Stealthy PhotoRocket ramps up hiring, targets big financing round |
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Stealthy PhotoRocket ramps up hiring, targets big financing round
When we first noted Scott Lipsky's stealthy PhotoRocket last summer, the Seattle entrepreneur didn't want to share too many details about the online photo sharing service. Well, six months later, not much has changed. Lipsky, an early Amazon.com employee who co-founded online advertising giant aQuantive, still isn't saying much about the project.
But the company has started to bring on some key talent, including the hire of former Atlas Accelerator managing director and Qpass executive Michael Cockrill who recently joined as vice president of product and technology. In addition, Gary Roshak -- a former vice president at Yahoo, Mforma and Marchex -- has joined as a consultant.
Lipsky says the company also is hiring engineers and is pushing ahead with the photo service, with a launch slated for some time this summer. A financing deal also is in the works, with Lipsky saying that money should arrive by the end of next month from local investors.
Lipsky wouldn't say how much he's planning to raise, but noted that it will be a "good sized round."
Cockrill
"The response from investors has been amazing," said Lipsky, who also co-founded the Seattle startup known as GalleryPlayer. "I think we've really hit a chord with basic needs with consumers in photosharing."
The entrepreneur isn't limiting his ambitions to PhotoRocket, though he said that company represents a very large opportunity and addresses a bit problem in a really unique way. Lipsky also kicking around a Seattle R&D lab, an innovation center of sorts which could serve as a holding chamber for many of his ideas. (Lipsky says he currently has about a dozen ideas percolating).
In fact, he had originally planned to focus efforts on the R&D lab, but changed gears to create PhotoRocket because of the opportunity. The R&D lab also required more capital to get off the ground.
Cockrill's experience at Atlas Accelerator, which helps jumpstart new startup companies, also could help in the R&D lab. In addition to Atlas Accelerator and Qpass, Cockrill spent nine years at Microsoft. He also co-founded the mobile social networking startup Mixxer.
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