation of news.” As an aggregator with a unique approach to the hyperlocal space, we couldn’t agree more. We believe the future of news is a bright one.

Like the other companies on the panel, Outside.in is definitely “vying to turn news into a commerce driver for the next generation and beyond,” as BIA/Kelsey puts it. Of course, Mark will share how Outside.in is making this a reality.

Mark will be sharing the stage with three other players in the hyperlocal space: Satbir Khanuja (President and CEO, Datasphere Technologies), Darian Shirazi (Founder and CEO, Fwix) and Warren Webster (President, Patch). It should be a great conversation, so we truly hope you’ll be there.

PS. Pay us another visit tomorrow for more details on Outside.in’s presence at ILM:10!

About ILM:10

Interactive Local Media 2010 (ILM:10) is BIA/Kelsey’s annual conference devoted to digital media with a local focus. This event features the true innovators of interactive local media and marketing, encompassing directories, search, mobile, social and direct marketing. For more information, please visit the conference’s official site.

30
Nov 10

Outside.in CEO Mark Josephson to Speak at Business Insider’s IGNITION Conference

Posted by Esther Brown in Announcements / Events / General / News — View Comments

Our CEO, Mark Josephson, will be speaking at Business Insider’s first annual IGNITION Conference this Thursday, December 2, at the Time Warner Center in New York City. The conference centers on ‘the Future of Media,’ and will “celebrate and explore the amazing new companies and business models that are taking advantage of this vast new digital opportunity.”

The panel, entitled ‘THE NEW EDITORIAL: Who Do You Want Telling You What to Read? Friends, Algorithms, or… Editors?’ will take place at 1:35 P.M. and will also feature John Borthwick (CEO of Betaworks), Garrett Camp (CEO of StumbleUpon) and Patrick Keane (former CEO of Associated Content). The panel will be moderated by Rachel Sklar, Mediaite’s Editor-at-Large.

According to Business Insider, “the Web has evolved from portals, to search, to social sharing, and back.” With that in mind, this panel will explore the following questions:

• What’s the value of unexpected discovery in a friend’s Twitter feed, vs. finding exactly what you want on Google?
• How much curation do consumers want around their content?

Outside.in has plenty of experience both with algorithmic and human curation, so Mark will have plenty of useful insights to share at the panel – we hope you can make it!

The full agenda for the conference can be found here. The hashtag for the event is #Ignition2010.

19
May 08

Financing & News

Posted by mark in General / News — View Comments

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

19
May 08

Financing Press Release

Posted by mark in General / News — View Comments

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.

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