Lightbank - Portfolio

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the things we’ve done

we invest money, but we do it our way

It’s really an investment vehicle. we’re just putting a formal name behind what we’ve been doing for years now — predominately investing our own money in companies that we start or behind people who have ideas that we’ve actively helped to realize. It’s not a traditional fund. We’re just doing what we do best, helping kick-ass companies that change industries.

Our managing partners have built these companies:

Groupon was started to make it easier for people to enjoy the great things in their community. Each day, Groupon features something cool to do at an unbeatable price. It offers these daily deals through the power of collective buying. The deals are localized by city---there's a different Groupon site in different major markets around the country. They do everything they can to offer a "too good to be true" experience from the moment you buy a Groupon to the day you use it.

Echo Global Logistics is a leading provider of technology-enabled business process outsourcing, serving the transportation and logistics needs of its clients. Echo's proprietary web-based technology, dedicated service teams and robust procurement power enables its clients to see significant transportation savings while receiving best-in-class service.

MediaBank was founded on a single principle – data should be easy to use. Valuable information was once locked in a complex system only able to be extracted through hours of laborious manual input, but MediaBank knows there must be a better way to buy and understand advertising. MediaBank is an industry leader committed to combining the latest technologies and media applications for enhanced functionality. MediaBank has been and remains at the forefront of the move to electronic media procurement and management, offering leading-edge industry tools that streamline purchasing and allow for advanced analytics.

InnerWorkings

InnerWorkings is a leading global provider of managed print and promotional solutions. With proprietary technology, an extensive supplier network and domain expertise, InnerWorkings procures, manages and delivers print and promotional products to companies across a wide range of industries. The more than 8,000 suppliers in InnerWorkings' network have been selected among thousands more potential suppliers worldwide – based on their ability to effectively serve InnerWorkings' clients on the criteria of price, service and overall quality. Drawing on the expertise of this certified supplier network makes InnerWorkings' solutions far more effective than traditional methods and enables them to fulfill up to 100% of the print and promotional procurement needs of their clients.

60mo is a simple and flexible tool for tracking and forecasting a business's finances, managing HR, organizing corporate finance and shareholder data, and analyzing income and expenses. 60mo allows companies to import financials from a number of accounting software programs including QuickBooks and FreshBooks, as well as directly from financial institutions, including Bank of America, Chase and American Express. The Company asks new users a set of questions regarding their industry, business model, office location(s), staff, shareholders, and accounting system and will then create an optimal account structure with built in projection trends, reports, and more for each company.

BabbaCo, Inc. is a premier baby products company that creates innovative parenting solutions that are “simple, functional, and super cute.” Founded by a mother of two and serial entrepreneur, Jessica Kim, BabbaCo represents the latest know-how, trends, and innovation. The company has received national and regional notoriety on The TODAY show, ABC, Fox Business News, The Rachael Ray Show, Babble’s Top 50 Mompreneur, and People’s baby blog. BabbaCo’s latest product, the BabbaBox, was created to address the overwhelming demand for new products by existing customers. BabbaBox is a monthly subscription box that combines all the physical materials with the know-how content to really engage kids. It helps parents create, explore, story-tell and teach in an interactive and enriching way.view website

BeachMint, Inc. is a celebrity-curated social commerce company located in Santa Monica, CA. Through different vertical websites, BeachMint recommends items for customers based on a personal style profile quiz. After their initial purchase, customers are enrolled in a monthly subscription where they receive one item each month. BeachMint was founded in June 2010 and launched its first vertical, JewelMint, in October 2010. JewelMint offers unique jewelry pieces designed by Kate Bosworth and Cher Coulter. In July 2011, BeachMint launched StyleMint, an apparel site, with designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. StyleMint offers its customers a monthly selection of tee shirts ranging in color, fabric, and style.

Beautylish, a social commerce website for the cosmetics industry, was founded in February 2010 with the goal of improving the way that everyone discovers and learns about the beauty products that they use everyday. Users can watch YouTube makeup tutorial videos, discover cosmetic and skin care product reviews, and learn celebrity makeup tips and secrets.

