Evan Beard is an American entrepreneur, engineer, and co-founder/CEO of Standard Bots, an artificial intelligence robotics startup which has raised $63m from investors including General Catalyst and Amazon and build robots in the United States.[2] Beard has been recognized on the Forbes "30 under 30" list[3] which features the "brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents and change agents" and Business Insider's list of the "most inspiring and influential people in New York tech".[4] Prior to A Plus, Beard co-founded Etacts and ArmorHub, both acquired by publicly traded companies.[5][6]
Evan Beard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 3, 1986 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Duke University[1] |
Early life
editBeard attended Duke University,[7] where he studied computer science and graduated with distinction in economics in 2009.[8] While finishing school he wrote a widely distributed iOS app, “Girlfriend Keeper”, which attracted attention from international media, including Good Morning America, the LA Times, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and local news and radio stations.[9][10] The app asked for details about one's significant other and sent automated emails and text messages expressing affection, such as "it's only 67 days until your birthday, I might get you something green like your eyes".
Career
editEtacts
editIn 2009, shortly after graduating college, Beard co-founded Etacts and was admitted to the Y-Combinator seed accelerator.[11] Etacts was a relationship management app that provided a unified view of one's contacts and all emails, calls, and texts with them.[12] It allowed setting reminders on one’s contacts to remember to stay in touch with them.[13][14] It also provided a contextual widget within Gmail that automatically showed biographical details next to emails, such as the education and work history of your correspondents.[15] The company raised $700,000 from prominent angel investors, including Ron Conway and Ashton Kutcher.[16] In 2010, Etacts was acquired by Salesforce.com,[17][18][19] where Beard subsequently worked in engineering as a Senior Member of Technical Staff.
ArmorHub
editIn 2011, Beard co-founded Gridtech Inc which created ArmorHub.com.[6][20] ArmorHub is an app that allows businesses to quickly scan their websites for application-level security vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting. ArmorHub was acquired by Spirent Communications, a publicly traded British company.[21]
A Plus
editIn 2013, Beard moved to Los Angeles to co-found A Plus with Ashton Kutcher and Kendall Dabaghi.[22][23][24] A Plus is a technology-focused media company that creates positive journalism for millennials and uses its own technology for content creation, optimization and distribution. After a soft launch in early 2014, A Plus grew to 50 million unique visitors per month and six months after launch was the fastest growing site in comScore’s Mobile Metrix database.[24][25] The site raised $3.5m from investors in 2015 and expects $8 million in revenue in 2016.[3] A Plus started in Kutcher’s living room and moved to New York City in 2014.[24]
References
edit- ^ Scott Kraft (2010-04-29). "He's start-ups' best friend". LA Times.
- ^ "General Catalyst, Amazon Bet $63 Million on AI Robotics Startup". Bloomberg.com. 2024-07-12. Retrieved 2024-07-15.
- ^ a b "30 Under 30 2016: Media". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-01-06.
- ^ "SILICON ALLEY 100: Meet the most inspiring and influential people in New York tech right now". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
- ^ Liz Gannes (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Buys Small Contact Management Start-Up Etacts". AllThingsD.
- ^ a b "ArmorHub's Web Security Service Scans For Vulnerabilities & Malware, Works Great For Startups As Well As Your Dad". TechCrunch. 2012-11-15.
- ^ Kraft, Scott (2010-04-29). "He's start-ups' best friend". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
- ^ "Evan Beard | LinkedIn". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
- ^ Michelle Maltais (2009-09-23). "The Business and Culture of Our Digital Lives". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Girlfriend App". girlfriendapp.com.
- ^ Jason Kincaid (2010-02-22). "YC-Funded Etacts Makes Sure You Never Fall Out Of Touch With Your Contacts". TechCrunch.
- ^ Tomio Geron (2010-05-14). "Newly Seeded Etacts Seeking Holy Grail Of The Unified Inbox". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ "Startups And Top Investors Unite At Y Combinator's Tenth Demo Day". TechCrunch. 2010-03-23.
- ^ Jason Kincaid (2010-03-06). "Etacts Launches First Implementation of oAuth For Gmail IMAP Accounts". TechCrunch.
- ^ Whitson Gordon (2010-03-16). "Etacts Adds Contact Info, Social Networking, and Handy Statistics to Your Gmail Sidebar". LifeHacker.
- ^ Marshall Kirkpatrick (2010-12-21). "The Acquisition of Etacts and Email as a Platform". ReadWriteWeb.
- ^ Jolie O’Dell (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Acquires E-mail Contact Management Startup Etacts". Mashable.
- ^ Matthew Lynley (2010-12-21). "Salesforce nabs another Y Combinator startup in email contact manager Etacts". VentureBeat.
- ^ Leena Rao (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts". TechCrunch.
- ^ Meg Rayford (2012-11-18). "Secure Your Website Easily, but Thoroughly with ArmorHub". Tech.co.
- ^ "Spirent Brings New Vulnerability Scanning and Load Testing on a Cloud-Based Platform for Web and Applications Developers". Reuters. 2014-05-01. Archived from the original on 2014-07-24.
- ^ Saba Hamedy (2015-01-23). "Ashton Kutcher launches new online platform called A+". LA Times.
- ^ Hope King (2015-02-25). "Ashton Kutcher wants to pay you to write for him". CNN.
- ^ a b c Alyson Shontell (2015-03-19). "Last year, a blog called A Plus was created in Ashton Kutcher's living room. Now it has 50 million readers and it just raised $3.5 million". BusinessInsider.
- ^ Ventures, Palisades Media. "Palisades Media Ventures Partners With A Plus to Launch New Digital Video Offering". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-02-03.