Can Buddy Media tame that mane?

Back in May, as it was on the brink of closing its first big round of funding, social commerce startup Spinback was acquired by Buddy Media, the 800 pound gorilla in the social marketing world. Since then, says Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow, Spinback has become tightly integrated into Buddy Media's daily work, especially when it comes to showing big clients what they are getting from the campaigns they run. Betabeat chatted with Spinback founder and CEO Andrew Ferenci, who is now director of product developement at Buddy.

How are things going with the integration of Spinback into Buddy Media?

It's going really well. Sometimes a product gets bought and the integration takes a long time. Or worse, the product never really gets integrated and then it gets killed off, like Google did with Dodgeball. We're only three months in, but the product fit just seems right, and we're getting close to the finish line for launching a brand new version of Spinback that will tie us into the larger mission here at Buddy. 

What's it like going from a small startup at Dogpatch Labs to a big company like Buddy?

Mike has created an real entrepreneurial culture, wrapped around a well oiled, corporate operating structure. It kind of feels like a big company built around a mini-incubator. When we’re not focused on Spinback, we’re working on new product.

Sure, but what exactly does Spinback is doing for Buddy?

Well we've always tried to give businesses a way to measure the dollar per share, the ROI for sharing on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and the real world conversions retailers get from their social media marketing efforts. In the future it will be any and all conversion. For big brands its not always as simple as, how many sales did that tweet drive. You want to look at, for example, I share an interactive link to a Mini-Cooper to my wall. We can track how many people click through and customize, request a quote to drive it, or like that post.

Won't that change with the arrival of new platforms like Google+?

There is a lot of fluff out there for social media, especially around engagement, so we're focused on giving the client hard data around a customized set of conversions. We’re stretching what Spinback can do really wide, so it can cover all different kinds of content across more verticals than just retail. And while Buddy is best known for Facebook, we're working across all the big social networks, email and emerging platforms. As you’re seeing with Google+, social focus is growing, anytime a big network like that opens up an API,  be it Google or LinkedIn, we want to help our clients market and measure.

Parting words on being a new employee of Buddy Media?

I'm trying to avoid the Buddy 15, but its hard, just due to the sheer volume of tasty snacks and beverages. It reminds me a lot of visiting google, a work hard, play hard atmosphere.

Update: In response to our photo caption Mr. Ferenci tweeted: "My mane has been tamed. i.e. I got a haircut."

Matt Meeker, entrepreneur-in-residence and start-up liaison at Dogpatch Labs.

The sunny Polaris Ventures-sponsored Dogpatch Labs space is a mystery! Start-ups hand-picked by Polaris Ventures and entrepreneur-in-residence Matt Meeker get to jam on their product for six months and often longer rent-free, giving up no equity stake, agreeing to no "first-look" caveats, no strings attached, in a super space just south of Union Square. And despite some rumorous rumblings to the contrary, start-ups seem to have no trouble moving up after they leave. Today the five-person analytics start-up Spinback was acquired by Buddy Media for an undisclosed sum which was "very compelling"--compelling enough that the company scrapped the term sheets it had signed with east and west coast VCs for an (also undisclosed--but "very normal") Series A. And after giving the company free rent along with the free coffee, free lunches and visits from tech luminaries that come with the space, Polaris Ventures made zero monetary return on their success.

Polaris wasn't one of the companies Spinback was planning to include in their series A, either--although it's unclear if that was because they weren't interested or because Spinback got more attractive offers from other VCs. Either could be true, although a company with Spinback's prospects--social media analytics in a world where Facebook serves up a third of online display ads in the U.S. now--seems like the kind of company that Polaris should have been comfortable banking on after "getting to know them" for half a year. But the firm is extremely choosy about investing, and Mr. Meeker says they gave Spinback an extension on their stay in part because they knew Spinback was talking to Buddy Media about an acquisition.

"We're looking for a couple great companies each year to invest in and work with for a long time.  Dogpatch is a great platform for getting to know people. Polaris doesn't make many investments in a year--probably two or three early stage (seed or A round) investments in New York this year, so we want to really know people well before we invest.  Dogpatch gives us a way to do that," Mr. Meeker told Betabeat.

That means Polaris Ventures will invest in less than 10 percent of the companies that go through the residency. There are 41 people in 16 companies in the space now.

I wasn't trying to be cynical, but I couldn't quite get my head around how two or three investments could support a Union Square space and all its associated costs. Polaris must be expecting this to pay off somehow, right? we asked Mr. Meeker.

Polaris is "serious about giving back to the ecosystem," and "supporting young startups" and is also somewhat altruistic, he said. "That said, the strategy is also to get to know 15 to 18 companies over an extended period of time, so we make smarter investment decisions."

Polaris is happy about Spinback's acquisition even though it didn't make money on the deal, he said.

"There's a lot that goes into the "return on investment" calculation of Dogpatch, but we're super happy with outcomes like this. We believe if we help great entrepreneurs be successful, that's nothing but good for Polaris, the ecosystem, and the entrepreneurs," he said.

"I wouldn't have joined them (Polaris) if I wasn't convinced it was real."

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Matt Meeker, entrepreneur-in-residence and start-up liaison at Dogpatch Labs.

