Board of Directors
Michael Lazerow - Chairman & CEO
Michael is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded four successful internet-based media companies. He has a passion for creating, managing and growing companies from the ground up.
Michael's first foray into entrepreneurship came with the founding of University Wire, an Associated Press-like network of more than 700 student-run newspapers that is now owned by CBS Corp. U-Wire provides the most in-depth coverage of campus news and student issues and is distributed widely through almost every major college newspaper and most of the major Internet portals. Michael sold U-Wire to Student Advantage, the nation's leading student membership organization linking 1.5 million students through one affinity card program, in May 1997. As a member of the Student Advantage management team, Michael helped grow Student Advantage from a handful of employees into the premier media and marketing company in the college market with more than 300 employees and $80 million in annual revenue.
Building on his growing experience in the online space, Michael next founded GOLF.com, which was purchased by Time Warner's Time Inc. division in January 2006. Michael led GOLF.com from a start-up to a multi-million dollar profitable golf media company. Michael successfully funded GOLF.com by raising equity financing from private investors, leading venture capital firms and media companies, including NBC Sports and the New York Times Co. And with a wide network of contacts in the internet and general business community, Michael negotiated and executed successful partnerships on behalf of GOLF.com with Time Warner, NBC Sports, MSNBC.com, Yahoo!, AOL, FoxSports.com, Microsoft, New York Times Co., the PGA Tour, USA TODAY, Knight Ridder, Chicago Tribune, GOLF MAGAZINE, NTT Communications and more than 200 other companies. As part of the acquisition by Time Inc., Michael agreed to join Time Inc.'s GOLF MAGAZINE division for one year as General Manager of GOLF.com and GOLFONLINE.com. In addition to overseeing all of the company's golf internet properties, Michael sat on a 5-person management team that managed the leading golf publication.
Michael left GOLF.com in February 2007 to start Lazerow Consulting, which helps finance, launch, manage and grow internet-based media businesses. Michael's client list included CSTV, a CBS Corporation company. At CBS, Michael helped launch two new businesses in the sports community and student media spaces.
Michael lives in New York City with his wife, Kass, two sons, Myles and Cole, and daughter Vivian. In addition to investing in private companies and real estate, he enjoys live music, golf, tennis, poker, fly-fishing, reading, writing and video editing.
Michael graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. with a B.S. and M.S. in Journalism in 1996. His byline has appeared in more than a dozen newspapers, including Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Delaware State-News, The Capital Times in Madison, Wis., and the Montgomery Journal.
Michael is currently the chairman and CEO of Buddy Media, Inc., a New York-based company that is a leading developer of applications for social media sites, including Facebook and MySpace.
Roger Ehrenberg, Entrepreneur
After 17 years in M&A, Derivatives and Trading, Mr. Ehrenberg escaped Wall Street and now spends his time with young entrepreneurs in and around financial technology and digital media.
Today he serves as Chairman of Monitor110, helping the Company with business development and strategy. He is also Managing Member of IA Capital Partners, LLC, his angel investment vehicle focused on financial technology and digital media. He has made 20 investments since 2004, achieved three exits and actively partner with top entrepreneurs and value-added investors to help bring compelling technologies and business approaches to market.
Prior to embarking on the path of entrepreneurship and early-stage investment, he was the President and CEO of DB Advisors LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG. His 130-person team managed over $6 billion in capital through a twenty-strategy hedge fund platform with offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. Prior to DB Advisors, he was Managing Director and Co-head of Deutsche Bank's Global Strategic Equity Transactions Group.
He has an MBA in Finance, Accounting and Management from Columbia Business School and a BBA in Finance, Economics and Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan.
Eric Hippeau, Managing Partner, SoftBank
Mr. Hippeau has been involved in various capacities with SoftBank Capital's investing activities since 1995, and joined SoftBank Capital in 2000 from SoftBank's former subsidiary, Ziff-Davis. He has served as a media industry CEO, having spent over 25 years in senior management positions at large media companies. Mr. Hippeau joined Ziff-Davis in 1989, and he became Chairman and CEO in 1993. In 1995, SoftBank acquired Ziff-Davis, and he continued in the role of CEO until 2000, when the company was sold.
During his career at Ziff-Davis, Mr. Hippeau was early to recognize the trend toward on-line media. Under his stewardship, ZDNet became one of the few successful examples of a strong on-line business model evolving from traditional magazine content, and he was instrumental in SoftBank's first investment in Yahoo! in 1995. Mr. Hippeau was also responsible for founding ZDTV, a cable channel dedicated to technology and the Internet, and an early success in integrating television and the Web.
Mr. Hippeau was President of SoftBank International Ventures, where he established SoftBank's international private equity funds and expanded them into Europe, Latin America and Asia. He was also SB Capital's board representative for its direct investments in industry leading companies, such as Yahoo!, Geocities and CNET.
He graduated from the Lycee Francais de Londres and attended the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Karin Klein, Vice President, SoftBank
Karin Klein currently serves as a Vice President at Softbank Capital where she puts over a decade of venture capital and operating experience to work by sourcing new investment opportunities for the fund and working closely with portfolio companies to help them build their businesses. Karin oversees the firm's review of new investments and provides post-investment assistance to portfolio companies and their management teams, with a particular focus on business development.
Prior to Softbank, Karin worked with Michael Milken at two of his investment funds -- MC Group and Knowledge Universe -- where she conducted strategic reviews of new investments in the media, education and technology sectors and worked closely with management teams to develop and implement operating and growth plans.
Karin first developed her passion for start-up life when she co-founded an educational training program for children.
Karin graduated on the Director's List with an M.B.A. from The Wharton School, and she has undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania -- a B.S. from The Wharton School and a B.A. from the Annenberg School of Communications. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.