Maveron Names Andrew Trader ("AT") Venture Partner

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 29, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Maveron
LLC, a consumer-focused venture capital firm with offices in Seattle
and San Francisco, today announced that it has named Andrew
Trader (“A.T.”) a Venture Partner. Based in Maveron’s San Francisco
office, A.T. joined the firm in 2010 as an Entrepreneur in Residence to
explore new web-enabled consumer service opportunities. “I’m thrilled to
deepen my relationship with Maveron as a Venture Partner. Together we’ll
invest in rock star entrepreneurs and help teams build successful
businesses,” said A.T.

“A.T. has already made great contributions as an Entrepreneur in
Residence by identifying investment opportunities and working with our
portfolio companies,” said Maveron Partner Amy
Errett. “With his energy, vision and expertise in scaling consumer
brands quickly, we know he’ll add significant value to our firm as a
Venture Partner.”

A.T. is a serial Internet and software entrepreneur. In 2007, he was an
integral member of Zynga’s founding team, helping the company create the
social gaming industry. At Zynga, he built and managed all business
operations including revenue management, marketing, user acquisition,
business development, and strategic partners, including Facebook. His
contributions were instrumental in driving Zynga’s meteoric success,
achieving profitability within just a few months of its launch and
growing to 60 million daily users.

Before Zynga, A.T. was the CEO of Utah Street Networks, the operator of
Tribe.net, one of the first social networking sites. He led the sale of
Utah Street’s platform to Cisco in 2007. He was also the co-founder of
Coremetrics, a leader in website marketing, where he served as the
company’s VP of Business Development, growing the company to over 100
employees and raising $65 million in invested capital before IBM
acquired the company in 2010.

“Maveron is committed to working with entrepreneurs to accelerate their
success,” said A.T. “I’m excited about the opportunity to be part of a
team that is helping build great companies and brands.”

Maveron’s focus is on backing the best entrepreneurs in three sectors:
web-enabled consumer services, education and wellness, including such
current portfolio companies as Altius Education, Groupon and zulily.

Earlier in his career, Trader worked in corporate finance (MA) and
business consulting at Ernst Young LLP. He received both his B.S.E.
and M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

About Maveron

Maveron is a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in consumer
companies. Founded in 1998 by Dan Levitan and Howard Schultz, the firm
has offices in Seattle and San Francisco. Representative Maveron
investments include Altius Education, eBay, Capella Education, Groupon,
Livemocha, PayNearMe, Shutterfly, Trupanion and zulily. For more
information about Maveron, visit
www.maveron.com ,
Twitter
and Facebook.

SOURCE: Maveron LLC

        
        Maveron LLC 
        Andra Hall, 206-288-1722 
        ahall@maveron.com
        

Copyright Business Wire 2011

Share and Enjoy

Will Facebook Reveal iPad App On Sept. 22′s f8 Developer Conference?

Facebook developers are eagerly awaiting the f8 Developer’s Conference, set for September 22, 2011. This conference, held at the San Francisco Design Center, should set the stage for numerous announcements involving the world’s most popular social network. These announcements could be more important than ever, as Facebook may be heading toward an IPO.

Many of us are hopeful there will be an announcement regarding the much anticipated Facebook client for the iPad.

Previous f8 conferences have shown the announcement of features such as the “Like” button that has taken the online world by storm.

If you are addicted to Facebook and you have an iPad, you’ve longed for an app that takes advantage of the larger screen real estate. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has repeatedly denied claims that this custom designed client is in the works, even though rumors and leaked screenshots abound. Not to mention the fact that it was revealed to be hidden inside the existing iPhone app.

If the leaked screenshots are to be believed, we should expect a multi-pane navigation system that will allow you to chat with friends while still browsing the site –much the same way you can on a PC. It will sport a much more modern look and things like your news feed are expected to update using HTML 5 based technology.

Another expected announcement surrounds the implementation of an HTML 5-based gaming platform that will allow for game-play from within apps.

This conference is a much larger event than the press conference held earlier this year in which enhancements to chat were announced, including the addition of video chatting.

While some people may question the importance of an actual iPad specific app, supporting the considerable number of users accessing the social networking site using this platform would show their commitment to being the social networking leader.

[via Redmond Pie]

Share and Enjoy