Daylife was founded in 2005 and is based in downtown Manhattan. It’s brought to you by an experienced and dedicated group of news junkies, whose mission is to turn news from a daily duty into a pleasurable experience.
When you see a group this pretty, you naturally assume they get by on their looks. But they’re pretty good at the internet and computers and such, too.
Anil Podduturi
AnnMarie Conway
Brian Schmitz
Gaelen Hadlett
Hemali Majithia
Howard Yee
Javier Frias
John Donovan
John Zipps
Ken Ellis
Mark Hennessy
Michael Surtees
Miria Grunick
Pat Hensley
Phil Schanely
Rob Guttman
Salek Brodsky
Samuel Clay
Scott Blumenthal
Stavo Craft
Tom Tercek
Upendra Shardanand
Vineet Gupta
Mr. Shardanand is having a fun career as an entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded his first venture, Firefly Network, as a spin-off of his work at the MIT Media Lab. Upendra's graduate thesis centered on Collaborative Filtering (the recommendation technology now commonplace on the web). Firefly Network was a pioneer in personalization and several web technologies, and was acquired by Microsoft in 1998. At Microsoft, he architected and launched Microsoft Passport; he also drove Microsoft's privacy initiatives and served on industry bodies to further the cause of online privacy.
Following Microsoft, Upendra was a founding partner of The Accelerator Group, a venture firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London. He went on to serve as the Director of Technology at Time Warner Corporate. At TWX, Upendra worked with the CTOs of the various divisions on cross-corporate issues such as content piracy, high-definition formats, and DVRs. Mr. Shardanand received in 1994 a Masters of Engineering (as well as his undergraduate degree) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Shardanand is serving or has served on the boards of advisors for several organizations, including Help Remedies, the Better Business Bureau Online, PeoplePC (acquired by Earthlink), TreeHugger (acquired by Discovery), MediaCode (acquired by Yahoo), RealNames, and InsightFirst (acquired by 24/7 RealMedia).
Mr. Brodsky brings over a decade of business strategy and operating experience to the company. Most recently, he served as SVP, Corporate Development for Verified Person, Inc. where he was responsible for developing and managing the company's channel partnerships and strategic accounts.
Prior to his work with Verified Person, Mr. Brodsky worked at StarMedia Network, Inc. (now Wanadoo), where he headed business, product, and corporate development. As SVP of Corporate Development for StarMedia, he was responsible for managing the publicly traded media company's acquisition and investment activities. While serving in a product and business development capacity, Mr. Brodsky directed international product strategy and new product development, as well as the negotiation of technology, content, and distribution agreements.Mr. Brodsky joined StarMedia from Firefly Network, Inc. where he was responsible for business development and product marketing.
Mr. Brodsky earned his A.B. from Harvard University.
As part of the Denuo Group, Tom Tercek headed SMG Access, a programming unit of media services agency Starcom Mediavest Group that provides digital entertainment experiences for marketers which leverage emerging digital platforms to reach targeted audiences.
Mr. Tercek is a former cable television producer and programmer with over 20 years of experience: 9 years with MTV Networks, then later as co-founder of Global Media Holdings, where he created and launched two C/S networks in Japan; SF, a Science Fiction channel; and SheTV, the first channel created for women in Japan, with extensive crossplatform programming to incorporate viewer interaction and participation.
Mr. Tercek also oversaw network strategy, programming and marketing of AtomTelevision, a new channel devoted exclusively to the emerging world of short films, currently with Video-on-Demand programming available on major domestic cable systems throughout the US.
John Donovan has spent his career building products to motivate, channel, and modify individual behavior on a mass scale, in both commercial and civic spaces.
Most recently, John was a founder and principal of The Spoken Hub, LLC, where he developed technology that enabled the coordination, motivation, and mobilization of massive but loosely affiliated groups. The Spoken Hub's technology powered several of the largest citizen mobilization efforts in history, including programs by the Kerry Edwards Campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and America Coming Together.
Previously, John was Vice President, Interactive Development at Global Media Holdings, where he led product development, operations, and creative direction of converged media properties.
John spent 8 years in advertising, during which he developed interactive marketing practices at two New York agencies. At Wunderman Cato Johnson (the world's largest direct marketing firm) John participated in the development of one of the first Interactive Advertising units at a traditional agency.
Independently, John has consulted such companies as Peppers and Rodgers Group, Firefly Network (now Microsoft), Barnes & Noble.com, Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Lucent Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, and PeoplePC.
John received his BA from Dartmouth College, and has been an adjunct faculty member at New York University, teaching a masters level course on Publishing and the Internet.
Prior to joining Daylife, Mr. Guttman led a worldwide R&D initiative at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center arming IBM's business consultants with powerful modeling tools and methods that are actively transforming clients' business processes "on demand". In 1998, he co-founded Frictionless Commerce, initially a consumer-oriented comparison shopping platform provider, based on software agent technologies he invented at MIT's Media Laboratory -- earning him a 2002 MIT Technology Review Top 100 Young Innovators Award (TR100). Mr. Guttman helped transform Frictionless and its technologies to provide strategic sourcing professionals with the tools needed to negotiate online and make optimal sourcing award allocation decisions, which led to SAP's acquisition of Frictionless in 2006. Prior to MIT, he developed artificial intelligence software at Motorola and participated in U.S. Army war games to demonstrate and harden Motorola's battlefield intelligence technologies.
Mr. Guttman received a MS in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT in 1998 and a BSE in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1992.
Most recently, Anil Podduturi was Vice President of Product Development at Social Project, Inc., where he led the development of MTV Networks' new social media brand, Flux. Prior to his work at Social Project, Mr. Podduturi headed platform development for social media products at MTV Networks across all MTVN brands. He came to MTV from Microsoft, where he managed the MSN Sports & Leagues Channel, a $20MM advertising and subscription business. He was responsible for all product development, advertising execution, editorial programming, and partner relations for MSN's sports offering, as well as strategic business partnerships with Fox Sports, ESPN, Major League Baseball, and the National Hockey League. Mr. Podduturi began his career at Atom Entertainment as a producer.
Mr. Podduturi received his B.A. from University of California at Berkeley.
Balderton Capital is one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages approximately USD 1.5 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 70 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including UK, US, China, Russia, and Scandinavia. WWW.BALDERTONCAPITAL.COM
Arts Alliance is a venture capital organization that supports high growth companies in Europe with a particular focus on technology-enabled services. Arts Alliance has invested in over 40 companies since 1996. Key areas of interest include media & entertainment, mobile services, retail & logistics, marketing services, outsourcing, and energy. WWW.ARTSALLIANCE.COM
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2006 revenues of $3.3 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM, and more than 30 Web sites including NYTimes.com, Boston.com, and About.com. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting, and distributing high-quality news, information, and entertainment. WWW.NYTIMES.COM
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