Evan Beard

Evan Beard
Born (1986-12-03) December 3, 1986
Annapolis, Maryland
Nationality American
Alma mater Duke University [1]

Evan Beard is an American entrepreneur, engineer, and co-founder with Ashton Kutcher of the media company A Plus (aplus.com).[2][3] A Plus ranks among the largest websites in the US, with 30 to 50 million monthly unique visitors, and six months after launch was the fastest growing website in comScore's Mobile Metrix database.[4][5] Beard has been recognized on the Forbes "30 under 30" list[6] 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".[7] Prior to A Plus, Beard co-founded Etacts and ArmorHub, both acquired by publicly traded companies.[8][9]

Early life

Beard attended Duke University,[10] where he studied computer science and graduated with distinction in economics in 2009.[11] 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.[12][13] 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

Etacts

In 2009, shortly after graduating college, Beard co-founded Etacts and was admitted to the Y-Combinator seed accelerator.[14] Etacts was a relationship management app that provided a unified view of one's contacts and all emails, calls, and texts with them.[15] It allowed setting reminders on one’s contacts to remember to stay in touch with them.[16][17] 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.[18] The company raised $700,000 from prominent angel investors, including Ron Conway and Ashton Kutcher.[19] In 2010, Etacts was acquired by Salesforce.com,[20][21][22] where Beard subsequently worked in engineering as a Senior Member of Technical Staff.

ArmorHub

In 2011, Beard co-founded Gridtech Inc which created ArmorHub.com.[9][23] 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.[24]

A Plus

In 2013, Beard moved to Los Angeles to co-found A Plus with Ashton Kutcher and Kendall Dabaghi.[2][3][4] 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.[4][5] The site raised $3.5m from investors in 2015 and expects $8 million in revenue in 2016.[6] A Plus started in Kutcher’s living room and moved to New York City in 2014.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Scott Kraft (2010-04-29). "He's start-ups’ best friend". LA Times.
  2. 1 2 Saba Hamedy (2015-01-23). "Ashton Kutcher launches new online platform called A+". LA Times.
  3. 1 2 Hope King (2015-02-25). "Ashton Kutcher wants to pay you to write for him". CNN.
  4. 1 2 3 4 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.
  5. 1 2 Ventures, Palisades Media. "Palisades Media Ventures Partners With A Plus to Launch New Digital Video Offering". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  6. 1 2 "30 Under 30 2016: Media". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-01-06.
  7. ↑ "SILICON ALLEY 100: Meet the most inspiring and influential people in New York tech right now". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  8. ↑ Liz Gannes (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Buys Small Contact Management Start-Up Etacts". AllThingsD.
  9. 1 2 "ArmorHub’s Web Security Service Scans For Vulnerabilities & Malware, Works Great For Startups As Well As Your Dad". TechCrunch. 2012-11-15.
  10. ↑ Kraft, Scott (2010-04-29). "He's start-ups' best friend". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  11. ↑ "Evan Beard | LinkedIn". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  12. ↑ Michelle Maltais (2009-09-23). "The Business and Culture of Our Digital Lives". Los Angeles Times.
  13. ↑ "Girlfriend App". girlfriendapp.com.
  14. ↑ Jason Kincaid (2010-02-22). "YC-Funded Etacts Makes Sure You Never Fall Out Of Touch With Your Contacts". TechCrunch.
  15. ↑ Tomio Geron (2010-05-14). "Newly Seeded Etacts Seeking Holy Grail Of The Unified Inbox". Wall Street Journal.
  16. ↑ "Startups And Top Investors Unite At Y Combinator's Tenth Demo Day". TechCrunch. 2010-03-23.
  17. ↑ Jason Kincaid (2010-03-06). "Etacts Launches First Implementation of oAuth For Gmail IMAP Accounts". TechCrunch.
  18. ↑ Whitson Gordon (2010-03-16). "Etacts Adds Contact Info, Social Networking, and Handy Statistics to Your Gmail Sidebar". LifeHacker.
  19. ↑ Marshall Kirkpatrick (2010-12-21). "The Acquisition of Etacts and Email as a Platform". ReadWriteWeb.
  20. ↑ Jolie O’Dell (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Acquires E-mail Contact Management Startup Etacts". Mashable.
  21. ↑ Matthew Lynley (2010-12-21). "Salesforce nabs another Y Combinator startup in email contact manager Etacts". VentureBeat.
  22. ↑ Leena Rao (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts". TechCrunch.
  23. ↑ Meg Rayford (2012-11-18). "Secure Your Website Easily, but Thoroughly with ArmorHub". Tech.co.
  24. ↑ "Spirent Brings New Vulnerability Scanning and Load Testing on a Cloud-Based Platform for Web and Applications Developers". Reuters. 2014-05-01.
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