Betaworks is a company that builds essential products

Products driven by data and the social world

Products that will help define the future of media

Betaworks

Purpose

At first glance Betaworks seems to be a loose organization of people that do many things. But first and foremost we are builders. We are building products – whether that be an app, a site, a piece of hardware is not generally the point. We are building products that when combined together form a strong network. And that network is helping Betaworks become a media company for this century.

Our ideas, people, capital and data are united in an imaginative way that enable us to create beneficial and transformative products for the socially connected world. We do everything we can to facilitate that goal within the company.

We are seeking to create a more sustainable innovation model. So we can build things, better.  The more we build the more we learn and the more ideas we get for peripheral things, but things that make our ecosystem stronger.

We also make small investments in other companies because we believe that will make us better builders.

 

 

 

Products

Our growing team of engineers, designers, editors and creatives continually build, launch and iterate products. We only build products that we feel will add value to the world at large but also make our network stronger.

Below you will find recently launched products, ones that are in development, and others successfully in market.

 

  • Recent launches
  • In the works
  • In the market

Investments

Although we’re not a fund, we make small seed investments in companies that will make our network stronger.

Seed investing to us typically means $100k – $200k in size and to be among the first people to invest. For example, we were one of the first investors in Tumblr.

We love betas and prototypes, not so much decks or business plans.  If you want to talk investments, talk to Nick.

Team

Join the growing Betaworks team here in New York City.

  • Prior to launching betaworks, John was CEO of Fotolog. Before Fotolog John was SVP of Technology and Alliances at Time Warner Inc.

    borthwick.com/weblog

    John Borthwick Founder & CEO
  • Kenneth Lerer is a Manager at Lerer Ventures. He was the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Huffington Post. Mr. Lerer is Chairman of Betaworks and Buzzfeed, and is Vice-Chairman of Bedrocket.

    Ken Lerer Chairman
  • Prior to joining betaworks, Josh held strategy roles at Quantcast and Time Warner and advised startups such as Summize, CoTweet and OMGPOP.

    joshauerbach.com

    Josh Auerbach CFO
  • Summer is a user experience designer for the betaworks companies. She previously worked at Area/Code, Stickybits, and Yahoo!

    slbedard.com

    Summer Bedard Product Designer
  • Jon works on finance at betaworks. He previously worked in mobile adtech, growth investing, and investment banking.

    jonchin.net

    Jon Chin Finance
  • Nick manages seed investing for betaworks. Previously, he worked at HappyFunCorp and at Lehman Brothers.

    @nchirls

    Nick Chirls Investments
  • Alex is a Hacker in Residence at betaworks. Previously he made Artspace, The Fridge, MTV Music, and managed research programs for Paul Allen’s R&D lab.

    sms://4155957865

    Alex Chung Hacker in Residence
  • James is head of creative at Betaworks, responsible for creating interesting brand and product partnerships. He is an award winning advertising creative director.

    @koopstakov 

    James Cooper Head of Creative
  • Grant designs and codes for betaworks companies.

    @grantcuster

    Grant Custer Designer/Developer
  • Matt is a Hacker in Residence at betaworks. He most recently was at Tumblr as VP Engineering and later Head of Brand Strategy. He holds a degree in Victorian Studies.

    matthew.tumblr.com

    Matt Hackett Hacker in Residence
  • Kuan is a Hacker in Residence at betaworks. He previously worked at Hatch Labs and Oddcast. He cofounded Cash Island Games and The WildLab.

    @huangkuan

    Kuan Huang Hacker in Residence
  • Alex is a Hacker in Residence at betaworks. He previously worked at Google, Meebo and MLB.com. He is also the founder of Gallerama.

    Aleksandar Kolundzija Hacker in Residence
  • Lexi works on product and quality at betaworks. Previously she worked at Techstars, Contently, and Lore among others.

    @lexilewtan

    Lexi Lewtan Product & Quality
  • Gilad is the Chief Scientist at betaworks. Previously, he was VP of R&D at SocialFlow. Before that, Gilad built social data visualizations at Microsoft’s FUSE labs.

    giladlotan.com

    Gilad Lotan Data Scientist
  • Sam is an SVP at betaworks. His startup experience includes TweetDeck and Liberation Entertainment; he also worked at Time Warner and AOL, and before that practiced IP and entertainment law.

    Sam Mandel SVP
  • Andrew McLaughlin is SVP at betaworks, and CEO of Digg & Instapaper. He has previously worked at the White House, Google, ICANN, Tumblr, and Code for America.

    @mcandrew

    Andrew MCLaughlin SVP
  • Patrick is a Hacker in Residence at betaworks. He previously worked at Vimeo and co-founded Banters.

    patrickmoberg.com

    Patrick Moberg Hacker in Residence
  • Jason is a user experience designer for the betaworks companies. He previously worked at Yahoo! and Google.

    @jason_morrow

    Jason Morrow Product Designer
  • Paul is SVP of product at betaworks. Prior to betaworks, he was COO of Aviary and was previously chief of staff for Microsoft’s Office product division.

    @paulbz

    Paul Murphy SVP
  • Lauren is the Operations Manager and EA to John Borthwick. Prior to joining our team, Lauren was with Current TV.

    @laurenpiazza

    Lauren Piazza Operations Manager
  • Co-Founder of @Fun Org. Previously mobile product for @Examiner.com, built mobile pub platform for 70K reporters.

    @janatrantow

    Jana Trantow GM of Tapestry
  • Rachel is the office coordinator at betaworks. Previously she has worked in publishing and environmental law offices.

    Rachel Troy Office Coordinator
  • Neil is the VP of User Experience. Prior to betaworks, Neil worked at Yahoo!, Razorfish and Morningstar.

    neilwehrle.com

    Neil Wehrle VP of User Experience
  • Jessey is a Hacker in Residence at betaworks. He co-founded Nubook and PTagr and was a partner at the design agency Polychrome.

    jcinis.com

    Jessey White-Cinis Hacker in Residence

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Events

Watch videos from our brownbag speaker series and see what learn about upcoming special events like betaday.

Jobs

Check out our in studio listings as well as jobs from our extended networks.

Blog

Keep up with the latest betaworks news.