Deal Radar 2008: PayScale

PayScale provides companies and individuals with compensation information by positions and job profiles of employees and employers around the world. They have a proprietary data-collection and reporting system which gathers the statistical records. The company claims to have the largest online database of employee salary information in the world.

Deal Radar 2008: PlayFirst Plays Casual Games Well

PlayFirst is a leading publisher of casual computer games. Based out of San Francisco, it is focused on creating shared casual game experiences around “lasting original brands” with emphasis on “rich story and character”. Few of the more popular PlayFirst titles include the Diner Dash series, Wedding Dash, Chocolatier and Dream Chronicles. My interview with

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Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 10)

SM: What are some of your key learnings from this journey so far? JW: At my first startup we cut off our consulting business to focus on raising venture capital that never materialized. Cash is king. Build the business that makes you money and keeps the doors open; it can finance your riskier investments. During

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Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 8)

SM: How did you finance the different phases of the company? Seed? Angel? VC? Corporate? JW: I supplied a very small amount of seed capital that basically covered expenses while we secured our first round of venture funding. The $5 million Series A was led by Trinity Ventures and Mayfield Fund in mid-2004. Rustic Canyon

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Investment Thesis: Alex Osadzinski

An Interview with Venture Capitalist, Alex Osadzinski of Trinity Ventures.