Since 1988 in Paris, Boston, and London, Julie Meyer has helped start-up businesses and industry standards to emerge and establish themselves. Ariadne Capital, founded in 2000 by Julie, invests in and advises game-changers in the digital media, communications and life services sectors.
Julie is well-known for founding First Tuesday, the largest global network of entrepreneurs, which many credit for igniting the Internet generation in Europe. It was sold for $50 million in cash in and shares in July 2000. Julie has raised a lot of capital for start-ups in addition to overseeing $150 million of seed capital found for start-ups through First Tuesday. From 1998 to 1999, Julie was part of the team at NewMedia Investors [which became NewMedia Spark, an early stage investment firm, in October 1999] where she helped several companies, including lastminute.com, WGSN and Arc Cores raise significant venture capital financing and internationalise. Each of these businesses has had successful exits for their investors.
Ariadne Capital were early advisors to Skype [now Ebay], Kashya [now EMC], and Espotting [now MIVA], three large European VC-backed success stories of the early 21st century. Current hits in her portfolio include 1Click2Fame, SpinVox, RealLife, Independent IP and FIDOR. Named a “Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum” and one of the top 30 most powerful women in Europe according to the Wall Street Journal, Julie’s mission is to back the best entrepreneurs in Europe with global ambitions. She was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in October 2000 by Ernst & Young U.K., and has been named by the Wall Street Journal one of the top 50 European Business Women.
Influenced by Ayn Rand, Julie has frequently said that Ariadne Capital is ‘Atlas Shrugged in reverse.’
She is setting up a foundation for girls in their teens to help them become addicted to achievement.