The sunny Polaris Ventures-sponsored Dogpatch Labs space is a mystery! Start-ups hand-picked by Polaris Ventures and entrepreneur-in-residence Matt Meeker get to jam on their product for six months and often longer rent-free, giving up no equity stake, agreeing to no "first-look" caveats, no strings attached, in a super space just south of Union Square. And despite some rumorous rumblings to the contrary, start-ups seem to have no trouble moving up after they leave. Today the five-person analytics start-up Spinback was acquired by Buddy Media for an undisclosed sum which was "very compelling"--compelling enough that the company scrapped the term sheets it had signed with east and west coast VCs for an (also undisclosed--but "very normal") Series A. And after giving the company free rent along with the free coffee, free lunches and visits from tech luminaries that come with the space, Polaris Ventures made zero monetary return on their success.

Polaris wasn't one of the companies Spinback was planning to include in their series A, either--although it's unclear if that was because they weren't interested or because Spinback got more attractive offers from other VCs. Either could be true, although a company with Spinback's prospects--social media analytics in a world where Facebook serves up a third of online display ads in the U.S. now--seems like the kind of company that Polaris should have been comfortable banking on after "getting to know them" for half a year. But the firm is extremely choosy about investing, and Mr. Meeker says they gave Spinback an extension on their stay in part because they knew Spinback was talking to Buddy Media about an acquisition.

"We're looking for a couple great companies each year to invest in and work with for a long time.  Dogpatch is a great platform for getting to know people. Polaris doesn't make many investments in a year--probably two or three early stage (seed or A round) investments in New York this year, so we want to really know people well before we invest.  Dogpatch gives us a way to do that," Mr. Meeker told Betabeat.

That means Polaris Ventures will invest in less than 10 percent of the companies that go through the residency. There are 41 people in 16 companies in the space now.

I wasn't trying to be cynical, but I couldn't quite get my head around how two or three investments could support a Union Square space and all its associated costs. Polaris must be expecting this to pay off somehow, right? we asked Mr. Meeker.

Polaris is "serious about giving back to the ecosystem," and "supporting young startups" and is also somewhat altruistic, he said. "That said, the strategy is also to get to know 15 to 18 companies over an extended period of time, so we make smarter investment decisions."

Polaris is happy about Spinback's acquisition even though it didn't make money on the deal, he said.

"There's a lot that goes into the "return on investment" calculation of Dogpatch, but we're super happy with outcomes like this. We believe if we help great entrepreneurs be successful, that's nothing but good for Polaris, the ecosystem, and the entrepreneurs," he said.

"I wouldn't have joined them (Polaris) if I wasn't convinced it was real."

]]> http://betabeat.com/2011/05/polaris-ventures-made-no-return-on-dogpatch-labs-new-yorks-first-exit/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver matt meeker http://betabeat.com/2011/05/spinback-poised-to-close-series-a-when-buddy-media-snapped-them-up/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 12:34:15 -0400 http://betabeat.com/2011/05/spinback-poised-to-close-series-a-when-buddy-media-snapped-them-up/ Adrianne Jeffries http://www.betabeat.com/?p=7288

Andrew Ferenci, 24-year old founder of Spinback.

Buddy Media, the Facebook managing platform for businesses, announced this morning it had acquired the five-person New York start-up Spinback, which makes a social media plug-in and analytics dashboard that customers can enable by embedding a few lines of code on their web sites. "I've never seen a product that does what it does. It does what four or five technologies do in one," said Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow when Betabeat reached him by phone this morning at Disney World, where he was attending the Mashable Connect conference with Spinback CEO Andrew Ferenci.

The New York connection was essential to the deal, the two CEOs said. "New York start-ups understand marketers better than West Coast start-ups," Mr. Lazerow said. "Social media at the end of the day is word of mouth marketing on steroids."

Spinback raised a small angel round of funding and had term sheets in place for a Series A when Buddy Media made a "really compelling offer" that the companies chose not to disclose. The companies had been talking about a partnership since February and it quickly became clear that the services were highly complementary--and both companies were strongly tied to New York. "We really like working in New York," Mr. Ferenci said. There were some VCs that wanted them to move out to California, he said, but he felt the New York start-up scene was too vibrant to leave.

Spinback will move immediately into Buddy Media's Flatiron office, where the parent company has around 170 employees, and the products will become "tightly integrated" over the next year as the companies merge, Mr. Lazerow said.

 

 

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Andrew Ferenci, 24-year old founder of Spinback.

Buddy Media, the Facebook managing platform for businesses, announced this morning it had acquired the five-person New York start-up Spinback, which makes a social media plug-in and analytics dashboard that customers can enable by embedding a few lines of code on their web sites. "I've never seen a product that does what it does. It does what four or five technologies do in one," said Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow when Betabeat reached him by phone this morning at Disney World, where he was attending the Mashable Connect conference with Spinback CEO Andrew Ferenci.

The New York connection was essential to the deal, the two CEOs said. "New York start-ups understand marketers better than West Coast start-ups," Mr. Lazerow said. "Social media at the end of the day is word of mouth marketing on steroids."

Spinback raised a small angel round of funding and had term sheets in place for a Series A when Buddy Media made a "really compelling offer" that the companies chose not to disclose. The companies had been talking about a partnership since February and it quickly became clear that the services were highly complementary--and both companies were strongly tied to New York. "We really like working in New York," Mr. Ferenci said. There were some VCs that wanted them to move out to California, he said, but he felt the New York start-up scene was too vibrant to leave.

Spinback will move immediately into Buddy Media's Flatiron office, where the parent company has around 170 employees, and the products will become "tightly integrated" over the next year as the companies merge, Mr. Lazerow said.

 

 

]]> http://betabeat.com/2011/05/spinback-poised-to-close-series-a-when-buddy-media-snapped-them-up/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver andrew ferenci