Garena Software is a gaming-platform company that was founded by another Standford GSB graduate and has grown to over 25-million registered users across 200 countries — making Garena one of the largest international-gaming communities in the world. The company has a strong foothold in cybercafes across Asia, Europe and South America, and they’re beginning to move up the value chain by partnering with companies like MTV to build rich entertainment experiences for users. As Chief Product Officer, Ulf will be based in Singapore and will be responsible for extending the product into new feature areas and countries.

Based on what we see from the company’s worldwide user distribution map, it looks like he’ll be earning quite a few frequent-flier miles. Best of luck to you Ulf!

More about the company here.

Garena's worldwide user distribution

We also spoke with Sanjay about Gravity.com (formerly Blue Rover Labs), an LA-based startup that received $10M in VC funding last year and is entering a space that CrowdGather has been monetizing for years (we wrote about both companies a few months ago).

Here’s our interview with Sanjay:

There’s been a lot of interest in your company lately, so much so that Internet Review recently listed you as a company to watch in 2010. What is generating all the buzz?

I am not sure what has really happened in terms of the increased following for our company and the stock, but I would guess that it is part of a renewed investor interest in Internet companies as the engine to drive the future economy. When we first became a public company in April 2008 there was little to no interest in small companies in our sector among public investors.

Can you put some metrics behind this interest? Exactly how much have the indicators spiked lately?
Our stock (OTCBB: CRWG) has hit $2.00 today on over a million shares of volume. This is compared to $0.70 in May of last year when we raised our last financing. At that time our average volume was less than 10,000 shares per day.

For those who aren’t familiar with CrowdGather, how would you describe your business model?
We are focused on building a robust content network around forums. These are message-board communities that exist on every conceivable topic under the sun. We acquire them outright and then create vertical channels in order to achieve critical mass for advertisers and ad rep firms that do business with us. In essence we are as much a real estate driven model as we are a technology one. We buy assets with the potential for generating recurring cash-flows and we keep working towards getting higher payouts until we pay off the properties. Once we have done that the cash-flow becomes ours in perpetuity as long as we maintain and grow the communities.

Many tech companies are pursuing VC funding these days, but you’ve taken a different path. Can you explain it for us?
As a long time executive at small public companies and as a former member of the securities industry, I know the public markets quite well. I didn’t have much of a relationship with the VC and angel investment communities so my decision to go public via a reverse merger was a trade-off of doing business with the “devil you know” versus the one you don’t. Basically an entrepreneur is taking the risk that it will be easier to find capital as a public company- even a small, illiquid one in the beginning.

How did this approach work out for you in the early days?
My confidence was tested when the markets began to collapse in the summer of 2008, a few months after we became public, but we have hung in there and managed to keep raising small amounts of capital to drive our growth.

For entrepreneurs who are curious about this approach, would you say it is better than approaching VCs? How does it affect exit prospects?
It is not necessarily a better approach. As I mentioned, it is a function of comfort and access to capital. I felt my prospects were better among investors who look for growth companies that are public. As far as exit prospects, the irony is that by being public you are already at the finish line because you have a market available for your shares to be bought and sold. The problem can arise when you have insufficient trading liquidity in your shares, or if your market capitalization drops below what you believe your company should be worth in a financing or exit round.

How about the regulatory process? Is it still difficult and expensive to navigate?
There are higher costs to being public- that is for certain. As far as difficulty, the key is to surround yourself with team members that know what they are doing. I have been fortunate in finding the right Board members and advisers in order to reduce the cost of outside consultants.

Let’s talk about competitors. What do you think about Gravity.com? They seem to be entering a market that you’ve been working in for a couple years now.
Gravity.com is exciting for us because they demonstrate that VC’s believe that there is value in conversations that reside on forums. Gravity has been blessed with a $10 million first round and a sharp team of ex-Myspace executives, but they are in private beta right now so I am not in a position to comment on what they intend to do exactly. If they are a standalone offering then they will be limited, but if they are focused on helping the owners of existing communities, as we do, then the sky is the limit.

