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Jason CalacanisAmerican internet entrepreneur and blogger
Date of Birth: 28.11.1970
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Jason Calacanis
Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American internet entrepreneur and blogger. He was born on November 28, 1970, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Xavier High School in 1988 and went on to study psychology at Fordham University.
Early Career
During the dot-com boom, Calacanis made his way into New York City's technology center and in 1996, he began promoting an publication known as 'Silicon Alley Reporter'. Originally a 16-page informational newsletter, 'Silicon Alley Reporter' grew into a popular magazine with 300 pages. Additionally, a related publication called 'Digital Coast Reporter' was also launched.
Weblogs, Inc.
As a blogger, Calacanis co-founded 'Weblogs, Inc.' with Brian Alvey on September 24, 2003. The network of blogs received investment from "angel" investor Mark Cuban. Within two years of its creation, 'Weblogs, Inc.' was generating around $1,000 per day solely from the 'Adsense' contextual advertising service. In October 2005, the network was acquired by America Online (now AOL) for a sum between $25-30 million.
Later Career
On December 16, 2006, Calacanis left his position as CEO of 'Weblogs, Inc.' and general manager of 'Netscape'. He then began working for 'Sequoia Capital' and remained with the company for about six months. In May 2007, he launched his own search engine called Mahalo.com, which entered its alpha testing phase. Later that year, during a conference called 'Gnomedex', Calacanis became involved in a confrontation with Dave Winer, leading to Winer's removal from the expert group at the 'TechCrunch20' conference organized by Calacanis.
Current Ventures
As of April 21, 2010, Mahalo.com was attracting approximately 9.4 million visitors each month, with a peak of 14.1 million unique users according to web analytics from 'Quantcast'. Calacanis is also the founder of the podcast 'ThisWeekIn', which featured hour-long discussions about new startups and the web industry as a whole, with participation from founders, executives, angel investors, and venture capitalists. On December 14, 2012, Calacanis announced the closure of 'ThisWeekIn', but clarified that the three most popular segments, 'This Week In Startups', 'This Week In Web Des', and 'Kevin Pollak's Chat Show', would continue. At the end of 2012, Jason joined the board of directors of 'Dyn'.
