Case Studies

 

Company	Facebook
Description	Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world with more than 750 million users, up from 500 million users last year. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg.
Investment	May-2009 ($200M) Digital Sky Technologies; November-2007 ($375M) Microsoft, Li Ka Shing, Samwer Bros.; April-2006 ($25M) Greylock, Accel, Meritech, Peter Theil; April-2005 ($12.7M) Accel, Peter Theil; [First Investor: April-2005 ($500K) Peter Theil] Facebook
% of Equity	10% For first investor, Peter Theil, 2005 So if you would have invested $20 in Facebook during their Series A investment round in September 2005, your investment would have been worth today (based on $60 billion valuation) $240,000!
Data Source	http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/facebook http://www.businessinsider.com/2011-digital-100#1-facebook-1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel

 

Company	Groupon
Description	Groupon is a “deal-of-the-day” website that is localized to major markets in the United States and Canada. Launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston and New York City and Toronto. The idea for Groupon was created by now-CEO Andrew Mason.
Investment	$1,000,000 in 2008
% of Equity	50%
Data Source	http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/groupon http://www.businessinsider.com/2011-digital-100#3-groupon-3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lefkofsky

 

Company	Twitter
Description	Messaging, micro blogging and social networking service created by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone in 2006.
Investment	Series A investment round raised $5 million on a $20 million pre-money valuation
% of Equity	20% in July, 2007
Data Source	http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/twitter http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/twitter#ixzz2BaR9oEUe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dorsey

 

Company	LinkedIn
Description	With over 100 million users representing over 200 countries around the world,LinkedIn is a fast-growing professional networking site that allows membersto create business contacts, search for jobs, and find potential clients.
Investment	Sequoia Capital led a $4.7 million investment in 2003
% of Equity	17.8% of the company If you would have invested $20 in LinkedIn in November, 2003 during their Series A your investment would have been worth today (based on $1.6 billion valuation) $6,810
Data Source	http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/linkedin

 

Company	Living Social
Description	Living Social is an international social buying company based in Washington, D.C. They specialize in daily deals offered in cities across the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe (at present only the UK and Ireland), and Australia. It is one of the fastest growing company in the e-commerce space and specializes in localized daily deals across 240+ markets in more than 12 countries. The company released its first daily deal on July 27, 2009.
Investment	$400,000,000 in 2010
% of Equity	7.5%
Data Source	http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/livingsocial http://www.businessinsider.com/2011-digital-100#9-livingsocial-9

 

Company	Summly
Description	Summly is a news summarization iPhone app which allows for seamless sharing to all major social networking sites. Launched in November 2011 by creator Nick D’Aloisio, Summly became featured as Apple’s Editor’s Choice in 48 companies, was the number one news app in over forty countries and made the top of the UK app store. On March 25th 2013, just after 18 months, Summly was acquired by Yahoo!
Investment	Angel Investors: Horizons Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, Betaworks, Brian Chesky, Hosain Rahman, Joanna Shields, Josh Kushner, Mark Pincus, Matt Mullenweg, Stephen Fry, Troy Carter, Yoko Ono and many more.
% of Equity	Angel Investors- Undisclosed Percentage Yahoo! Acquisition of Summly for $30 million
Data Source	http://summly.com/ http://allthingsd.com/20130325/yahoo-paid-30-million-in-cash-for-18-months-of-young-summly-entrepreneurs-time/

 

 

 

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