Ned Desmond
Ned Desmond is the COO of TechCrunch General Manager of AOL Tech and Engadget.
He was also responsible for CrunchBase from April 2012 until September 2015, when Crunchbase spun out of AOL/Verizon to become a standalone, venture-backed company, in partnership with Emergence Capital.
Previously he was the founder and president of GoSportn, an enthusiast media company, which launched GoFISHn.com and GoHUNTn.com.
Prior to GoSportn, Desmond was head of digital at Time Inc. for six years, founder of eCompany Now (later merged with Business 2.0), and held senior management roles at Disney and Infoseek. He launched Infoseek Japan with Joi Ito, which was acquired in 2000 by Rakuten.
He came to Silicon Valley in 1996 after working for nearly a decade in Asia as a correspondent for Time magazine.
CrunchBase profile →Latest from Ned Desmond
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CrunchMatch is coming to Disrupt London to match investors with startups
At Disrupt London, this coming December, it will be easier than ever for investors to find companies that fit their investment strategy. For the first time TechCrunch is bringing its CrunchMatch program to Europe where startup founders will be matched with venture capitalists ready to write checks and make investments. Read More
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Four reasons you really shouldn’t miss Disrupt SF, kicking off one week from today
Disrupt SF starts a week from today. There’s still time to get on board, and here are a few reasons why you might be sad if you don’t. You can still get a ticket here. #1 Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, Diane Greene, Reid Hoffman, Sebastian Thrun. If those names got your attention, so will these: the Warriors’ Steph Curry, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash… Read More
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Announcing TechCrunch’s AI and VR/AR Pavilions at Disrupt SF — Apply now for free exhibit space
At TechCrunch’s upcoming Disrupt SF (Sept. 12-14), artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual/augmented reality (AR/VR) will be a big subject on the main stage as well as a featured presence on the exhibit floor, where TechCrunch will host a startup pavilion for each category. Because there are lots of very early stage startups in AI and VR/AR, we are offering five companies in each… Read More
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Disrupt 旧金山峰会邀请全球华人参会 (Announcing a Disrupt SF attendee-friendly for Chinese speakers）
It’s no news that China’s startup scene is huge and Chinese investors and founders are keen to learn more about the Silicon Valley. And of course American investors and entrepreneurs have been working hard in China for many years. It seemed like a natural to make TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF (Sept. 12-14) more accessible to visitors from China. So we’re announcing a few… Read More
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The first comprehensive study on women in venture capital and their impact on female founders
The CrunchBase Women in Venture report is the third study in our ongoing analysis of women and their participation in the startup ecosystem. This report focuses on the participation of women in venture capital and the impact that has on investments in women founders. Read More
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TechCrunch’s Disrupt app is now available for all Disrupt NY (May 9-11) attendees
We promised to make networking at Disrupt a lot better, and today we’re making a big part of that promise a reality with the launch of the Disrupt app in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. The app is custom-designed for attendees at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY (May 9-11). Point of pride: We built the app in-house with help from our friends at Layer, the winner of… Read More
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Come to TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY May 9-11 and discover Red Hook, Brooklyn
Much as we love Manhattan, this year, TechCrunch decided to move our annual Disrupt NY event to Red Hook, Brooklyn, just across the East River from Manhattan. The more we get to know Red Hook, the more on target this very startup-like part of Brooklyn seems for TechCrunch. The Red Hook neighborhood around the Port Authority Cruise terminal, where we are holding Disrupt, is home to… Read More
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Networking at TechCrunch Disrupt NY (May 9-11) just got a lot better
If you have ever attended a TechCrunch Disrupt, you know the energy and excitement on the exhibit floor. Hundreds of entrepreneurs stand by their tables, and everywhere people are engaged in intense conversation. Most attendees let serendipity be their guide through the ranks of startups, but we recognize that some folks prefer a more targeted approach, especially as Disrupt gets bigger. This… Read More
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Former NSA and CIA Director General Michael Hayden to appear at Disrupt NY 2016
If you’re looking for a supremely qualified intelligence figure to talk to about the current state of technology, policy and intelligence, you could do worse than retired four-star Air Force General Michael Hayden. Hayden has held the two top intelligence roles in the US government, Director of the NSA (’99-’05) and CIA (’06-’08) and, post 9/11, presided over some… Read More
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The Four Best Reasons To Attend Disrupt SF
The 6th annual Disrupt SF (Sept. 21-23) kicks off Monday next week at Pier 70 in San Francisco’s Dogpatch. We expect record-breaking attendance. Maybe you should be there too, and here are four reasons why. Click here for tickets. Speakers. TechCrunch’s editors dedicate half of each day at Disrupt to interviews with key figures in the startup ecosystem. Where else can you… Read More
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CrunchBase Report: Harvard, Stanford And MIT Top The List Of Schools For Female Founders
Editor’s note: Gené Teare (@geneteare), a past female founder, heads up the CrunchBase Venture Program and CrunchBase’s data work. Ned Desmond (@neddesmond) is the COO of TechCrunch and CrunchBase. Cory Cox, an analyst at CrunchBase, contributed to this post. CrunchBase Female Founders Study (Part 2) In May this year, CrunchBase published its first report on female… Read More
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10 Reasons To Attend TechCrunch’s 10th Anniversary Party
In case you haven’t heard, TechCrunch is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a meetup at the Presidio’s Civil War Parade Ground this Saturday, June 6. There are easily 10 good reasons to be there. We’ve mentioned most in earlier posts, but there’s a new one. Read More
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Female Founders On An Upward Trend, According To CrunchBase
Anyone working in the startup world knows intuitively that women are not well represented in technical or founder roles — and that quantifying the issue is difficult because data is so scarce. In 2013, Pinterest technologist Tracy Chou famously highlighted the issue in her post, “Where are the numbers?, which exposed the lack of published data from startups and mainstream tech… Read More
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TechCrunch Goes To The Europas Awards
The Europas European Tech Startups Awards is an annual celebration of Europe’s brightest tech companies. From modest beginnings in a small bar in central London in 2009, our own Mike Butcher has helped grow The Europas into a major media event, gathering together many key startup players in Europe. Read More
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A Word On The Crunchies
If you have not already heard, we hosted the Crunchies awards show at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall last Thursday. Some elements of the show have been criticized for being inappropriate. If you were present, or watching the livestream, you might have been startled, if not offended, by some of the remarks that the host, standup comedian T.J. Miller made on stage. It’s… Read More
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TechCrunch Returns To China, For Keeps
TechCrunch has a big international readership, and we all know there are no geographical boundaries to the startup revolution. No country has ridden that wave better than China, where huge markets, a red-hot economy, a controversial governmental hand and plenty of technologists and entrepreneurs have delivered a huge number of new companies, including giants Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba. Read More
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Crunch, Crunch, CrunchU: Course Registration Is Now Open
That crunching sound you hear is software eating the world, and TechCrunch is always looking for ways to pull a chair up to the feast. For example, we have CrunchBase for data and CrunchBoard for jobs, and once upon a time there was CrunchPad, too. Not everything works out, but today with high hopes we are launching CrunchU, which is a collection of 30 online courses Read More
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Announcing The CrunchBase Venture Program
We knew CrunchBase was big. We knew because there are 2 million people using the startup database each month. We knew because more than 120k people have contributed 1.6MM data points on companies, entrepreneurs, fundings, exits and more. What we didn’t know, however, was what the investment community thinks about CrunchBase. Read More
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