| @Jason | |
| Birthdate | 11/28/70 |
“Jason McCabe Calacanis was CEO and co-founder of Weblogs, Inc., a network of widely read blogs including Engadget – ranked # 1 by Technorati, Joystiq, Autoblog, and Blogging Baby. Founded in January 2004, Weblogs, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL in November of 2005. Calacanis maintained editorial supervision over Weblogs, Inc. as a senior vice president of AOL. In June 2006, Calacanis relaunched Netscape, the iconic browser owned by AOL and was named its general manager.
As of June 2008 Jason is now CEO and Founder of Mahalo, Inc., a user-powered search engine.
Prior to forming Weblogs, Inc., Calacanis was CEO and founder of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published print and online publications including the Silicon Alley Reporter, a must-read monthly that chronicled New York’s internet and new media industries. The company also produced high-profile industry-specific conferences in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. After the industry consolidated, the company’s flagship publication was folded and the company was sold out of bankruptcy to a portfolio company of The Wicks Group, a private equity firm. Eventually, it was part of a portfolio company that was sold to Dow Jones.
Calacanis was born and grew up in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. He received a B.A. in psychology from Fordham University in Manhattan. He is a 5th Degree in Tae Kwon Do and has run in eleven consecutive New York City Marathons. He served as a script consultant on Wayne Wang’s film “Center of the World†about the life of a “cyber-surfer†and appears in a supporting role. He serves on the board of directors of Bay Ridge Preparatory School.
Jason is known for his insights into the media industry and he is quoted widely in trade and consumer media outlets. He also keynotes industry conferences worldwide. His views can be read daily on his own blog, www.calacanis.com and heard weekly on CalacanisCast, a new show on the PodTech Network.” (Source: Calacanis.com)
| Company | Date | Round | Size | Participants |
| Nimble CRM | 1/12 | Angel | $1M | 4 |
| ChallengePost | 8/11 | Series A | $500k | 11 |
| Wanderfly | 2/11 | Series A | $1M | 7 |
| Backyard | 12/10 | Seed | $150k | 3 |
| DataStax | 10/10 | Series A | $2.7M | 3 |
| Uber | 10/10 | Angel | $1.25M | 15 |
| Chartbeat | 9/10 | Seed | $3M | 12 |
| Rapportive | 8/10 | Seed | $1M | 15 |
| Thumbtack | 6/10 | Angel | $1.2M | 14 |
| This Week In | 5/10 | Angel | $300k | 3 |
| UberMedia | 4/10 | Series A | $3.5M | 8 |
| JIBE | 3/10 | Seed | $875k | 5 |
| Backupify | 2/10 | Seed | $900k | 7 |
| Blippy | 1/10 | Angel | $1.73M | 9 |
| Gowalla | 12/09 | Series B | $8.29M | 9 |
| gdgt | 7/09 | Seed | $550k | 7 |
| Causecast | 12/07 | Seed | 3 |
