Where I Am Investing and Why · Machine #50 on the net (1973) (40 years of email) including Gary...

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Where I Am Investing and Why: Some Insights

Howard L. Morgan, Founding Partner

First Round Capital

September 25, 2013

Some Personal History

2 Confidential & Trade Secret

I’m a lapsed academic (Prof at Cornell, Caltech, HBS)

CCNY ’65, Cornell Ph.D. ’68

UPenn (Wharton and Moore) from 72-84

Machine #50 on the net (1973) (40 years of email) including Gary Thuerk’s first spam in 1978

Angel investing 1990-2004 First Round– 2005 to present

First Round Capital

q 7 partners (Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes, Bill Trenchard, Kent Goldman, Phin Barnes, moi)

q Offices in Philadelphia, NY, San Francisco q True to the name, we invest in seed stage (first

rounds) q Have done 250 investments over 8 years q eCommerce (Uber, Fab, One Kings Lane etc) q Social (Path, Cluster etc) q Lots of Adtech

3 Confidential & Trade Secret

What are we investing in Adtech

q Mobile (and local) q Social q  Image q Video q Analytics, Networks and RTB

these often overlap

4 Confidential & Trade Secret

Why Mobile

q Deloitte TMT 2013 Predictions - q “Mobile” advertising is dead. Long live tablet and

smartphone advertising (and maybe the watch) q Numbers are growing q Targeting is getting better

5 Confidential & Trade Secret

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Local

q Great targeting – Yelp has made it work q Ads for movies, restaurants seem to be OK q Branding not so much

8 Confidential & Trade Secret

Social

q Facebook is working, so is Twitter q Adaptly, Social Wire, UberMedia, Path, Cluster,

Mango Health, MessageMe MightyText

9 Confidential & Trade Secret

Image

q Curalate, GumGum, Cluster, Instacanvas

10 Confidential & Trade Secret

Video

q Say Media, Gumroad

11 Confidential & Trade Secret

Analytics, Networks and RTB

q Analytics

12 Confidential & Trade Secret

Regions

q  If you’re Adtech, you need a NY presence q LA is becoming more important, especially with

entertainment industry q SF and Bay Area

13 Confidential & Trade Secret

Exit view

q Tremor q MoPub q Buyers – FB, Twitter, Google, MSFT, Yahoo

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Summary

q Advertising always moves to where the customers can be influenced – this is more and more online

q  Integrating campaigns across media (TV, Online, mobile, Outdoor) is now far more possible

q The dollars are coming, so we VCs intend to be there funding the next great innovations

q Privacy concerns are not going away – Congress is likely to act, or at least muddy the waters

15 Confidential & Trade Secret

Thank You

q Reach me at:

q howard@firstround.com q @HLMorgan q www.waytooearly.com

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