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Dick Ebersol’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

What is Dick Ebersol’s Net Worth?Dick Ebersol is an American network executive who has a net worth of $60 million. Dick Ebersol is best known for his longtime career as an executive at NBC. In 1975, it was Ebersol as Director of Weekend Late Night Programming at NBC who, along with Lorne Michaels, developed “Saturday Night Live”, which went on to become a huge phenomenon that continues to this day. During the brief period in which Lorne Michaels left the show, Ebersol was also the sole producer, serving as the man behind the show during the Billy Crystal and Eddie Murphy eras in the 1980s.During his time at NBC Dick also successfully secured the rights to Olympics for what became a multi-decade successful run, starting in 1996.? Compare Dick Ebersol’s Net WorthEarly LifeDuncan “Dick” Ebersol was born in Torrington, Connecticut, on July 28, 1947, to Mary and Charles Roberts Ebersol, former chairman of the American Cancer Society. He began his career behind the camera in 1967 when he became the first-ever Olympic researcher for ABC after temporarily dropping out of Yale University.CareerDick Ebersol joined NBC as Director of Weekend Late Night Programming in 1974. Asked to fill the Saturday night time slot, Ebersol helped Lorne Michaels bring the variety show idea to life, creating “Saturday Night Live.” He was later named Vice President of Late Night Programming and formed No Sleep Productions in 1983, the independent production company that created the Emmy Award-winning shows “Friday Night Videos” and “Later with Bob Costas.” Ebersol joined forces with Vince McMahon to create “Saturday Night’s Main Event” before leaving “SNL” in 1985.Ebersol became President of NBC Sports in 1989. He was promoted to Chairman, NBC Sports & Olympics in June of 1998. Under his tenure, NBC Sports acquired the rights to many Olympic Games broadcasts. Dick Ebersol achieved record-setting viewership numbers with the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in 2010, and Super Bowl XLIII in 2009. In 2011, Ebersol resigned from NBC Sports.AccoladesDick Ebersol was awarded the Olympic Order by the International Olympic Committee in 1992. In 1996, Ebersol was named the Most Powerful Person in Sports by “The Sporting News.” In 2005, he was inducted into the U.S Olympic Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. Dick Ebersol won Sports Executive of the Year and was presented the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2009. In 2010, he was presented with a Doctor of Humane Letters by Sacred Heart University President Anthony J, Cernnera. And in 2014, Ebersol was given the highest honor of the Radio Television Digital News Association, the Paul White Award.Dick Ebersol’s dislike for Fred Silverman, who ran NBC from 1978-1981, was no secret. Ebersol felt Silverman often pushed shows on air before they were ready. He cited with pride the failed experiment of the XFL by recalling how GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt called it an example of the importance of risk-taking, even when it doesn’t pay off. Ebersol later resigned from NBC Sports citing a contract dispute with his new bosses at Comcast. He claimed that he wanted “to make a really cool deal” with the company but that they couldn’t get on the same page.Personal LifeDick Ebersol was married to former “Wheel of Fortune” hostess Susan Stafford from 1976 to 1981. He has been married to Susan Saint James since 1981, and together, they had three sons: Charlie, Willie, and Teddy, who died in a plane crash in 2004. Dick Ebersol met Susan Saint James when she guest hosted “SNL” in 1981.Real EstateIn 2004 Dick and Susan paid $10.4 million for a mansion in Telluride, Colorado. They listed the 13,000 square-foot mansion in 2011 for $14 million. A year later they accepted $11.3 million for the home.Their primary residence is a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut but they also own property in California and Massachusetts.
