Peter Krasilovsky's

Local Onliner

Sep 22
2010

Angie’s List Raises $22.5 Million; Sees IPO Within 18 Months

Angie’s List, the premium ratings and review service for home and medical services, has announced that it has raised $22.5 Million from institutional investors as it prepares for an IPO within 18 months. Investors in this round include some public funds managers, including Wasatch Funds. The company previously raised $48 million, making for a grand …continue reading »

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Aug 5
2010

Redbeacon Raises $7.4 Million; Interview with CEO Ethan Anderson

Redbeacon, the six person San Francisco based service referral company, announced today that it has raised a heady $7.4 million in Series A financing from Mayfield Fund and Venrock. CEO and Co-founder Ethan Anderson tells us that the company needed such a huge round to quickly ramp up the staff, including engineers, designers and marketing …continue reading »

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Jun 9
2010

Thumbtack, a Service Leads Provider, Raises $1.2 Million

Thumbtack, one of the new breed of service lead companies such as Alikelist, Red Beacon, HelpHive and others seeking to push aside leaders such as ServiceMagic and Angie’s List (and the Yellow Pages), announced today it has raised $1.2 million, and now has raised a war-chest of $1.7 million altogether. The new angel round includes …continue reading »

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Feb 10
2010

ServiceMagic Sees 21% Growth in Providers

IAC’s ServiceMagic reported today that it saw a 51 percent boost in 4Q revenue, growing from $25.3 million in 2008 to $38.2 million in 2009. The boost was accompanied by a 21 percent growth in the number of home and trade providers that pay for its leads; and a 46 percent gain in service requests. …continue reading »

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Dec 15
2009

AlikeList, a New Local/Social Platform, Raises $5 million and Launches

This has been the year for new sites that combine service directories and social features such as ratings and reviews. Earlier this year, we’ve seen sites such as RedBeacon, HelpHive, and others launch. Depending on definitions, earlier entrants include Citysearch, Yelp.com, Tree.com’s DoneRight, FixR , LocalPrice, InsiderPages and Centerd. Behind their fancy Web 2.0 veneers, …continue reading »

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Oct 21
2009

HelpHive, a Referral Site, Seeks to Rope in SMBs with Free Video

Smelling blood at the presumed decline of Yellow Pages, a number of sites have launched that provide leads to local service SMBs. You got Angie’s List on the membership side. And ServiceMagic, Tree.com’s DoneRight, Sears’ ServiceLive and a number of regional companies (i.e. RedBeacon, Fixr, LocalPrice) using some type of leads model. Now add HelpHive. …continue reading »

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Jul 30
2009

Diller: Vertical Search Represents Key Opportunity

A year since IAC’s spinoff of several businesses, IAC Chairman Barry Diller, during a 2Q earnings call, saw some bright spots, including ServiceMagic, which saw a five percent jump in service requests. Diller also expressed optimism that the company had strong opportunities in several key areas, especially vertical search, and extensive downloads of its iPhone …continue reading »

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