A travel-obsessed serial entrepreneur, Sam previously founded and was CEO of DealBase.com, a travel deals search engine, and was CEO of TravelPost.com, a hotel reviews site. SideStep acquired TravelPost.com and Sam stayed on as VP of business development until its fortunate acquisition by Kayak. Sam also worked in comparison shopping at Excite, CNET and NexTag. Not at all surprisingly, he was an assistant to Wes Craven on the film Scream. He HotelTonights at the Ace New York.
For Hotel Partners
About HotelTonight
HotelTonight was founded in December 2010 to provide easy mobile booking of same-day unsold hotel inventory.
For consumers, we offer incredible convenience and amazing value at quality hotels. For hotels, we are a marketplace to fill last-minute rooms that would otherwise remain empty. HotelTonight was founded by an experienced team and is backed by some of the top venture firms and travel-industry pioneers in the world. We're based in downtown San Francisco.
Executive Team
The office's music police chief, Jared oversees supplier relations and operations. He previously was VP of corporate development at online-video production and distribution pioneer TurnHere. He also helped launch the hotel business at Orbitz.com and served as general manager of the company’s Lodging.com brand. Before he realized life was supposed to be enjoyable, he worked in corporate finance and investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston and Budget Group, Inc. He HotelTonights at the Hollywood Roosevelt.
A master in the art of proper espresso preparation, Chris manages all aspects of HotelTonight technology. He previously was CTO of DealBase.com and earlier was an architect and senior computer scientist at Adobe Systems. He has led many an engineering team, been involved with myriad startups and done a variety of consulting. He HotelTonights at the Nines in Portland.
Board Members & Advisors
Brad Gerstner
Board Member
Brad is the founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital Management. Previously, he served as a vice president at PAR Capital Management, Inc. Prior to joining PAR Capital, Brad co-founded Openlist.com and was co-CEO and co-president of National Leisure Group.
Brian O'Malley
Board Member
Brian is a partner at Battery Ventures, where he originated or led the investments in Bazaarvoice, Coupa, Fashionstake, H.BLOOM, Insitu (acquired by Boeing), J. Hilburn, Joor and Loosecubes, among others. Prior to Battery, Brian spent several years at Bowstreet, Inc. as director of West Coast technical sales and the business development team's technical evangelist.
Theresia Gouw
Board Member
Theresia is a partner at Accel Partners, where she focuses primarily on internet and software investments. Theresia was responsible for several of Accel's investments which have had successful acquisition or IPO exits including AdECN (MSFT), CRS Retail Systems (EPIC), Interlace Systems (ORCL), Kosmix (WMT), PeopleSupport (PSPT), Xoopit (YHOO) and Zimbra (YHOO); and was part of the Walmart.com (WMT) investment team.
Howard Love
Board Member
Howard is a life-long entrepreneur who has been starting and running companies for almost 30 years. Among them: Inmark Development (RogueWave), MarketHome (CLAC), GetawayZone (EXPE), PageWise (Demand Media), FlexJobs.com and LoveToKnow.
Rick Lewis
Board Member
A general partner at USVP, Lewis focuses on software and consumer Internet (social, mobile and e-commerce). He is on the board of directors of Act-On Software, ScoreBig, ThreatMetrix, Trunk Club and Yammer. Lewis also led USVP's investment in myYearbook.com (acquired by Quepasa).
Dave Morin
Advisor
Dave is Co-Founder and CEO of Path. Previously, Dave was a co-inventor of Facebook Connect. Prior to Facebook, Dave held positions at Apple in product and marketing. Dave grew up under the big sky of Montana where he was ranked as one of the top downhill ski racers in the United States.
Dave Pell
Advisor
Dave Pell is a web entrepreneur and angel investor based out of San Francisco. He has invested in Open Table, GrubHub, Marin Software, DealBase and Liftopia. His syndicated blog, Tweetage Wasteland - Confessions of an Internet Superhero, examines the impact of the realtime, social web.
Investors
Battery Ventures
Since 1983, Battery has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company’s life, from startup and expansion financing to growth equity and buyouts. Battery’s Internet & Digital Media portfolio currently includes Angie’s List, Bazaarvoice, BlueKai, BlueStem Brands, Digby, Exact Target, Groupon, H.Bloom, j. Hilburn and Skullcandy. From offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel, Battery manages $4B in committed capital, including its current fund of $750M.
Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners is a leading venture capital and growth equity investment firm, working with entrepreneurs to build world-class businesses. Accel manages over $6B globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, London, New Delhi, Bangalore and China, through a partnership with IDG-Accel. Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including Facebook, Groupon, Comscore, AdMob, Diapers.com (Quidsi), Glam Media, Etsy, Kayak, Angry Birds (Rovio), Macromedia, MetroPCS, Playfish, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Riverbed, SunRun, UUNet, Veritas and Walmart.com, among others.
First Round Capital
First Round Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. First Round Capital’s portfolio is a community of web-enabled businesses led by entrepreneurs, guided by an active partnership and connected through a technology platform designed to support companies throughout their growth. The firm's current portfolio includes StumbleUpon, OneKingsLane, Bazaarvoice, Modcloth, RockMelt, Uber and Square. First Round Capital invests nationally with offices in San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia.
U.S. Venture Partners
U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, helping entrepreneurs build world-class companies since 1981. USVP focuses on early stage opportunities in sectors where the Partners have the domain expertise, operating experience and network of relationships to contribute to the success of an enterprise. Currently, the firm invests in digital communications, network systems, consumer and business services, media, semiconductors, clean technologies, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices.
Rich Barton
Individual Investor
Co-founder and executive chairman of Zillow, Rich also served as CEO from 2005, when the company was founded, until September 2010. Before co-founding Zillow, Rich founded Expedia.com. Started within Microsoft in 1994 and spun out in 1999 as a public company, Rich served as president, CEO and board director until 2003. Rich also co-founded and serves as non-executive chairman of Glassdoor.com and is chairman of Trover LLC. Rich is also a venture partner at Benchmark Capital and is on the boards of directors of Netflix, Avvo, RealSelf.com and CommonSenseMedia.Org.
Hugh Crean
Individual Investor
Currently an entrepreneur in residence at General Catalyst Partners, Hugh was president and CEO of Farecast, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2008. Hugh joined the Microsoft search team as general manager/principal engineering manager, focused on the development and launch of Bing Travel. Before Farecast, Hugh was senior vice president of business development at National Leisure Group (NLG), vice president of product and corporate development at Priceline and vice president of strategic analysis for Citigroup’s Advanced Development/e-Citi division.
Erik Blachford
Individual Investor
Currently Venture Partner at Technology Crossover Ventures, Chairman at Butterfield Robinson, Inc. and executive chairman at TerraPass, Inc., Erik was formerly the chief executive at TerraPass, Inc., Expedia, Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp's travel division, IAC Travel. Erik currently serves as a board director at Butterfield & Robinson, TerraPass, Zillow and Glassdoor.com.