From the Investors

Angel Investor Jay Deng demonstrates that Silicon Valley still has a huge problem with sexism in “What Barbara Walters Amazing Career Can Teach Us About Women in VC”

Reid Hoffman of Greylock likens crowdfunding to “philanthropy exponentialized” in “The World’s Bank: How Crowdfunding is Disrupting Old Banking”

Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures restructures the payment date of a contract and watches growth skyrocket in “A Surprisingly Powerful Mechanism for Growing a SaaS Startup”

Rob Go of NextView Ventures disproves the hypothesis that “Nobody Gets Consumer in Boston.” We backed up his claim by averaging and comparing the Mattermark Scores of all B2C companies. Boston average: 75; United States average: 72.

Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures imagines the future of labor when computer prices are falling in “Computers and Skilled Labor (Substitutes or Complements?)”

From the Operators

Fred Stevens-Smith of Rainforest celebrates a milestone in “Rainforest Has Tested 2 Million Steps”

John Hyland of New Relic simplifies the integration process via Rails in “The T-Shirt Method”

Noah Kagan of AppSumo trains your sights even before your first marketing hire in “What is Retargeting and How to Start Your First $100 Campaign”

Scott Price of Tradecraft walks you through the creation process, from identifying user behavior to prototyping, in Strava: Weather Focused Features”

Featured Founder

Preston Reed of Footmarks. “Footmarks brings digital intelligence to physical spaces. Our platform delivers relevant and personalized engagements in real-time within retail environments.”

Mattermark: How did you come up with your startup?
Preston: After researching location-based technologies in 2011, I determined that the new BLE spec solved for many of the problems of existing proximity solutions and was poised for massive growth.

Mattermark: What is a recent milestone that your team celebrated?
Preston: We recently graduated from the R/GA Accelerator powered by Techstars and closed a pilot deal with Red Bull.

Mattermark: If someone thanked you in a restaurant for creating your startup, what would you hope they say?
Preston: Shopping is so much better now. It’s easier, quicker, and more fun!

Mattermark: Tell us about your team.
Preston: We are a team of seven. Serial entrepreneurs mixed with MSFT executives creates interesting banter over beers. Mostly, I get reminded that anybody can come up with a hair-brained idea. It’s all about the execution!