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Travis VanderZanden’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

What is Travis VanderZanden’s net worth?Travis VanderZanden is an American businessman who has a net worth of $70 million. Travis VanderZanden is best known for being the founder and CEO of the scooter sharing service Bird. Travis founded Bird in 2017 and over the next several years raised over $400 million in venture capital funding. From those funding rounds, Bird’s private valuation peaked at $2.8 billion. Bird went public via SPAC in November 2021 at a valuation of $2.5 billion. One year later the company’s value had plunged 96% to a market cap of less than $90 million. Travis stepped down as CEO in September 2022.? Compare Travis VanderZanden’s Net WorthBefore BirdAfter graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Travis VanderZanden landed a job as a product manager at Qualcomm in 2002. VanderZanden then received his MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.In 2009 he became the Chief Revenue Officer for enterprise chat service Yammer. He remained at Yammer until 2011 when he left to co-found an on-demand car wash service called Cherry. He served as the CEO of Cherry through 2013, at which point the company was acquired by Lyft.Upon joining Lyft, Travis became the company’s Chief Operating Officer. He left Lyft a year later after being hired away by rival Uber where he became the VP of International Growth. Lyft subsequently sued Travis, alleging he broke a confidentiality agreement. The lawsuit was settled on undisclosed terms and Travis ended up leaving Uber in 2016.BirdTravis VanderZanden founded Bird in 2017. In September 2017 the scooters began appearing around Santa Monica, California and other parts of Los Angeles.As the scooters became prevalent and popular they created enormous controversy. Bird did not seek permission or permits before expanding into a new city. The scooters were also a major safety hazard. Even though riders were instructed not to ride on sidewalks, they almost exclusively road on sidewalks, periodically crashing into pedestrians. And when the riders did ride in the street, they often did not obey traffic laws, stop signs or other basis safety measures, leading to many accidents.By 2019 the company had expanded into 120 cities around the globe. Along the way Bird also attracted a number of competitors.Bird Valuations and Funding RoundsIn February 2018 Bird raised $15 million in Series A financing. A month later the company raised $100 million in a Series B round. In May 2018 Bird raised $150 million in a Series C, primarily from Sequoia Capital. At this round, the company reached a $1 billion valuation for the first time. Bird is the fastest company in history so far, to reach “unicorn” status. In June 2018 Bird raised $300 million at a $2 billion valuation. After several additional funding rounds, Bird eventually reached a private valuation of $2.8 billion. In total the company raised well over $400 million in venture capital.During the later rounds it was assumed that Travis’ personal equity stake in Bird had been reduced to 20%. Assuming Travis VanderZanden managed to maintain ownership of 20% of his company, his paper net worth before taxes at the $2 billion mark was $415 million. Travis reportedly personally cashed out $44 million in Bird’s mid-2018 funding rounds.SPAC IPOBy the time Bird struck a deal to go public via SPAC in spring 2021, Travis’ equity stake had been reduced to 13%. When Bird when public via SPAC in November 2021, it debuted at a price per share of around $8 and a market cap of $2.5 billion. At that level his 13% stake was worth $325 million.One year after going public, Bird’s stock price had dropped from a 52-week high of $11.25 to $0.34 per share. The company’s market cap fell from $2.5 billion to $85 million. At that new low, Travis’ 13% stake was worth around $11 million.Real EstateIn November 2018, Travis spent $8 million in cash to acquire a large, newly-constructed house in Santa Monica, California. He sold this home in July 2021 for $9 million.In January 2021 Travis bought Trevor Noah’s Bel Air mansion for $21.7 million. Just six months later Travis decided he no longer wanted the place so he listed it for a little under $25 million. Here’s a video tour:In November 2021 Travis paid $21.8 million for a waterfront mansion in Coral Gables, Florida.
