Jim Scheinman
Managing Partner at Maven Ventures
Jim Scheinman
Managing Partner at Maven Ventures
Los Altos, California
Overview
Work Experience
Founding Managing Partner
2013 - Current
Maven Ventures is the leading seed venture fund for emerging consumer software startups propelled by network effects and hypergrowth. We invest in great founders with a vision worth fighting for. The Maven team identifies future consumer trends that will change the way we communicate and live. Maven Ventures Fund I has already invested in what we foresee as some of the game-changing trends of the future like self-driving cars, virtual reality, novel marketplaces, and consumer software for wearables. We are currently investing out of Maven Fund II. If you're looking to build the next great consumer startup (Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Tango, Pinterest, Instagram), contact me. Board Observer: Chariot Shots Pley Cruise
Angel Investor & Mentor Capitalist
2008 - 2013
I founded Maven Ventures LLC to help companies achieve their dreams and act as board member, angel investor and/or advisor. I working with companies in many capacities including helping with strategic direction, angel and venture capital fundraising, social networking strategies, viral marketing, sales & revenue, and business development. The companies I work (or have worked with) with are mostly in the consumer internet and mobile industry and are generally early stage. Here's a list of some of Maven Venture Portfolio Companies: * Tango (leading mobile video calling) reached $1B+ valuation with Alibaba investment * Zoom.us (Free HD Group Video Calls) * banjo (location based social browser and friend alerts) * Pageonce (leading mobile personal finance and bill pay) $360M acquisition by Intuit in 2014 * MocoSpace (leading mobile social network), General Catalyst funded * fixya (leading problem solving site) Mayfield, Pitango Exits: * SocialGold (Jambool) Sold to Google in 2010 * Katango (personal crowd control) KP, Bing Gordon on board Sold to Google in 2011 * Tribunl, a leading social application company and one of the first companies I worked with was successfully acquired by RockYou in 2008, and then became Crowdstar.
Investor and Advisor
2011
Filed IPO March 2019 I was so fortunate to be an early investor and advisor to Eric at zoom responsible for the initial go to market strategy and viral features as well as marketing and creating the company name Zoom (Zoom was calling themselves saasbee before). Zoom is now also a portfolio company of Maven Fund I and Maven Fund II. It's an amazing Founder, Team, Product and Culture that I'm so grateful to be a part of.
First investor and advisor
2013 - 2021
We're so proud of helping bring to the world the amazing Epic! Kids Books product to the world as the first investor and advisor with the talented founding team of Suren Markosian and Kevin Donahue. Epic has grown to over 50 million kids reading over 1 Billion books each year on their #1 kids ebooks platform, and recently announced they're being acquired for $500M by Bygu's, the largest and fastest growing edtech company in India.
Investor and advisor
2016 - 2021
Embark, the leading self-driving trucks company, announced their $5B IPO via a SPAC in June 2021.
Board Observer & Investor
2014 - 2016
Cruise sold to GM for $1B +
Investor & Advisor and formerly COO
2011 - 2015
Tango brings free, high-quality video calling to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and 33 Android phones including Motorola Droid X, HTC EVO, HTC Incredible, and Google Nexus One, and works with carrier phone and data plans, and on 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi networks. Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal says: "Tango worked as promised, and was simple to use." In the first day of launch, Tango is a Top 10 free download in the iPhone App Store. Download it today and Tango with your friends and family from wherever you are. http://install.tango.me
Investor & Advisor and formerly COO
2009 - 2013
Check sold to Intuit for $350M
Investor and Advisor
2011 - 2011
sold to Google November 2011
Investor & Advisor
2008 - 2010
Google acquired Social Gold in August 2010 in a very successful transaction for the Founders and team, the investors and Google. Social Gold built the leading full feature virtual economy platform that developers can use to create their currency systems, monetize it using in-game payments by Social Gold, and manage and grow their economy using Social Gold virtual economy analytics. Social Gold was founded by veterans from Amazon.com — people who built the foundational infrastructure for their e-commerce and web services, and who had gone on to build some of the most popular social games. Today, the team forms an integral part of Google's ecommerce team.
Entrepreneur in Residence
2007 - 2008
As an EIR, I worked with the CRV partners to uncover new investments in the following areas: consumer Internet, social networking, social media, online advertising, casual gaming and virtual worlds. I also advised several of the firm's portfolio companies. At the completion of my EIR, I decided that rather than starting my own company right now and/or taking a CEO role at a portfolio company, that at least for the next several years, I would prefer to continue helping companies by taking advising roles and/or a board seat for equity, and in some cases also being an angel investor.