Howard Lindzon, our co-investor in Buddy Media (AceBucks) writes:
Late yesterday, Buddy Media closed a $6.5 million round led by Softbank and Greycroft Ventures in New York. I was an angel investor and really proud to have been the first backer of Michael when I got the pitch. I also upped my investment in the new round. I will be stepping down from the board to be replaced by smart people
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Tags: AceBucks
by Joseph Weisenthal of paidContent.org
Wednesday, April 16, 2008; 2:07 PM
Buddy Media, a developer of social networking apps, has raised a $6.5 million second round from Softbank, European Founders Fund, Greycroft Partners, Ron Conway, as well as its previous backers.. The NYC-based company previously raised $1.5 million from Howard Lindzon, Peter Thiel, Roger Ehrenberg Mark Pincus and James Altucher, so its total $8 million raise comes from a list of very high profile firms and individual investors. Among the company’s apps is the Acebucks application on Facebook, which is basically a virtual currency or rewards points scheme. With the new funding, the company is officially launching its own ad network, as have the other big social net apps developers. Announcement.
Investor and board member Roger Ehrenberg discussed the funding on his blog: “From the time we completed the Series A round it has been a whirlwind, closing strategic deals with applications developers, commercial deals with marquee advertisers and ad agencies and recruiting top people to accelerate growth. These were heady times. Then it became clear the Buddy Media should pick one of two paths: do a strategic deal with a large media company or raise another round of capital, build out the ad network and blow things out. Over a six-week period the company received two offers and five term sheets from great firms. And after much deliberation, Mike and the Board all agreed that raising the additional capital, building the business and executing against the vision was the right way to go.”
Disclaimer: Greycroft is an investor in our company.
Tags: AceBucks
Roger Ehrenberg, a board member of Buddy Media (AceBucks), writes:
It was just announced that one of my portfolio companies, Buddy Media, raised a $6.5 million Series B round led by my friends at Softbank Capital. Sometimes in the life of an investor things just feel right, and this company, its business model and its partners feel just right. From the time I got involved with Mike Lazerow and the Buddy Media team I’ve been impressed with their combination of vision, a bias towards action and cold-nosed pragmatism. And I’ve had the privilege of being in the midst of all this excitement from my seat on the Board. From the time we completed the Series A round it has been a whirlwind, closing strategic deals with applications developers, commercial deals with marquee advertisers and ad agencies and recruiting top people to accelerate growth. These were heady times.
Then it became clear the Buddy Media should pick one of two paths: do a strategic deal with a large media company or raise another round of capital, build out the ad network and blow things out. Over a six-week period the company received two offers and five term sheets from great firms. And after much deliberation, Mike and the Board all agreed that raising the additional capital, building the business and executing against the vision was the right way to go. We were fortunate enough to have gotten the interest and support of two great venture firms, Softbank and Greycroft Partners, in addition to myself and 13 of my fellow Series A investors who decided to re-up for the Series B. Quite frankly, it was a no-brainer. Further, two of my friends from Softbank, Eric Hippeau and Karin Klein, will be joining Mike and I on the Board. It should make for some exciting, productive Board meetings.
Buddy Media serves an important purpose: helping advertisers and their agencies best access, activate and monetize the communities on social networks. And with Acebucks as a rapidly-growing loyalty program, we look forward to driving value to our clients while building the ubiquity of Acebucks. The market has spoken loud and clear during Buddy Media’s relatively short life: it is creating lots of value for its clients. And as long as we never lose sight of this goal, Mike’s vision of Buddy Media’s future will become reality.
Tags: AceBucks
Caroline McCarthy of CNET News.com writes:
Buddy Media, a New York-based company that operates a number of social-media developer platform applications including Pirates vs. Ninjas, Zombies vs. Werewolves, Pub Darts, and a Sudoku game, announced Tuesday that it has raised $6.5 million in Series B funding in a round led by Softbank Capital.
A number of big-name investors like Ron Conway, Greycroft Partners, and the European Founders Fund (which has reportedly put cash behind Facebook) also contributed to the round along with 14 of the company’s Series A investors.
Buddy Media uses a loyalty program called AceBucks across all its gaming applications, in which players can earn points that they can eventually trade in for real-world goods. Additionally, the company develops branded applications for clients like InStyle magazine, Anheuser-Busch, Priceline.com, and the Huffington Post.
Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media, told me earlier this week that the company had initially wanted to raise $3 million in its Series B round, but investor interest raised it to $5 million and then finally $6.5 million. Previously, the start-up pulled in $1.7 million in Series A funding in a round led by PayPal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
Softbank Capital’s Eric Hippeau and Karin Klein will join Buddy Media’s board of directors.
Lazerow told me that Buddy Media is “even more excited” about its other announcement, the debut of its social-media ad network. The invitation-only network will extend to “premier developers” on Facebook as well as OpenSocial-compatible platforms.
A number of digital advertising companies, including AdBrite, have launched ad networks for the developer applications that have been flooding social networks for the past year. But Lazerow hopes that BuddyMedia will get a leg up from its history: developing and operating applications itself.
Tags: AceBucks
Buddy Media, Inc. is a New York City-based start-up founded by serial entrepreneurs Michael and Kass Lazerow (Student Advantage/U-Wire, GOLF.com). Investors include some of the leading entrepreneurs in the internet space: PayPal founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, WallStrip founder Howard Lindzon, CSTV and Classic Sports founder Brian Bedol, Stockpickr founder James Altucher, Monitor110 founder Roger Ehrenberg and Bay Partners.
