Auren Hoffman

Auren Hoffman

Hoffman and his wife Hallie Alexandra Mitchell
Born Auren Raphael Hoffman
1974
Mamaroneck, New York, United States
Residence San Francisco, United States
Nationality United States
Occupation Venture Capitalist, Angel Investor, Entrepreneur
Website
blog.summation.net

Auren Raphael Hoffman (born 1974) is an American entrepreneur, angel investor and author.[1][2][3]

Life

Hoffman is a son of Amalia Hoffman of Larchmont, New York, and Edward M. Hoffman of Montvale, New Jersey. Amalia Hoffman is an author and illustrator of children’s books. Edward M. Hoffman works in New York as a software engineer and software consultant to the financial industry.[4]

Hoffman graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1996.[5]

Business

Hoffman founded Kyber Systems in his junior year at UC Berkeley, as a way to pay for school.[6] Kyber was sold to Human Ingenuity in 1997.[7] Hoffman founded Bridgepath Inc. in 1998, which was acquired by Bullhorn Inc. in October 2002.[8] Also in 2002 he sold a website GetRelevant to Lycos. He then became chair of the Stonebrick Group through 2006, which sponsored networking events in the San Francisco area such as one called the Silicon Forum.[9][10] He reportedly once showed up to a meeting in a rented truck, and parked blocks away to reduce his chances of being seen.[11] Hoffman is called an expert networker, and described by one author as a "catalyst", because he often "maps" people to see how they fit into his social network.[12][13] Hoffman is a speaker at events in the technology industry,[14] WSJ Blogs call him "a fixture in the Silicon Valley scene,"[15] and Gawker Media's Valleywag refers to him as "uberconnected."[16]

Rapleaf/Liveramp

In 2006 Hoffman was a founder of Rapleaf, an online reputation management company.[17] He served as its CEO until August 2012. In 2013 TowerData Inc. acquired Rapleaf for an undisclosed sum. [18]

Hoffman became CEO of LiveRamp when it spun off from Rapleaf in 2012.[19] On May 14, 2014 Acxiom announced that it had acquired Liveramp, a company spun out of Rapleaf and co-founded by Hoffman for $310 Million. [20]

Venture Capitalist

In December 2011, Hoffman became a venture capitalist with the Founders Fund.[21] However, he separated from the fund by the end of 2012.[22]

Author

Hoffman is a contributor to the Huffington Post, often on political subjects,[23] as well as Business Week and his own blog called Summation.[24][25][26] Hoffman is a Republican and a political contributor.[27] Hoffman is a guest editor for blogs.com where he has contributed to the "Top 10 Coolest Blogs on Data," [28] as well as other tech publications.[29] Hoffman contributed to Council on Foreign Relations papers in 2004.[30]

Hoffman was reported by Silicon Valley blog VentureBeat in 2007 of editing his own Wikipedia article. Hoffman responded that he removed inappropriate comments.[31] Gawker mentioned a controversy surrounding privacy practices at Rapleaf.[32]

Investments

750 Industries, AdRocket, Aardvark (search engine) (sold to Google), Any.do, BackTweets by Backtype (sold to Twitter), Betable, Blip.tv, BrightRoll,[33] Chomp (search engine) (sold to Apple), Commerce Sciences, CrowdFlower, Curebit, Deliciious Brands, DoubleDutch, Dynamic Yield, Euclid Analytics, Everyme, Factual, Flowtown (sold to Demandforce which was sold to Intuit), Founders Fund II, Founders Fund III, Founders Fund IV, Hackpad, Huddler, Influitive, Kaggle, Klout, Kontagent, LabPixies (sold to Google), Logik Systems, Meebo (sold to Google), MerchantCircle (sold to Reply.com), MesmoTV (sold to GSN), mob.ly (sold to GroupOn), MomentFeed, OtherInbox (sold to ReturnPath), Practice Fusion, Pulse.io, ReadyForce, RateItAll, Rentlytics, RentMetrics, Retargeter.com, RichRelevance, Scopely, Sense Inc., Sharethrough, Shelf.com, Solve Media, Thumbtack (website), Unbounce, Viglink, Zoom Systems.,[23][34] Zozi, and more.[35]