Belly is a customizable loyalty platform for small and medium sized business. Customers simply present their Belly Rewards card or mobile app at participating businesses and earn points, redeem rewards, or win prizes instantly. Belly provides all of the necessary tools for businesses to easily scan loyalty cards, collect customer data, and promote special offers.

BenchPrep was launched in January of 2009 to offer study preparations tools for the GMAT and has since expanded to nine titles. BenchPrep apps are now available for subject areas ranging from K-12 to test prep to professional certifications and focus on social learning, data analytics, and cross-device synchronization to make the overall learning experience convenient, engaging and fun. The Company works with best-in-class education publishers including McGraw Hill Professional, Law School Admission Council and American Council on Education. The Company is in the process of building the world's first cross-platform educational apps publishing platform that focuses on the social and analytical aspects of learning. Watermelon’s content-agnostic solution delivers interactive apps on smart phones (iPhone, Android), tablets (iPad, Kindle), desktop (Windows, Mac) and the Web.

Benzinga is a news and analysis service that focuses on global markets. Benzinga provides original, accurate and timely global financial content every day. The service features content from industry experts and experienced analysts while also covering the news of the day.

Launched in May 2010, Betterfly is a website that matches people who want to learn, look and feel better with the people, not companies, who offer these services. To make it easier to find those tutors, coaches, stylists, trainers, etc., called Betterists, Betterfly is the website of its kind to exclude companies, and focus on people instead. In addition to its search features, the Company provides a robust platform for Betterists to create a highly-customizable profile page, which promotes their qualifications, services, special offers and payment policies, provides real-time availability, offers online appointment booking, and allows them to upload multimedia files, such as instructional videos and lesson plans.

Body Shop Bids

Body Shop Bids is an online and mobile platform that connects consumers who need auto body repair with body shops. The Company’s proprietary technology allows users to upload photos of their damaged vehicle and receive custom quotes from local body shops, all for free.

Cloudbot is a mobile and web app that pulls each user's online presence into one simple user interface. Cloudbot helps manage the profiles, contacts and activities users maintain across multiple applications by bringing all of their social activity together into a single hub. Cloudbot eliminates the scattered, segmented data silos that naturally form as apps explode in popularity. In addition, Cloudbot's universal address book and integrated social connections make it easy to call, email, send a Facebook or LinkedIn message, post a tweet, share a document via DropBox or GoogleDocs, schedule a meeting, and more.view website

Contently is an open marketplace for writers and publishers. Contently provides a platform where real journalists can manage their freelance careers and where brands-turned-publishers can create and manage editorial operations. We like to think of ourselves as the "anti-content-farm."

Crowdrise is a crowd-sourcing community of volunteers and fundraisers that are answering the call to service and online fundraising for charity. Charities can use Crowdrise to raise money in new ways by turning their grassroots supporters into grassroots fundraisers.

DealsGoRound

Launched in March 2010 in Chicago, DealsGoRound was the first secondary marketplace in the world to allow consumers to re-sell and buy past daily deals from companies like Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and the like. The company currently operates in 128 cities across the United States and Canada.

Double Dutch

Double Dutch helps companies connect their employees and customers via mobile, geosocial applications. From events, to field teams, to local communities of interest, DoubleDutch is the only geolocation platform built from the ground up for the enterprise. DoubleDutch launched its social business tools in March, 2010 at the SXSW Interactive Festival.Some of the Company’s clients include Cisco, HP, GQ, TED, Universal Music Group, and Arizona State University.

E la Carte deploys Prestos, custom touchscreen tablets, on restaurant tables so guests can order food, play games, and pay. Now you can scroll through mouth-watering pictures of every dish, customize your meal, order another round of drinks, and split the bill easily among friends - all at the touch of a button and without having to wait. With offices in Chicago, Boston, New York, and Silicon Valley, E la Carte is revolutionizing the restaurant experience across the nation. Coming soon to a restaurant table near you!

