NEWS & EVENTS
Charles River Ventures Adds Mark Jacobstein as Entrepreneur in Residence
Charles River Ventures Adds Mark Jacobstein as Entrepreneur in Residence
MENLO PARK, Calif. (October 3, 2007) – Charles River Ventures (CRV), one of the nation’s leading early-stage venture capital firms, today announced that Mark Jacobstein has joined the firm as an entrepreneur in residence (EIR). Jacobstein will focus on uncovering promising investment opportunities and incorporating his expertise as he consults with the firm’s existing portfolio companies. Jacobstein carries extensive digital media knowledge and has been a long-time entrepreneur specializing in consumer mobile and Internet technologies.
“Mark has proven himself time and time again as one of the top entrepreneurs in the Valley,” said George Zachary, general partner, Charles River Ventures. “He’s not afraid to take risks and set high standards for the rest of the industry to follow. We know he’ll been a tremendous asset to both CRV and our portfolio companies.”
Widely known as the creator of the first online fantasy sports company, Small World Sports, Jacobstein most recently served as the executive vice president of corporate development and marketing at Silicon Valley-based Loopt, Inc., a ground-breaking social mapping startup backed by Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates.
Before joining Loopt, Jacobstein was a founding member and president of publishing for Digital Chocolate, one of the world’s largest publishers of mobile games. Jacobstein helped launch Digital Chocolate in 2003 and was actively involved in the acquisition of Sumea, a Helsinki-based mobile publisher, as well as raising more than $20M in venture capital from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sutter Hill Ventures.
As CEO and founder of Small World Sports, Jacobstein raised more than $20M in angel financing and venture capital from Flatiron Ventures, Chase Capital Partners and NBC. He also was actively involved in closing distribution deals with numerous world-class media companies including News Corp, Sports Illustrated/Time Warner, NBC, Yahoo!, Lycos and The Sporting News. Prior to selling Small World Sports to Paul Allen's The Sporting News, the Web site’s community had grown to more than three million members playing dozens of fantasy games. In addition, Jacobstein founded Small World Software, an Internet technology consultancy, which he sold to iXL in 1998. He then served as the senior vice president of sales and business development for iXL’s New York office as it grew to annual revenues in excess of $25M. Jacobstein graduated cum laude from Harvard University and began his career as a software developer at Bloomberg L.P.
About Charles River Ventures Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures is one of the nation’s oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with approximately $2.1 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in high growth technology and media sectors. Over the past 10 years, CRV funds have been ranked among the industry’s top performers. CRV has offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA. For more information visit www.crv.com.
