Mark Sigal

Current

• "Permanent" Interim CEO and BOD member at vSocial and Me.com (now Snapp Networks)
• Founder at Chatopic

Past

• CEO and Board Member at UXComm (now Virtugo)
• CEO and Board Member at Me.com - now Apple
• Founder at Verdada

• CEO and Co-Founder at Rapid Logic
• Western Sales Director at Tribe Computer Works

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Recommended

4 people have recommended Mark

Connections

126 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Blog
• My Company
• My Company

Mark Sigal’s Summary

I am digital media entrepreneur (social networking and video); a 'platform' guy who has done eight startup ventures (vSocial, Me.com, UXComm, CBM, Tribe, CafeNet, Rapid Logic, Verdada), four of them as co-founder.

PAST: As CEO of Rapid Logic, I took the company from first heart beat through seven product releases, a $10M run rate and sale to Wind River for $67M. Today, the RapidControl product family is a cornerstone of Wind River's WindManage device management solution.

I have also had liquidity events when we sold Me.com to Apple; Whistle Communications was sold to IBM (I was an angel stage investor); and when Tribe Communications was sold to Zoom Telephonics (my first tech gig).

PRESENT: My two companies are focused on enabling businesses and brands to incorporate social networking (Snapp Networks) and video (vSocial) into their online strategies.

I am focused on building next generation digital media services; namely, the transformation of traditional media to online (yellow pages, newspapers, books, radio, tv, etc.) and the advertising model changes that go along with it (pay per click 2.0) as we move to a mobile broadband-enabled world (see: iPhone SDK)

I thrive on team building, making the numbers work and finding the balance between the needs of customers, employees and investors.

Check out my blog on digital media, ideation and active investing, The Network Garden: www.thenetworkgarden.com

Mark Sigal’s Specialties:

digital media, social networking, online video, social media, community, platform strategy, consumer services, embedded systems, device management, internet infrastructure equipment, financial and operations management, aligning tactics and strategy, product marketing, sales, OEM business models

Mark Sigal’s Experience

• "Permanent" Interim CEO and BOD member

  vSocial and Me.com (now Snapp Networks)

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  September 2005 — Present (2 years 11 months)

  vSocial delivers a hosted social media platform that enables companies of all sizes to launch, distribute, customize, market and monetize branded video channels, multi-channel video networks and online communities built around the intersection of rich media and social networking functionality. Companies that want to participate in the YouTube Economy but do so with their brand, their messaging and on their own web site turn to vSocial.
  
  Me.com is a community of "connected communities" targeted at every interest and affinity under the sun. Me.com's customer is the community builder, and the company provides them more than 40 content, communications and community building tools to enable new communities to be deployed very rapidly. The company has versions of its turnkey hosted service targeted at prosumers, small business and large enterprises.

• Founder

  Chatopic

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Civic & Social Organization industry)

  June 2002 — Present (6 years 2 months)

  Chatopic is a topical discussion group that I founded with Steve Lee. We meet regularly to discuss a chosen topic and there is also an on-line component. Past topics have included negotiation, the history of God, what makes a great restaurant, globalization, animal rights, and Picasso's life.

• CEO and Board Member

  UXComm (now Virtugo)

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  March 2004 — March 2008 (4 years 1 month)

  - Recruited by Foundation Capital and OVP Venture Partners (Intel Capital is also an investor) to refine product strategy and build management team for Series “A” stage startup, secured $4.6M follow-on investment
  
  - Refocused company from software developer’s kit vendor targeting modular system OEMs to datacenter automation software platform provider targeting service-oriented enterprises
  
  - Secured C-level relationships with Deutsche Telekom, Harvard, Intel, MCI, Lockheed Martin

• CEO and Board Member

  Me.com - now Apple

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  October 2005 — December 2007 (2 years 3 months)

  Me.com was the consumer portal portion of Snapp Networks, the social media/community building platform company where I continue to operate at.
  
  We sold this portion of the business to Apple late last year, and it was recently announced as part of Apple's MobileMe data synchronization service which replaces .Mac.
  
  Needless to say, I am very proud of this outcome.

• Founder

  Verdada

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  October 2002 — January 2004 (1 year 4 months)

  Verdada has created an online companion application called VSOS (pronounced VEE-sauce) that integrates with your email, web browser and email address book. The SOS stands for "save, organize and share," and that's what our product enables you to do as you come across products, businesses, people, web content, emails or notes on products you might want to buy, topics you have an interest in cultivating, or travel/going out related activities you want to plan. Check it out: www.verdada.com

• CEO and Co-Founder

  Rapid Logic

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Networking industry)

  October 1996 — February 2001 (4 years 5 months)

  Founding CEO of unified device management software company that secured customer wins at over 100 leading device manufacturers, including Cisco, Alcatel, Nokia, Sony, Nortel and HP.
  
  With a great team, fantastic partners and wonderful investors, took the company from first heart beat through seven product releases, $10M run rate and eventual sale to Wind River for $67M. Today, the RapidControl product family makes is a cornerstone of Wind River's WindManage device management solution.

• Western Sales Director

  Tribe Computer Works

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Networking industry)

  January 1994 — October 1996 (2 years 10 months)

  Tribe was a pioneer of packet switching, remote access and internet router networking hardware equipment with a primary focus on the Apple/Macintosh market.
  
  I sold to customers ranging from Apple, Cisco and E! Entertainment to Lawrence Livermore Labs and the educational market.
  
  Tribe was a great company for a number of reasons. It emerged before money changed the tech game, when the web was just dawning and it had a wonderful culture.

Additional Information

Mark Sigal’s Websites:

• My Blog
• My Company
• My Company

Mark Sigal’s Interests:

bikram yoga, digital media, information arbitrage, buddhism, coaching, ideation, advertising, marketing, social media, investing, yoga

Mark Sigal’s Groups:

•    iPhone Developers member
•    Community 2.0 member