Allison Goldberg, a summa cum laude graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance and economics, is the vice president and managing director of Time Warner Investments.
Time Warner Investments focuses on investment opportunities that directly enhance their ability to meet specific strategic goals. This includes delivery of new services, enhancement of existing products, entry and expansion into key existing markets and critical research and development. Time Warner Investments works to derive value and maximize opportunities for partnerships that benefit both parties.
Goldberg has worked in the industry for twelve years. She started out in investment banking, as an investment banker at Groupe Arnault for one year and at Morgan Stanley for two years, but she had, “always wanted to work in media.”
She now works primarily with digital media companies that would either make good partners with Time Warner or are already strategic partners. She sees the business plans for about 500 companies—and has invested in quite a few successful ones—mostly in the digital media field.
Goldberg focuses on companies seeking $2-10 million in capital. She is interested primarily in adtech, music, gaming and social media, but is open to looking at anything that fits into divisions of Time, Inc., Warner Brothers, HBO or Turner. When it comes to impressing her and Time Warner Investments, her biggest questions are, “Is the company already providing a service in something we would want to launch? Why Time Warner? Why is this an interesting company to begin with? Why is Time Warner the right investor?” She wants to know why that the company feels that Time Warner is the best fit as an investor in their startup, as opposed to any other venture capitalist. Her other concerns are the company’s vision and their ability to showcase their passion.
Investment Group:
Vice President and Managing Director of Time Warner Investments (Founded in 2001)
Sector Focus:
AdTech, Social Media, Music, Entertainment, Gaming.
Selected Investments:
Winners:
AdMeld sold to Google for $400 million
MediaVast sold to Getty Images for $200 million
Adify sold to Cox for $300 million
Bluefin Labs sold to Twitter for $80 million
PlaySpan sold to Visa for $190 million
Boards:
GetGlue
Audience Science
Dynamic Signal
Everyday Health
Joyous
NuvoTV
Trion Worlds
Visible World
Expertise Areas:
Media, Entertainment, Social Media.
Blogs, Twitter & Websites:
Blog
Twitter
Memorable Quotes:
On women entrepreneurs: “They have big visions for their companies and big projections. In general, women in business can be more calculating.”
On what’s hot in the start-up world: “Social marketing companies, data analysis, television-related technologies.”
On investment trends: “There is more money in New York; more investors are coming to the East Coast; more talent is in New York.”
On entrepreneurs: “It’s important to have a great relationship with the entrepreneur we’re investing in. We don’t want someone who will only listen to the venture capitalists instead of executing their own vision.”