After graduating from MIT with a B.S. in economics in 2001, Ian Sigalow worked as an associate for Boston Millennia Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in IT. In 2006, Sigalow earned his MBA at Columbia University.
While at school, Sigalow founded StrongData Corporation, a smart card company. Sigalow left the company in 2006 to co-found Greycroft Partners with Alan Patricof and Dana Settle. Sigalow is also a partner at the firm. Greycroft Partners is New York venture capital firm that invests in media and technology. The Greycroft’s portfolio companies include AwesomenessTV, NewsCred, 9GAG, and several others early-stage Internet and mobile companies. Greycroft Partners manages $600M, and has raised more than $200M.
Sigalow is also a board member and observer of Collective (Since 2007), Ceros (Since 2008), Extreme Reach (Since 2009), Merchantry (Since 2010), Resonate Networks (Since 2010), Performance Horizon Group (Since 2011), Nomi (Since 2012), JW Player (Since 2012), PeopleLinx (Since 2013), Skimlinks (Since 2013), and Zergnet (Since 2014).
VC Firm:
Co-Founder and Partner of Greycroft Partners (Since May 2006)
Expertise areas::
Deal sourcing, business development, strategy, entrepreneurial finance, fundraising, operating model development, leading engineering teams, and patent application process.
Selected Investment:
Buddy Media (Acquired by Salesforce: NYSE: CRM)
Braintree (Acquired by Paypal: NASDAQ: EBAY)
Vizu (Acquired by Nielsen: NYSE: NLSN)
OggiFinogi (Acquired by Collective)
Plated
Validic
Zergnet
Boards:
Collective
Ceros
Extreme Reach
Merchantry
Resonate Networks
Performance Horizon Group
Nomi
JW Player
PeopleLinx
Skimlinks
Zergnet
Blogs & Websites & Twitter:
Twitter
Ian Sigalow Blog – Pattern Recognition
Memorable Quotes:
On the VC and the art world: “If a company doesn’t make money, is it art?”
On companies: “It is important to remember that companies are just a collection of people who collectively possess a vastly broader reach than a marketing department. This idea has the potential to change marketing, and maybe in the process it can humanize companies too.”
On the independence of journalism and Edward Snowden’s interview with the Guardian: “Maybe this will once again produce a golden age for journalism, although instead of writers, the media companies will employee fact checkers. Or maybe the NSA, with their giant databases of human behavior, will be able to verify fact from fiction. Either way, I think it is going to be a bumpy ride.”
On Facebook vs LinkedIn: “In a world where attention is traded for advertising dollars, that edge goes to Facebook.”
On what makes a good CEO: “The lesson I learned early on is that it is better to have a flawed plan than flawed execution. Good executors can figure it out along the way.”
On advertising innovation: “Figuring out the right audience to run creative against is a tough job, and smart media buyers will need to understand a lot of math to run these calculations.”
