![]() ![]() And such an approach can counterbalance the effect of small exits in Europe so far. Founders who have exited – even with smaller amounts – can leverage the public funding and support structures to place bets on emerging business fields. Many of these names should be familiar to regular TechCrunch readers.The DEEP Ecosystem Conference participants recommend the following steps to support the creation of Startup Mafias: 1) Nurture Ecosystem AngelsĬombining public initiatives with the leadership and vision of successful entrepreneurs from the region offers the chance to accelerate ecosystem growth. Senkut’s Felices Ventures also has stakes in BrightRoll, Buzz Logic, Cake Financial, Dogster, FreeWebs, Mashery, MesmoTV, Mint, PowerSet, SayNow, and Yapta. The three invested in Meraki Networks together. Senkut has invested alongside other former Google employees, including Paul Buchheit, 31, who built the first versions of Gmail, and Georges Harik, 36, who ran many of Google’s new businesses when the company began expanding beyond Internet search. So far, only two of those were started by ex-Googlers. Senkut, 38, may have become the most active angel investor of the bunch, putting $25,000 to $100,000 each in about 35 companies. Former deal-makers Ullah and Dempsey are reportedly raising money for their own venture fund.īut the Peter Thiel of the group (or is it the Reid Hoffman?) is former sales manager Senkut. Patel, another former Google adverising exec, now works for Battery Ventures. Zurek, a former manager for AdWords, is also an angel. ![]() Already while at Google, he invested in Twitter and PhotoBucket. Sacca just left his post as head of Google’s bid for wireless spectrum and WiFi initiatives to become a full-time angel investor. So who are these people? The growing Google Mafia includes Chris Sacca, Aydin Senkut, Paul Buchheit, Georges Harik, Satya Patel, Salman Ullah, Sean Dempsey, and Andrea Zurek. And while there are certainly plenty of ex-Googlers going on to found new startups as well, the emerging group of Google angels and VCs seems to be made up more of pure investors. It is quite possible that many in the new class of Google investors never even knew each other while they were at Google. In contrast, Google now has 16,000 employees. PayPal still only had a few hundred employees when it was sold. They did not just invest in other startups, they went on to found them-YouTube, Slide, LinkedIn, Yelp, Geni. And, with the exception of perhaps Thiel, all are company builders first, and investors second. The Paypal group was tightly knit and forced to direct their entrepreneurial energies elsewhere after the sale of PayPal to eBay. Sacks, etc), these rich alums are setting out to use their Google money as seed capital for a new round of startups.īut there are some major differences between the two mafias. Just like the Paypal Mafia before them (Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, Jeremy Stoppelman, David O. (That is, if Facebook doesn’t nab them first). As Googlers get long in the tooth and their stock options fully vest, some are hanging up their employee badges and giving up the free food at the Google cafeteria to try their hand as venture capitalists and angel investors. ![]()
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