Auren Hoffman

Auren Raphael Hoffman (born 1974) is an American entrepreneur, CEO of Safegraph, a firm gets who gets precise geolocation data from smartphone apps, angel investor and author.[1][2]

Auren Hoffman
Hoffman and his wife Hallie Alexandra Mitchell
Born
Auren Raphael Hoffman

1974 (age 46–47)
Mamaroneck, New York, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationVenture Capitalist, Angel Investor, Entrepreneur
Spouse(s)Hallie Alexandra Mitchell (m. 2011)
Websiteblog.summation.net

Personal life

Hoffman is a son of Amalia Hoffman of Larchmont, New York, and Edward M. Hoffman of Montvale, New Jersey. Amalia Hoffman is an author and illustrator of children’s books. Edward M. Hoffman works in New York as a software engineer and software consultant to the financial industry.[3] Hoffman graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1996.[4]

In 2011, Hoffman married an assistant U.S. Attorney, Hallie Alexandra Mitchell who graduated from Princeton University, and received a law degree from Northwestern University.[3] Federal judge Barry G. Silverman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Phoenix, Arizona officiated the wedding which was held in Nashotah, Wisconsin.[3]

Business

Hoffman founded Kyber Systems in his junior year at UC Berkeley, as a way to pay for school.[5] Kyber was sold to Human Ingenuity in 1997.[6] Hoffman founded Bridgepath Inc. in 1998, which was acquired by Bullhorn, Inc. in October 2002.[7] In 2002 he sold a website GetRelevant to Lycos. He then became chair of the Stonebrick Group through 2006, which sponsored networking events in the San Francisco area such as one called the Silicon Forum.[8][9] He reportedly once showed up to a meeting in a rented truck, and parked blocks away to reduce his chances of being seen.[10] Hoffman business style is sometimes referred to as a networker.[11][12] Hoffman is a speaker at events in the technology industry.[13]

In 2006 Hoffman cofounded Rapleaf, and served as its CEO until 2012, and left the company to run a Rapleaf spinoff called LiveRamp after Rapleaf was acquired by email marketing company TowerData.[14][15][16] On May 14, 2014 Acxiom announced that it had acquired Liveramp, for $310 Million.[17] Gawker mentioned a controversy surrounding privacy practices at Rapleaf.[18] Hoffman left LiveRamp a little more than a year after it was acquired.[19] As of December 2016 Hoffman is chairman of Siftery,[20] and was listed as CEO of a company called SafeGraph.[21]

Writer

Hoffman was a contributor to the Huffington Post, often on political subjects,[22] as well as Business Week and his own blog called Summation.[23][24][25] Hoffman is a Republican and a political contributor.[26] Hoffman contributed to Council on Foreign Relations papers in 2004.[27]

Investments

Hoffman is an angel investor and briefly worked as a venture capitalist with the Founders Fund in the 2011 to 2012 timeframe.[28] [29]

Some of Hoffman's investments include: Aardvark (search engine) (sold to Google), BackTweets by Backtype (sold to Twitter), Blip.tv, BrightRoll,[30] Chomp (search engine) (sold to Apple), CrowdFlower, Flowtown (sold to Demandforce which was sold to Intuit), Founders Fund, LabPixies (sold to Google), Meebo (sold to Google), MerchantCircle (sold to Reply.com), mob.ly (sold to GroupOn), Pingboard, Scopely, Thumbtack (website), Zoom Systems.,[22][31] and others.[32]

References
  1. Alexander Ljung & Eric Wahlforss (September 17, 2008). "Chapter 5: RapLeaf". People, profiles and trust: on interpersonal trust in web-mediated social spaces. Lulu.com. pp. 60–70. ISBN 978-1-4092-2942-1.
  2. Creative Leadership Forum: How to Recognise the Entrepreneur from the Strategy Consultant - Auren Hoffman, Angel Investor, CEO Rapleaf
  3. "Weddings/Celebrations: Hallie Mitchell, Auren Hoffman". The New York Times. July 2, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  4. "Career Corner: Auren Hoffman". Engineering News. 79. University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering. January 29, 2009. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  5. Inside The Cult Of Kibu, by Lori Gottlieb - 2002, ISBN 978-1-903985-37-3
  6. Money Makers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business. By David Snider, Chris Howard. ISBN 978-0-230-61401-7
  7. "Bullhorn Acquires Bridgepath". Press release. Bullhorn. October 15, 2002. Archived from the original on December 16, 2002. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  8. "About Stonebrick Group". Archived from the original on November 2, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  9. "Silicon Forum 2005". Stonebrick Group. October 12, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  10. Kiplinger's Personal Finance July 1999: "Try a truck and other strategies when you are under 25"
  11. The starfish and the spider: the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations. By Ori Brafman, Rod A. Beckstrom. ISBN 978-1-59184-143-2
  12. Nick Denton (April 20, 2007). "Auren Hoffman is Zelig". Gawker Media Valleywag. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  13. Stanford Law School CIS/SLATA Speaker Series: Auren Hoffman Archived 2012-03-19 at the Wayback Machine
  14. Jessica Guynn (July 21, 2006). "Get some cash and some karma". Tech Chronicles blog. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  15. NA (October 1, 2013). "TowerData Acquires Rapleaf, Forges Comprehensive Email Data Solutions Company". Press Release. NEW YORK, NY. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  16. "About Us". Company web site. LiveRamp. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  17. Acxiom Signs Agreement to Acquire LiveRamp Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  18. Tim Faulkner (September 18, 2007). "Can Auren Hoffman's Reputation Get Any Worse?". Gawker. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  19. "Why did Auren Hoffman leave LiveRamp?". Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  20. "Siftery corporate website?". Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  21. "The Coming Ad Tech Renaissance Will Be Fueled By Chinese Money". Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  22. "Auren Hoffman". Blog bio. Huffington Post. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  23. John Sumser (September 25, 2009). "Auren Hoffman v1.31". Top 100 Influencers blog. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  24. "Auren Hoffman". Author Info. Business Week. Archived from the original on June 1, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  25. "Summation will make you think ... by Auren Hoffman ... since 1997". Blog. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  26. http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/auren-hoffman.asp?cycle=08
  27. David Philips (January 15, 2004). "Center for Preventive Action: Stability, Security, and Sovereignty in the Republic of Georgia" (PDF). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  28. Dan Primack (December 19, 2011). "Auren Hoffman joins VC firm". CNN Fortune. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  29. Dan Primack (February 5, 2013). "Silicon Valley entrepreneur departs venture capital firm". CNN Fortune. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  30. "Team". Web site. Brightroll. Archived from the original on November 14, 2006.
  31. Business Insider, February 8, 2011: How Meebo Got Started and Its Strategy to Make the Web More Social
  32. "LinkedIn". Web bio. LinkedIn. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
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