Personal

In 2011 Hoffman married an assistant U.S. Attorney, Hallie Alexandra Mitchell. Federal judge Barry G. Silverman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Phoenix, Arizona officiated the wedding which was held in Nashotah, Wisconsin. Mitchell graduated from Princeton University, and received a law degree from Northwestern University.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Rob Wright (November 30, 2000). "The Young & Restless: Auren Hoffman, BridgePath". CRN Magazine. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  2. ↑ Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss (September 17, 2008). "Chapter 5: RapLeaf". People, profiles and trust: on interpersonal trust in web-mediated social spaces. Lulu.com. pp. 60–70. ISBN 978-1-4092-2942-1.
  3. ↑ Creative Leadership Forum: How to Recognise the Entrepreneur from the Strategy Consultant - Auren Hoffman, Angel Investor, CEO Rapleaf
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Weddings/Celebrations: Hallie Mitchell, Auren Hoffman". The New York Times. July 2, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Career Corner: Auren Hoffman". Engineering News 79 (University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering). January 29, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  6. ↑ Inside The Cult Of Kibu, by Lori Gottlieb - 2002, ISBN 978-1-903985-37-3
  7. ↑ Money Makers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business. By David Snider, Chris Howard. ISBN 978-0-230-61401-7
  8. ↑ "Bullhorn Acquires Bridgepath". Press release (Bullhorn). October 15, 2002. Archived from the original on December 16, 2002. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  9. ↑ "About Stonebrick Group". Archived from the original on November 2, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Silicon Forum 2005". Stonebrick Group. October 12, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  11. ↑ Kiplinger's Personal Finance July 1999: "Try a truck and other strategies when you are under 25"
  12. ↑ The starfish and the spider: the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations. By Ori Brafman, Rod A. Beckstrom. ISBN 978-1-59184-143-2
  13. ↑ Nick Denton (April 20, 2007). "Auren Hoffman is Zelig". Gawker Media Valleywag. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  14. ↑ Stanford Law School CIS/SLATA Speaker Series: Auren Hoffman
  15. ↑ Wall Street Journal WSJ Blogs: Digits October 24, 2010. RapLeaf’s Founder on Privacy, Business
  16. ↑ Gawker Media Valleywag Party Report, August 24, 2007, Lotus Vodka offers release from the tech scene
  17. ↑ Jessica Guynn (July 21, 2006). "Get some cash and some karma". Tech Chronicles blog (San Francisco Chronicle). Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  18. ↑ NA (NEW YORK, NY – (Oct 1, 2013)). "TowerData Acquires Rapleaf, Forges Comprehensive Email Data Solutions Company". Press Release. Retrieved August 22, 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ↑ "About Us". Company web site. LiveRamp. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  20. ↑ Acxiom Signs Agreement to Acquire LiveRamp
  21. ↑ Dan Primack (December 19, 2011). "Auren Hoffman joins VC firm". CNN Fortune. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  22. ↑ Dan Primack (February 5, 2013). "Silicon Valley entrepreneur departs venture capital firm". CNN Fortune. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Auren Hoffman". Blog bio. Huffington Post. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  24. ↑ John Sumser (September 25, 2009). "Auren Hoffman v1.31". Top 100 Influencers blog. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Auren Hoffman". Author Info. Business Week. Archived from the original on June 1, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  26. ↑ "Summation will make you think ... by Auren Hoffman ... since 1997". Blog. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  27. ↑ http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/auren-hoffman.asp?cycle=08
  28. ↑ Blogs.com: Top 10 Coolest Blogs on Data
  29. ↑ Microtimes, Issues 178-179. BAM Publications, Inc., 1998: "Internet Email Strategies"
  30. ↑ David Philips (January 15, 2004). "Center for Preventive Action: Stability, Security, and Sovereignty in the Republic of Georgia". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  31. ↑ Matt Marshall (January 4, 2007). "Valley Networker Auren Hoffman’s Reputation On The Line". Venture Beat. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  32. ↑ Tim Faulkner (September 18, 2007). "Can Auren Hoffman's Reputation Get Any Worse?". Gawker. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  33. ↑ "Team". Web site. Brightroll. Archived from the original on November 14, 2006.
  34. ↑ Business Insider, February 8, 2011: How Meebo Got Started and Its Strategy to Make the Web More Social
  35. ↑ "LinkedIn". Web bio. LinkedIn. Retrieved December 19, 2013.