Primary Job Title CEO Primary Organization Luxe Software
Location New York, New York, United States Regions Greater New York Area, East Coast, Northeastern US Gender Male
Investor Type Investor Stage
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Val Katayev is a serial entrepreneur who bootstrapped to $100M+ in profits & exits. Founded and led multiple successful startups to hyper-growth centered around adtech, mobile, music, search and data. Two of these tech companies, ToneMedia (now Bandsintown Amplified) and ToneFuse resulted in being acquired by Lagardère Group. In addition to
success in tech, Val is a pioneer in the Marketplace Lending space as he later partnered with Prime Meridian Capital Management to help the firm grow it's AUM from $5M to $500M in the first 3 years of his involvement.
Operating and growing with capital efficiency is where Val excels. This management style generated over $500M in revenue, all before taking any venture capital.
While at ToneMedia, Katayev grew it to a top 3 music property according to Comscore. In 2009, Katayev founded ToneFuse, which he grew to become the world's largest ringtone marketing platform. Also in 2009, Katayev co-founded and laid the early foundation for MobileFuse, one of the leading mobile advertising companies that he still oversees. In 2001, Katayev founded Poise Media, an industry leader in performance and paid search marketing for 800+ clients including eBay, VistaPrint and Rhapsody, while still attending Baruch College.
These days Val is focusing on the jewelry industry through two companies, Luxe Software and Jocalio, that aims to re-imagine how the $180B jewelry industry operates.
Specialties: data, internet advertising, mobile advertising, behavioral & profile targeting, marketing, business development, angel investing, venture capital, SEM, PPC, domaining, product development