Launched in September 2007, Buddy Media helps companies build, promote and monetize social media applications that engage and entertain users. Its clients are primarily major brands, ad agencies and large media companies that want to leverage the social networks. Buddy Media’s rapid application development platform lets brands launch their applications cost-effectively in a matter of weeks. Its growing network of applications ensures that users install the applications. And its AceBucks loyalty program ensures users engage with the applications and keep coming back again and again to earn AceBucks.
The company’s full-service approach to provide a one-stop-shop to develop and grow applications on any social network or distribution platform has attracted some of the world’s leading media companies and brand marketers. The company’s client list includes Priceline.com, Microsoft, Anheuser Busch (Sea World and Bud Light), People.com, InStyle.com, Real Simple, Fuser, Sherman’s Travel, Campus Tech, FedEx, Readers Digest, Huffington Post, Time Inc. and many others.
Position Overview
We are seeking a high quality and experienced candidate whose primary responsibility will be to design and plan high traffic Internet applications from end-to-end using a scalable service-oriented architecture. The candidate will also participate in the implementation of these applications.
The design specifications will include technical specification artifacts, such as requirements analysis documents, UML and ERD diagrams and use-case/scenario specifications. The applications will be built by a combination of in-house, consulting, on-shore and off-shore resources. The implementation will be coordinated by the Application Architect.
The candidate must have a deep knowledge of web-based systems and object-oriented design. The ability to design good software and visualize the “big picture” are essential to success in this position. This position reports to the Vice President of Technical Engineering.
See the full posting at SocialMediaJobs.com.
Tags: AceBucks
Nick O’Neill of AllFacebook.com writes:
When the Facebook platform first launched, you wouldn’t believe how many people contacted me and said “I’m going to make a beer pong application.” It has been 10 months since the platform launched and finally a top notch beer pong application has been launched. As you would expect, it’s also very popular. In just a few days almost 15,000 people have added the application and the growth is steady.
Mike Lazerow of Buddy Media, the company that developed this game, sent me an email when it launched and I had to check it out. I ended up playing the game for a couple hours trying to get on the leader board. Interesting enough I came very close to reaching the top 10 but I didn’t make it. I had however perfected my game so if you want to test the master, I suggest you challenge me to a round of beer pong.
As has been predicted, social gaming applications have become the focus of Facebook for the most part. There are also utility applications but there is only so much value that you can easily add to Facebook profiles. I think games are the way to go and from an advertising perspective, custom games are highly valuable. You get targeted individuals engaged in a branded environment for an extended period of time. If you want to play a round of beer pong, go check out the Campus U Beer Pong application.
Rating: 
(5 out of 5)
Tags: AceBucks
James McGough wonders:
I’ve been searching for information on how much social app companies are getting from sponsorship deals with marketers. This is what I’ve found so far:
Has anyone found details on what other social media startups are getting for sponsorship deals?
Tags: AceBucks
Jeremy Liew (Lightspeed Venture Patners), Mark Pincus (Zynga Game Networks), Shervin Pishevar (Social Gaming Network), Michael Lazerow (Buddy Media), John Hwang (Tripmonger) spoke at GSP West about social games.
The panel talked about what they are doing and how they are making money. It all starts with how social games are different?
The opportunity is to create the very personal social gaming experience that we see when families play the Wii. Creating games like this online is the goal of social games. It’s about bringing people together, whether they be strangers or friends or family. The psychology of the games becomes more important in social games. The perspective is on an easy way for people to hang out together, not on game technology.
Experiencing the internet together is more fun than doing it on your own. A good rule of thumb is, if it can’t be made better using Facebook don’t do it. Users enjoy the light weight nature of these apps. Social gaming takes share from casual gaming.
Scarbulous is the breakout game. It’s so simple that it allows you to interact with lots of people in a light weight asynchronous interaction. Long playing synchronous games are played in a single session that doesn’t create a reason to come back. Asynchronous games give you a reason to come back. This can cause powerful viral effects.
Branded games are the key to monetization right now. It’s highly efficient way to get major brands and media companies reach their audiences. Average deals right now are about $100,000 for Buddy Media and they are sold out of inventory right now, so they are working on monetizing other company’s games. Another great opportunity for monetization is virtual goods. The amazing thing is that all the companies on the panel were profitable and they think there is still more upside if they can close brand deals.
Are social games a hit driven business? Games are hit driven. The big ones get bigger and the rest fall off. The is definitely a cycle of growth, use and then fatigue. The end level though may be higher than what is seen elsewhere on the web. A number on the panel are working on how to create networks to help leverage existing installed base of applications, either through click networks, APIs, partnerships, platforms that can be rebranded or acquisitions.
– Alex Nesbitt @ DigitalPodcast.com
Tags: AceBucks
Scroll down and check out The Huffington Post from Feb. 8, 2008, which featured Democrats vs. Republicans, a Facebook application developed by Buddy Media in partnership with the Huffington Post. See how the battle for the White House is shaping up. Install and play Democrats vs. Republicans now.
Tags: AceBucks
SocialTimes wrote about Buddy Media (the company that owns and operates the Facebook currency AceBucks) buying the Versus Franchise from ChipIn’s CEO Carnet Williams:
Over a month ago I received rumors that Carnet Williams was entertaining offers worth millions of dollars. As a result, I would guess that this acquisition was a combination of both cash and ownership in a more stable company. This acquisition illustrates the importance of partnerships and acquisitions in the highly volatile market of Facebook applications. This is a great move by Buddy Media and it will be interesting to see how they maintain their dominance in such high risk environment. If you’d like to read more about the acquisition go check out the Buddy Media blog post.
Tags: AceBucks
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