Raising over $10M from several blue-chip VC firms is impressive. Knowing the industry as you do, why were they able to raise so much?
$10 Million for a first round is an impressive amount considering the economy. It is more than twice as much as we have procured in financing even though we have been around for longer than they have. I believe that the excitement in Gravity.com stems from the caliber of their management team coupled with the simple logic of the fact that forums predate the Internet and they are not going anywhere any time soon. Facebook and Twitter have tremendous value for real-time, surface discourse, but if you want to dive deep into a subject and really ‘geek out’ — you will find yourself on a forum seeking the wisdom of the experts in the crowd. Your FB buddies will not help you come up with an alternative methodology for balancing the ecosystem on your nano-planted tank, but a visit to a site like our aquaticplantcentral.com will almost overwhelm you with depth of knowledge. When people are ready to take the training wheels off their Internet experience they will end up on forums. We are the help desk of the Internet.

Since you are both operating in a similar space, has the recent interest in Gravity benefited CrowdGather in any way?
I joined my first message board in the 90’s; I acquired my first forum in 2002; I created an LLC around that site in 2003; I started building a network of sites in 2007, and I finally made it my full time focus in 2008. The only place I have seen us mentioned in the same context is on TrendSlate.com. I do point their existence out to our shareholders as proof that there is professional investor interest in their sector, but I am not sure of any other crossover. Their approach could be fundamentally different and based more on technology and analytics rather than old fashioned community building.

Any plans to reach out to Amit, Jim, Steve and the rest of the Gravity team to talk about the industry?
I would welcome a conversation, especially since it is interesting that both CrowdGather and Gravity have Indian CEO’s and are both are based in Southern California. I believe that a discussion is more likely to occur after they launch since they are probably in a private beta for strategic purposes.

Follow Sanjay on Twitter @crowdgather

The hacker left a message that reads:

WHAT A FUCKING USELESS HACK ISN’T IT? BLEH.

http://dupedb.com/

Other pages of the site read:

We’ll be back shortly.

MG Siegler tweeted a link to the new post and shortly thereafter several users around the world reported that the site had been hacked.

We’ve reached out to a few contacts to get more details. If you have any information please post in the comments below.

screenshot:

(Update: As of 11:35pm PST, all other pages revert between the two messages above, the word “hi”, and a 404-error page)

Glam Media reaches over 55 Million users each month, and they provide content and advertising that is primarily tailored to upscale female consumers through their flagship site Glam.com. Glam Media also helps advertisers reach male and Gen Y audiences through through their Brash.com and Tinker.com properties (the latter is a realtime social-networking application). The company refers to itself as a pioneer in the Vertical Media Network space.

We reached out to Glam Media to get a better sense of what is driving growth for Glam Media, and understand why Rachel Wintner was selected to lead sales. Jack Rotolo, President and GM of North America told us that:

“Market conditions and trends, coupled with the strength of the Glam brand in market, point to significant opportunity in 2010 for Glam in the Entertainment, Auto, Retail and Beauty categories. Alongside New York and Chicago, Los Angeles is one of our largest markets and warrants increased investment in the region to build a larger presence. Adding tenured sales leadership positions and expanding our physical presence through a new office opening is a logical next step.”

Sounds like 2010 will be an exciting year for Glam Media. We wish the company and Rachel Wintner all the best!

Here’s the official press release:

————————————-Press Release————————————-

Condé Nast’s Rachel Wintner Joins Glam Media as Vice President of Sales to Help Open Glam Los Angeles Sales Office

Former Associate Publisher of Condé Nast’s Style.com to Lead Glam Media’s Southwest Sales Team in Los Angeles

BRISBANE, CA and NEW YORK, NY—December 14, 2009—Glam Media, Inc. (www.GlamMedia.com), number one in global reach for women online, announced today that Rachel Wintner will join the company as Vice President of Sales. A digital media and advertising sales leader, Wintner joins Glam Media from Condé Nast, where she most recently served as Associate Publisher of Style.com. In this newly created position, Wintner will oversee Advertising Sales for the Southwest Region and will open Glam Media’s Los Angeles office, helping to connect brand advertisers with Glam’s audience of more than 1,400 publishers and sites. She will manage the Southwest sales team and report to Jack Rotolo, President and GM, North America at Glam Media, who announced her hire today.

Wintner joins Glam Media with more than ten years of marketing and advertising sales experience within digital media companies. In her most recent role as Associate Publisher of Style.com, Wintner was responsible for development of sales strategy and products as well as management of the sales team. During her tenure at Style.com, Wintner also served as Fashion Director, Advertising Manager and West Coast Advertising Director and was responsible for significant revenue growth, with both personal and team achievements surpassing set goals each year.

