Lauren Piazza Koester Email Address

Head of Operations

"Betaworks is building a version of the Web that CEO John Borthwick and his team of builders want to live in -- spartan-designed media on top of apps on top of utilities that all disjointedly make the social Web a better place, leveraging one another to do it." - Erin Griffith, Pando Daily At first glance, betaworks seems to be a loose organization of people that do many things -- but in reality we are building products that when combined together form a strong network, and eventually a media company for this century. We believe we're better at what we do -- building and operating companies -- because of the open ecosystem of builders around us. We are currently working on companies like Giphy, Instapaper, Dots, Poncho, Digg, and more. Our investment portfolio includes big players like Tumblr, Twitter, and Kickstarter, as well as up-and-comers like RapGenius, Grand St., Branch and IFTTT. To us, seed investing means "first money in" -- so our typical investment size is $100,000-200,000. We usually invest as part of a syndicate of angels and early-stage VCs. Our requirements from an investment perspective are simple, though narrow. Investments must be early-stage, heavily tech-focused, and have a working (public or private) prototype. We are a powerpoint-free zone. If you'd like to build, test, or invest with us, you can join our OpenBeta community here: http://betaworks.com/openbeta/

People. It's all about people to me. Why? Because giving people an exceptional and happy experience no matter where they are (home, work, anywhere!) brings me joy and gives me purpose. I hope to meet others on here who have the same vision--bringing people happiness in their lives through thoughtful leadership, working better together and positive experiences in their workplace. Reach out and say hello!