Jason Calacanis

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Jason Calacanis : biography

November 28, 1970 –

Netscape.com

Six months into his tenure with AOL, Calacanis was offered a chance to be the General Manager of the new Netscape website. Calacanis used the model pioneered by Digg, Del.icio.us, and Furl and added an editorial layer to the system. The project has launched and occupied the front page of Netscape. Calacanis started by hiring a team of eight "anchors" to follow up users’ top stories. He then hired some of the top users of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, Newsvine and Flickr to go to Netscape as Netscape Navigators,Calacanis, Jason (July 18, 2006). . The Jason Calacanis Weblog. Retrieved 2010-06-19. which prompted a public debate with Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.

On November 16, 2006, TechCrunch reported that Calacanis had resigned from his position as CEO of Weblogs, Inc. and General Manager of Netscape.Arrington, Michael (November 16, 2006). . Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2010-06-19. Calacanis later confirmed this with a post at his blog.Calacanis, Jason (November 17, 2006). The Jason Calacanis Weblog. Retrieved 2010-06-19.http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/jason-calacanis-talks-about-leaving-aol-and-whats-next/3979

Sequoia Capital

On December 5, 2006, Techcrunch reported that Calacanis was going to announce his new position at Sequoia Capital as an EIA (entrepreneur in action).Arrington, Michael (December 5, 2006). . Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2010-06-19. Calacanis later confirmed this on his blog.Calacanis, Jason (December 5, 2006). . The Jason Calacanis Weblog. Retrieved 2010-06-19. Until May, 2007, Calacanis had a role of “Entrepreneur in Action” at Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firm, a position he held since December 2006.http://www.therisetothetop.com/innovative-broadcaster/jason-calacanis-interview/

Mahalo.com

Calacanis founded Mahalo.com, a "human-powered search engine",Delaney, Kevin J. (May 31, 2007). . WSJ.com; The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-06-19. which launched in alpha test in May 2007. During a speech about the site at the Gnomedex conference in August 2007, Calacanis got into a public confrontation with Dave Winer that led to Winer’s resignation from the panel of experts for the TechCrunch20 conference organized by Calacanis. Winer interrupted Calacanis’ speech during the event, calling it "conference spam" and igniting a war of words on their blogs. "I’m not interested in having someone berate me like this," Calacanis wrote on his blog.

Mahalo ("thank you" in Hawaiian), raised $20 million in venture capital from well-known investors including Sequoia Capital ; News Corp; CBS; Mark Cuban; and Elon Musk. The company’s motto: "We’re here to help."

As of April 21, 2010, Mahalo had 9.4 million global (5.7 million US) unique monthly visitors, down from a peak of 14.1 million global (7.4 million US) unique monthly visitors, according to Quantcast.. Quantcast.com. ("Traffic data hidden by owner." Registration and access permission from Mahalo.com required. No archive available.) Retrieved 2010-06-19.

Angel Investing

In 2009, Calacanis founded the Open Angel Forum, an event that connects early stage startups with angel investors. The forum was the culmination of a series of public comments by Calacanis questioning the ethics of pay-to-pitch angel forums.Boutin, Paul (December 6, 2009). . "VentureBeat.com;" VentureBeat. Retrieved 2010-08-11. Calacanis believes startups shouldn’t have to pay to pitch angel investors.Calacanis, Jason (October 9, 2010). . Calacanis.com. Retrieved 2010-08-11 Calacanis is also an Angel Investor in Gowalla. Calacanis raised a $10Million fund to for his own Venture investment firm to invest in startups that emerged from the Launch conference.http://valleywag.gawker.com/racism-denier-jason-calacanis-is-starting-his-own-vc-f-511058699http://www.financeplus.com/entrepreneur-jason-calacanis-raising-a-10-million-fund/ Limited partners in the fund include David Sacks.http://www.techinvestornews.com/Enterprise/Blogs-and-Tech-Dialogue/launch-founder-jason-calacanis-raising-10-million-venture-fund Following the success of the Launch conference,http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/03/launch-founder-jason-calacanis-raising-10-million-venture-fund/ Mr. Calacanis aims to get closer and more involved in the new ventures that emerged from that conference.http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/06/03/entrepreneur-jason-calacanis-raising-10-million-fund/ The approach of investment is around $25,000 to $100,000 in five to 10 startups per year.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/us-venture-calacanis-newfund-idUSBRE95301W20130604http://www.pehub.com/251362/jason-calacanis-opens-up-about-his-new-venture-fund-launch-fund-i/