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Jason Calacanis’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

What is Jason Calacanis’ Net Worth?Jason Calacanis is an American entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster and author who has a net worth of $60 million. He sold his first company, Weblogs, Inc., to AOL in October 2005 for $30 million. He then went on to launch a number of web businesses, including Silicon Alley Reporter and web directory, Mahalo.com. Today he is primarily an angel investor. His biggest home run by far as a VC has been a very early investment in Uber. As we detail later in this article, on the day Uber went public Jason’s paper holdings were worth an estimated $124 million.? Compare Jason Calacanis’ Net WorthEarly LifeJason was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 28, 1970. After graduating from Xaverian High School Jason Calacanis went on to Fordham University where he majored in psychology.Rising Tide StudiosJason’s first job after college was as a tech reporter. At some point around this time he launched Rising Tide Studios, a publishing business that dealt with online and print magazines. He was a major part of Silicon Alley in New York during the mid-90s and used his media background to publish the “Silicon Alley Reporter”. What started as a 16-page newsletter, quickly grew into a magazine with nearly 300 pages and a companion issue that focused on the West Coast. At one point someone offered to buy his newsletter for $20 million. He declined.Unfortunately the publication was destroyed in the wake of the bursting of the dot-com bubble. In the immediate aftermath of the dotcom bubble’s explosion, Jason was left with a net worth of negative $10,000.Weblogs, Inc.In September 2003 Jason and co-founder Brian Alvey launched Weblogs, Inc., which they envisioned as a scalable blogging platform for the masses. They launched with an angel investment from billionaire Mark Cuban.Within just two years, October 2005, AOL agreed to acquire Weblogs, Inc. for $30 million.Netscape/Mahalo/Angel Investing After selling Weblogs, Jason became the general manager of early web browser Netscape. He worked at Netscape until 2006 when he became the Entrepreneur In Action at the Venture Capital firm Sequoia Capital.He left Sequoia in 2007 after raising $20 million to found search engine Mahalo.com. He launched Mahalo after raising $20 million in VC funding from the likes of Sequoia, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk. Unfortunately for Jason, despite reaching 15 million visitors per month at one point, Mahalo was completely decimated by a Google algorithm update in 2011. The company was shuttered in 2014.As an angel investor Calacanis has put money into companies such as SignPost, Gowalla, ubermedia, Thumbtack and Uber.Uber InvestmentJason’s most successful investment to date BY FAR has been Uber. While working at Sequoia Capital in 2009 Jason was given the opportunity to invest $25,000 into Uber when it was valued at $4 million. He was one of the first 15 investors in the company. If he has held onto his full stake, which he has indicated, after Uber’s IPO in May 2019 Jason’s shares were worth $124 million (on paper).Elon Musk TextsJason earned a level of infamy and dose of humiliation as a result of Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter. In September 2022 a cache of text messages and emails received by Elon related to the Twitter deal were made public in the course of the lawsuit between Musk and Twitter. Jason popped up in Elon’s texts a number of times.For example.In April 2022 Jason sent Elon a barrage of unsolicited advice including a recommendation to cut Twitter’s employee headcount in half on “day zero.””Sharpen your blades boys. 2 day a week office requirement = 20% voluntary departures.”In anther text, Jason pushed Elon reach out to YouTube star MrBeast, to pitch the creator on making content for Twitter with 100% of ad revenue earned up to $1 million, ignoring the fact that MrBeast makes exponentially more than that on YouTube.Jason correctly refereed to Twitter’s subscription offering, Twitter Blue, as “an insane piece of shit.”Jason also nudged Elon to make him CEO of Twitter:”Put me in the game coach! Twitter CEO is my dream job.”In another unsolicited text, Jason essentially brainstormed direct message spam as a brilliant business model. Jason used Justin Bieber to illustrate his idea, though unfortunately autocorrect changed the name to “Justin Beaver”:”Imagine we ask Justin Beaver to come back and let him DM his fans … he could sell 1m in merchandise or tickets instantly. Would be INSANE.”Jason did not receive replies to many of these messages. At one point however Elon did complain to Jason that he felt Jason was taking advantage of his friendship by promoting his connection as a way to raise money from his angel investment circle. Elon texted:”Morgan Stanley and Jared think you are using our friendship not in a good wayThis makes it seem like I’m desperate.Please stop.”
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