Before joining Condé Nast Digital, Wintner handled marketing at Wiley Publishing, Primedia and 24/7 Real Media. She began her career at Lifetime Television. Wintner is a graduate of the George Washington University, with a B.A. in Marketing.

“We’re very pleased to welcome Rachel Wintner to Glam Media and look forward to her contributions in forging new partnerships and fostering existing ones with brand advertisers looking to reach highly engaged, passionate audiences in a safe environment with highly measurable results,” said Jack Rotolo.

“Glam Media’s network, cutting edge audience targeting platform and sophisticated in-house ad solutions present tremendous opportunity for marketers—particularly those in the entertainment, retail, automotive and consumer packaged goods industries—to connect with audiences across communication channels and media verticals,” said Rachel Wintner. “I’m excited to be returning to the Los Angeles market to join such a dynamic company that has revolutionized the creation, distribution and monetization of content on the Web.”

About Glam Media

Glam Media is the pioneering vertical integrated media company that connects brand advertisers with targeted vertical audiences online. With a reach of 56 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 125 million uniques globally, Glam Media is a comScore Top 14 Web property and a Top 10 Adweek Display Ad Publisher. Glam Media is backed by Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Hubert Burda Media, Information Capital, GLG Partners, Mizuho Bank and Walden Venture. Glam is headquartered in New York City, New York and Silicon Valley, California, with offices in Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, and internationally in London, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Tokyo.

Virgin Charter was anticipated to disrupt what was at the time a multi-billion dollar industry by selling off “empty leg” flights, which are often available when a private jet makes a voyage back to its home airport after delivering passengers to their destination. The company unfortunately had a great model at the wrong time, as it has become the latest casualty of an economy gone awry since 2008. Even the largest player in the space, Warren Buffett’s NetJets reported a 43% drop in revenue in Q2 of this year. The fact that Virgin Charter has lasted for this long is a testament to company’s efficient management of its operations, marketing, and technology.

And speaking of that efficient management, it is unknown what CEO Brian Pope will do next. Pope became CEO of Virgin Charter this summer after Founding CEO Scott Duffy resigned in July. Pope was originally CMO, and was later promoted to COO, all within two years according to his LinkedIn profile. Its a shame that a company with the right model, team, brand, and backing had such a sad end, all because of factors beyond their control.

We plan to reach out to Pope, other executives, and investors in the days ahead to get a sense of what else was at play in the company’s last days. In the meantime, to get a sense of the excitement surrounding Virgin Charter, here are a few pictures from their website launch party in March 2008.

Cutting Cake

Richard enjoying, um, cake

Sir Richard Branson announces launch of Virgin Charter, Virgin Angels in background

Subtly showing our new look

Lloyd getting a massage

Sir Richard Branson adjusts Rex Lee's tie

Virgin Angels, Rex Lee, Sir Richard Branson-piece of cake

We managed to snap a few pictures while the facilities team took the old one down, and unfortunately many of the letters crumbled in the process. This was a tragedy in my opinion, because that logo is a piece of internet history. Fortunately, the most important part, the original triangle & circle symbol (pictured in the shopping cart), is in safe hands. After some sleuthing by some friends, we managed to get a tipster to reach out to TrendSlate with the disposal location. It is now residing in a safe place while we decide what to do with it. Stay tuned…

We’ve also considered holding our very own AOL-logo design competition, since the design community has been 50/50 on the version AOL decided upon last month. More on that later. For now, enjoy the pics..

Have an idea of what we should do with the old logo? Share it in the comments below.

As we mentioned previously, Brizzly is built by Jason Shellen and other Google Reader team members. We believe it provides a better user interface than Twitter. You can manage multiple Twitter accounts through one interface and easily toggle between them, save searches, and add profiles to groups.

At TrendSlate, we communicate with various venture-capital firms & entrepreneurs across Southern California, and Brizzly is essential to the work we do.

We like to eat and thought it would be great to share a list of food vendors that we’ve come across in our own travels, as well as from a couple of other sources. The list is alphabetical

Be sure to also post your reviews & experiences in the comments below. We’d like to hear about your experiences with these vendors (many of them have 1,000+ followers!)

