Seth Goldstein

Seth is an entrepreneur and investor, with a record of creating pioneering technology-enabled businesses.

In 1995, Seth founded Sitespecific, which pioneered a number of online advertising techniques for companies like Duracell and Travelocity. It was acquired by CKS Group in 1997. In 1999, Seth joined Fred Wilson as Entrepreneur in Residence at Flatiron Partners where he helped build a practice in “pervasive computing,” investing in companies Kozmo, Modo and Vindigo.  In 2002, Seth created Majestic Research, the first Wall Street research firm to systematically mine primary data to predict the financial performance of companies for institutional investors.  Majestic Research was acquired in 2010 by Investment Technology Group (NYSE: ITG).  In 2005, Seth started Root Markets with renowned Salomon Brothers trader Lew Ranieri and the Chicago Board of Trade to create the first financial exchange for online mortgage leads.  SocialMedia, which Seth founded in 2007, makes ads more relevant across the Web with a unique social adverting platform.  For the first time, web ads provide the same level of social engagement as other forms of social media.  Seth helped come up with the term “social media” in 1998.  Stickybits, Seth’s most recent company, connects digital media to real-world objects via barcodes.  Consumers use the mobile service to augment the physical world with their own content.  Brands participate in these conversations about their products directly through their barcodes.

Seth serves on the board of the Internet Advertising Bureau.  He is the co-chair of its Social Media committee, which architected the first set of best practices for the social advertising industry.  Seth was the original investor in Web 2.0 pioneer del.icio.us which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, and was one of the first investors in Etherpad which was purchased by Google.

Mr. Goldstein holds a BA in Dramatic Literature from Columbia University’s Columbia College and lives in Marin, CA with his wife and two sons.