Chicago-based Fooda is America's premier provider of services to captive audiences. Fooda has a large network of top local businesses and provides its services to groups such as schools, corporations, organizations, and residential communities. Fooda provides its services via on-site locations as well as mobile and web-based technology.

gtrot makes travel more social by helping users share travel plans and experiences with friends. Users can see where friends are going for the holidays, who's been to a destination they're visiting, and which friends will be nearby. We also make it easy for travelers to discover things to do based on recommendations gathered in real-time from friends and daily deals available in their destination.

Hipster is a location-based question and answer service. It uncovers information about real world locations that is not yet available online by asking “experts” who are knowledgeable about that particular location, based on social media check-ins.

Lightswitch

Lightswitch is a web video production company that specializes in the creation of affordable content for small and medium-sized businesses. Lightswitch is the easiest way for a business to improve its online marketing through video; its objective is to increase customer engagement, web traffic and conversion rates without breaking the budget. The production professionals at Lightswitch will shoot, edit and deliver a low-cost, state-of-the-art, High Definition video that innovatively showcases your business and captivates your online audience.view website

Needle, Inc. is a sales chat platform for web, social, and mobile commerce powered by crowd-sourced product experts and brand advocates. Needle manages a cloud-based sales force of part-time individuals who are passionate about the products they support. Through live chat with brand experts, Needle gives companies an opportunity to give their online customers an an in-store shopping experience.

oBaz, short for online bazaar, connects buyers and sellers through an intent based social platform where users can create and join groups for things they want to buy. Once a group reaches a certain size (~25 people), oBaz's hagglers negotiate awesome deals for the group. Groups are completely free to join and users are given social tools and incentives to help build the group; as the group grows, everyone benefits.

OnSwipe is a platform that makes it insanely easy for publishers of all sizes to make their content and advertising a beautiful experience on touch-enabled devices via Web browser.

OpenChime, Inc. OpenChime is a consumer-facing platform that hunts down unlisted prices and custom quotes from top local businesses on any service anywhere. OpenChime finds local businesses relevant to users’ requests, sends user requests to businesses, appends their replies with rating data, and delivers the results back to users’ email. OpenChime’s seamless integration into small and medium businesses’ existing customer acquisition processes has allowed it to procure quotes for nearly every user request, no matter the vertical.

Pawngo offers loans online to customers secured against valuables. It is the first established, dedicated, on-line pawn lender in the United States.

Poggled is a hyperlocal ecommerce platform for nightlife marketing. Poggled works with leading nightlife venues and beverage brands to market discount offers to their customers via email, web, social media and mobile platforms. Poggled's flagship iPhone application allows users to browse, purchase and redeem vouchers while on the go (including at the local bar).

Qwiki co-founded by entrepreneur Doug Imbruce and Internet industry pioneer Dr. Louis Monier (founder of AltaVista). The company’s technology transforms data into interactive, rich media narratives, delivering an "information experience.” Qwiki debuted in September 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, where it won the TechCrunch Disrupt Cup.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social allows businesses to efficiently and effectively manage & grow their social presence across multiple channels and turn social connections into loyal customers. The web application integrates with Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gowalla and other networks where consumers are engaging with businesses and brands. In addition to communication tools, Sprout Social offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation, reporting, analytics and more – all in a package that's intuitive and easy to use.

Udemy is a website that empowers anyone to teach and learn online. On Udemy, there are thousands of online courses from the best instructors in the world. Furthermore, if you're an expert you can share your knowledge by creating an online course on Udemy. Udemy's platform makes it easy for experts to build an online course. Instructors can use video, PowerPoint, PDFs, audio, zip files and live classes to quickly build a course and share their expertise with anyone in the world.

WhosHere is the world’s only mobile meet-up application with “total freedom,” a cost-free, worry-free, label-free approach to location-based dating and networking. It’s fast to join, easy to use, and free to send texts, pictures, or VOIP calls without disclosing your phone number or email address. Founded in 2008, WhosHere has over 4 million users.

Zaarly is a proximity based, real-time buyer powered market. Buyers make an offer for an immediate need and sellers cash in on an infinite marketplace for items and services they never knew were for sale.