DotSpots is a service that enables anyone to update the news in real-time with dots, or distributed objects of thought: mini-blog posts containing text, videos, images, documents, perspectives from the blogosphere, or eye-witness accounts from the scene.

These dots appear as a stream of high-quality user-generated editorial content directly in-context of all relevant articles across the web, where they are rated and vetted for usefulness by readers — the wisdom of crowds.

As a result, news sites gain comprehensive coverage for each breaking story without incurring additional cost, readers get to see multiple perspectives and eye-witness media without extra effort, and worthy alternative view-points from the blogosphere are given the mainstream exposure they deserve, in near real-time.

How it Works
Users can signup for an account and then are prompted to download an addon for Firefox. Once installed users can browse the web and annotate and create DotSpots across the web. Members can also read what other users contributed and then further refine and contribute their own views, content and more. On the publisher side these crowdsourced contributions could be syndicated and provide real time and valuable layers of information on top of existing content. As for a business model, advertisements are in the future once it gains a significant number of users. See how DotSpots works in the video below:

Recipe for Success
Farhad is taking some of the lessons learned from his previous exit BizRate/Shopzilla. Specifically, they are focused on keeping equity in the hands of DotSpots employees and not VCs. All of DotSpots employees work from home and the company pays part of the employees mortgage in lieu of potentially a lower salary.

I wish Farhad all the best as I previously worked for BizRate/Shopzilla for many years and really enjoyed the experience.

Los-Angeles based Mobile Roadie has developed a product for musicians to connect with their fan base over the iPhone. Simply put, this is a very good idea, and the product looks terrific.

For under $400, musicians can have their very own customized iPhone app that can be downloaded from iTunes. Once a fan installs the app, they can view photos, stream music & YouTube videos, get tour dates, and even interact with other fans. And since the application integrates all the disparate communication channels that artists manage on a daily basis, it makes it a lot easier for fans to stay up to date without needing to go to multiple websites.

There’s also a monthly-service charge that begins at $29, but the Mobile Roadie FAQs suggest that artists need not worry about the ongoing costs. The app will help them make up for these in ticket & music sales. Artists can also recoup costs by opting to charge fans for downloading the app on Apple’s iTunes store (a quick scan of the current Mobile Roadie users on iTunes shows that 2 out of the 12 12 out of 74 are charging). Mobile Roadie’s infrastructure can handle up to 1 million downloads.

Update: Mobile Roadie is offering 20% off the setup fee for the first 3 TrendSlate readers who sign up. Use coupon code TRENDSLATE

There’s a lot of opportunity ahead for Mobile Roadie, as well as a few challenges.

The target market is great, since Apple’s iPhone user base (which continues to grow) has lots of synergies with music enthusiasts. The company also has good connections within the Southern-California investor & entrepreneur community. It is led by Michael Schneider, who is affiliated with the newly-formed Launchpad LA “incubator”, a seed-stage VC firm. Mobile Roadie’s pricing is great, considering that it would cost $5-10k to develop even a simple app that may not look right and would still need to be supported. Other similar services like Kyte are also quite pricey. Mobile Roadie’s app has terrific usability and ongoing support at a good price.

As for hurdles they’ll need to overcome, one is the approval maze of iTunes’ App store. Although there are signs of improvement, the speed at which applications are approved could create bottle necks in Mobile Roadie’s process. Another challenge is selling the service to bands that are already very active online. While the app makes it much easier for die-hard fans to get lots of information in one place, for artists it is yet another channel they’ll need to manage while only reaching a subset of their fan base (and this one has recurring costs).

It’ll also be interesting to see how the company handles ongoing revenue. If Mobile Roadie successfully brought 1,000 artists on board (quite a climb from here), it only yields $750k in first year revenues (setup + monthly fees) and $350k in recurring revenues in the second year. Assuming a 20% profit margin that’s only $150k in upfront profits and $70k recurring (and this is before we take attrition into account). One way they could respond to this is by expanding outside the music industry (e.g. celebrities) — something they may already be considering since the pricing tab on their website has a “non-musicians” section and they’re bringing in new creative talent to build apps (update: confirmed, see comments below). Another approach is to find ways to collect affiliate commissions for ticket & music sales.

Despite some of the challenges ahead, Mobile Roadie has a great product, an experienced and connected management team, and the right market. This is definitely one SoCal startup to watch.