Futuristic Play by @Andrew_Chen

    

11 years old, just caught a fish!

Bio and contact info

Shoot me an email anytime. On Twitter I’m @andrew_chen, which I’ve been using more lately.

Below is a bio that I typed up for a conference in 3rd person

Andrew Chen is a blogger and startup executive focused on advertising and social media. He writes the blog Futuristic Play and was most recently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), a Silicon Valley-based firm with $2B under management. At MDV, Andrew pursued initiatives in digital media and advertising and helped source internet investments for the firm.

Prior to MDV, Andrew was director of product marketing at Revenue Science, where he co-founded the ad network business and was instrumental in growing the network to thousands of websites with over 5 billion ads served per month. He also led teams to handle the company’s initiatives around MySpace and Yahoo, two of Revenue Science’s most strategic partners. In addition, Andrew played key roles in winning the company’s initial brand advertising clients, which now include dozens of top-tier publishers including AOL, IAC, ESPN, Washington Post, among others.

Andrew holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington.

Why enterpreneurs and and marketers read Futuristic Play

The sad truth about blogging is that 99% of blogs are not worth reading. Andrew Chen’s blog on online marketing is one of the few exceptions to this rule. I often find myself referring people to posts from Andrew’s blog because it actually contains useful research and insight, instead of the usual noise.
– Jonathan Abrams, ceo of Socializr and founder of Friendster

Marc read Andrew
good blog
– a half haiku by Marc Andreessen

Andrew Chen’s blog is one of the few I make sure I read every day — both thoughtful and thought provoking.
– Lauren Bigelow, svp marketing and gm of Weeworld

Andrew’s incredibly analytical mind, understanding of web development, and expansive network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and veterans, affords him the unique opportunity to jump into the trenches on case studies for an intimate micro-level understanding and to learn from experts a wealth of research and wisdom of the macro forces at play.
– Jason Feffer, ceo of Sodahead and previously vp operations at MySpace

Andrew is one of those rare individuals that can consistently defy conventional Silicon Valley wisdom with a nuanced and creative view backed up by real world data.
– Akash Garg, cto/co-founder of Hi5

I really enjoy Andrew’s thoughtful insight and analysis of the very volatile entrepreneurial digital landscape
– Nick Johnson, vp of national sales internet and broadband of NBC Universal Digital Media

I go to Andrew to learn more about the latest methods for building and retaining web 2.0 audiences.  There’s no one who knows more about it.
– Mitchell Kapor, ceo of Foxmarks and founder of Lotus

I’d call Andrew’s blog ‘unmissable.’
– Jared Kopf, ceo of Adroll and Paypal alum

Andrew’s blog is an inexhaustible source of numbers and ideas on concepts that matter.
– Max Levchin, ceo/founder of Slide and cto/co-founder of PayPal

Andrew is one of the smartest geeks in Silicon Valley, and a brilliant and comprehensive virtuoso on a broad array of tech and non-tech topics including internet advertising, viral marketing, web analytics, social networks, online games, and all kinds of web glitter. He is a veritable Glenn Gould of startup blogging, and every chance i get i rip off his ideas and try to pass them off as my own. Respect.
– Dave McClure, angel investor and Paypal alum

I subscribe to Andrew Chen’s Futuristic Play blog because I value his insights into virtual worlds and gaming.
– Cary Rosenzweig, ceo of IMVU

My brother and I built JibJab by instinctually understanding and leveraging viral marketing. When I want to think about it in a quantitative way, there is no better source of information (and inspiration) than Andrew Chen’s Futuristic Play.
– Gregg Spiridellis, ceo of JibJab

Andrew is writing the textbook on web marketing.
– Jim Young, ex-cto/co-founder of HotOrNot

Companies reading Futuristic Play

(originally created via referrers, subscriber e-mail domains, etc. here)

Advertising and B2B:

• Aster Data Systems
• Medio Systems
• Revenue Science
• Tacoda
• Right Media
• Publicis Groupe
• … and a bunch of ad networks

Games and entertainment

• Electronic Arts
• Linden Lab
• NCSoft
• Sulake
• … and numerous startups like IMVU, Gaia, AreaE, and Weeworld

Media

• Joost
• Yahoo
• Virgin
• Google
• Slide
• Facebook
• MTV
• Hi5
• Tagged
• Disney
• … and tons of Facebook developers and apps

Finance/Consulting

• Lazard Freres
• Elevation Partners
• Mohr Davidow Ventures
• Blue Run Ventures
• Sierra Ventures
• Bessemer Venture Partners
• Redpoint Ventures
• McKinsey and Co